There is no doubt that 2023 is off to an uncertain start. However, despite the economic headwinds we expect that some areas of technology will see continued growth. In fact, from our conversations with business and technology leaders, it appears that many organisations will take the opportunity to right-size their businesses, remove excess fat and waste, and accelerate their transformation efforts. The plan is to emerge from a global slowdown – leaner, smarter and better.
Where there is an opportunity to automate organisations will take it – and technology spend will trump people spend in 2023.
But it won’t all be smooth sailing as technology buyers become more discerning than ever and manage costs closely.
Here is what tech providers should focus on to remain resilient in these uncertain times.
- Be prepared to work harder – especially cloud and SaaS providers
- Help customers optimise costs
- Accelerate innovation to stay ahead of M&A activity
- Employ security to manage risk
- Prepare for product-led growth
Read on to find out why.
Download Be Alert – Not Alarmed: Analyst Guidance for Tech Providers as a PDF
Today, Asia is home to nearly 60% of the world’s population and accounts for 39% of the global GDP. As the region’s importance continues to grow (7 out of the top 10 economies is expected to be from the region, contributing to 47% of the global GDP by 2030), investment in Asia is a key priority for governments and large corporates around the world.
With the region taking centre-stage, there is a growing optimism as opportunities open up for local economies. It remains a unique market – differentiated by a strong spirit of innovation, vibrant startup ecosystem, and propensity to leverage technology to transform.
At the Leaders Dialogue: Asian Sentiment 2023 conversation, Ecosystm Founder and Chairman, Amit Gupta; Ahmed Mazhari, President of Microsoft Asia; Padmashree (Paddy) Santosh, VP & Global Head of Learning, Diversity and Organisation Effectiveness at Olam Agri; and Luca Destefanis, Head of Marketing APAC at Kyndryl discussed where Asia is leading and lagging behind when it comes to tech-led transformation and innovation.
Here are the key highlights:
- Asia demonstrates a “Disrupt or be Disrupted Mindset”
- The need for innovation is encouraging corporate venturing
- There is a growing interest in emerging tech
- Yet organisations might be scratching the surface
- Outcome-led transformation will be the key
Read on for more insights into Asian sentiment.
Download State of Digital Transformation in Asia as a PDF
2023 has started amidst concerns. Economists are talking about slowdowns, recessions, and downsizing. In the past, every time the economy has been uncertain, we have seen a downtrend in tech spend by companies.
2023 will be different!
Today, all organisations know of the power of digital transformation and will continue to invest in technology to counter the market uncertainties. They will respond to the emerging forces of innovation, deploy automation to counter skills gaps, and focus on being nimble and agile businesses – all with the help of technology.
Here are the 5 trends that will impact tech spending in 2023.
- Organisations will aim for “Big Ticket Innovations”. This will see innovation becoming integral to strategic discussions on culture, people, process, and technology; and the resurgence of emerging technologies.
- AI will replace Cloud as organisations’ transformation goal. Organisations will evolve their AI roadmaps and strategies – focusing on both short-term wins and long-term success factors. They will also make an effort to identify digital debt and weed out applications and services that are sub-optimal for AI
- Building the right data platform architecture will gain importance. Data platforms will become free from the constraints of operational technologies. This will see a reduction of dependence on centralised data repositories; and an uptick in adoption of data fabric architecture to manage distributed data
- Organisations will invest in proactive cyber protection amidst escalating threats. Organisations will focus on immutable backups, data masking techniques and on building a single pane of glass view of all cyber tools and applications
- Sustainability will drive tech investments. This will see an evaluation of all infrastructure (whether cloud or on-premises) with a focus on cost and sustainability and a growing need to integrate all organisational data – across digital, IT, and OT systems
To find out more, read below.
Download 5 Trends Impacting Tech Investments in 2023 as a PDF.
The Blockchain ecosystem relies on distributed ledger technology and its promise to make systems and processes cheaper, faster, inclusive, and permissionless. The use of the word “decentralised” has become central to advocacy discussions as well as daily conversations about digital assets. However, it is a loaded term that entails governance, economic, management, processing, and legal attributes. The degree of decentralisation across these attributes needs to be examined, clearly defined in a spectrum, and evaluated for the benefit of the current and the future participants of crypto networks as well as other stakeholders, including public policy makers and regulators.
What is decentralisation? How can we define the spectrum of decentralisation? How decentralised are the leading crypto networks right now? How are market forces impacting it? What are the main benefits of decentralisation in Decentralised Finance (DeFi)? What are the risks and vulnerabilities associated with decentralisation?
These were some of the themes discussed at an invitation only ThinkTank session at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022 hosted by Ecosystm and supported by Oliver Wyman:
- DeFi is a very broad term and needs to be clearly defined. “Decentralised” is a spectrum with governance, economic, management, processing, and legal attributes for crypto networks.
- To test the principles of decentralisation, an element of stress or concentration must be introduced, especially when technologies are still at a nascent stage.
- There has been a growing interest in DeFi in the banking space, and leading institutions are building teams to better understand the technology and how they can apply it to their business models.
- Along with institutional capital, transparency and trust are essential for progress. New technology comes with different risks, but finding the right balance between technology, processes, and security is key.
- Regulators are open to working together as they are also struggling to keep up with the fast-moving industry. Conversations with institutions, regulators, and law enforcement agencies are vital to understand how to implement and regulate different innovations.
Download Report – The degree of Decentralization in DeFi
(Clicking on this link will take you to Oliver Wyman website where you can download the report)
Recently, Prasad Kurup, VP & Senior Partner, Asia Pacific – Data & Technology Transformation, IBM caught up with Sash Mukherjee, VP Content & Industry Research, Ecosystm to discuss how technology teams and business leaders can come together to deliver business value through data & AI.
Listen to this episode to find out Kurup’s views on:
- The key drivers for embarking on a data journey for most organisations
- The biggest challenges – technological and business – of Data & AI programs
- What organisations need to do to futureproof their data investments
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.2MB)
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Customer experience (CX) is an integral part of a brand today – and excellence in CX is a moving target (think how tools such as ChatGPT can revolutionise communications and CX). Organisations will find themselves aiming for personalised CX across channels of preference, with convenience, empathy, and speed at the core.
Here are the top 5 trends for the Experience Economy for 2023 according to Ecosystm analysts Audrey William, Melanie Disse, and Tim Sheedy.
- Organisations Will Focus on Building a “One CX Workforce”
- AI Will Lead Voice of Customer Programs
- Metadata Will Become Important
- The Conversational AI Market Will Mature
- Organisations Will Go Back to Focusing on Web Experience
Read on for more details.
Download Ecosystm Predicts: The Top 5 Trends for the Experience Economy in 2023 as a PDF
Last year Ecosystm worked closely with Kyndryl during their ASEAN launch. One year on – where is Kyndryl Philippines headed? Sash Mukherjee, VP Content & Industry Research, Ecosystm speaks to Wilson Go, Managing Director about the evolution of the team in terms of culture and how they are developing resources and skills to serve their customers better.
Wilson and Sash also discuss Philippines market trends, including:
- Wilson and Sash also discuss Philippines market trends, including:
- The evolving cloud first strategy and hybrid cloud adoption by businesses
- The increased focus on data and innovation in a highly customer-focused market
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)
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With organisations facing an infrastructure, application, and end-point sprawl, the attack surface continues to grow; as do the number of malicious attacks. Cyber breaches are also becoming exceedingly real for consumers, as they see breaches and leaks in brands and services they interact with regularly. 2023 will see CISOs take charge of their cyber environment – going beyond a checklist.
Here are the top 5 trends for Cybersecurity & Compliance for 2023 according to Ecosystm analysts Alan Hesketh, Alea Fairchild, Andrew Milroy, and Sash Mukherjee.
- An Escalating Cybercrime Flood Will Drive Proactive Protection
- Incident Detection and Response Will Be the Main Focus
- Organisations Will Choose Visibility Over More Cyber Tools
- Regulations Will Increase the Risk of Collecting and Storing Data
- Cyber Risk Will Include a Focus on Enterprise Operational Resilience
Read on for more details.
Download Ecosystm Predicts: The Top 5 Trends for Cybersecurity & Compliance in 2023 as a PDF
Organisations will continue their quest to become digital and data-first in 2023. Business process automation will be a priority for the majority; but many will look at their data strategically to derive better business value.
As per Ecosystm’s Digital Digital Enterprise Study 2022, organisations will focus equally on Automation and Strategic AI in 2023.
Here are the top 5 trends for the Intelligent Enterprise in 2023 according to Ecosystm analysts, Alan Hesketh, Peter Carr, Sash Mukherjee and Tim Sheedy.
- Cloud Will Be Replaced by AI as the Right Transformation Goal
- Adoption of Data Platform Architecture Will See an Uptick
- Tech Teams Will Finally Focus on Internal Efficiency
- Data Retention/Deletion and Records Management Will Be Top Priority
- AI Will Replace Entire Human Jobs
Read on for more details.
Download Ecosystm Predicts: The Top 5 Trends for the Intelligent Enterprise in 2023 as a PDF