Spending on Digital Technology by Asia/Pacific Organizations Will Grow 3.5x the Economy in 2023

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International Data Corporation (IDC) announced its top technology predictions for 2023 and beyond. The predictions were presented at an in-person event at Andaz Hotel Singapore hosted by IDC's Sandra Ng, GVP and General Manager for Asia/Pacific Research.

In the next few years, enterprises in Asia/Pacific* need to slice through storms of disruption brought about by talent gaps, cybersecurity intensity, supply chain dynamics, COVID restrictions, inflation and the risk of recession to achieve their business objectives to reduce costs, increase profits, improve operational efficiency, grow revenue and improve customer experience.

Aside from C-suites driving digital-first strategies and using technologies to compete and implement digital innovation programs that deliver tangible outcomes at scale and create quantifiable business value, they need to transform their enterprises into becoming resilient digital businesses. IDC predicts that by 2024, 30% of organizations will have a business continuity crisis management strategy that includes continuous intelligence and enables an agile reaction to future economic shocks and disruptions.

“CIOs need to actively harness their organization’s resilience capabilities to their competitive advantage. They should use this to not only adapt and survive, but more importantly to thrive and deliver financial, supply chain, ecosystem, and sustainability differentiation,” says Ng.

To establish a foundation for operational excellence, competitive differentiation and long-term growth, IDC predicts that spending on digital technology by organizations will grow at 3.5 times the economy in 2023. IDC sees that the traditional recession IT budget playbook of cutting capital expenditure by extending PC and infrastructure upgrades, cutting contract staff and delaying new projects by one year will not be effective. Instead, the recessionary playbook for 2023 will consist of adopting as-a-service delivery and operating models, leveraging contract staff to address labor shortages, and focusing on high-impact digital business projects.

By 2026, 40% of total revenue for top Asia-based 2000 organizations will be generated by digital products, services, and experiences. For Asia/Pacific organizations to achieve these, digital-first CIOs need to redefine their enterprise value in the digital business era by creating financial, ecosystem and ESG/sustainability impact. They need to implement digital business initiatives that improve profit, participate in digital ecosystems to accelerate revenue growth, and invest in digital to drive their ability to meet their ESG needs.

Three key tech-to-compete agenda business and technology leaders need to focus on in the near-term are:

#1: Platform-first - In 2025%, 60% of infrastructure, security, data, and network offerings will require cloud-based control platforms that enable extensive automation and promise major reductions in ongoing operational costs.

#2: Trust-first - To address the increasing volatility of market and customer needs, by 2026%, 50% of CIOs will use operating model design to optimize value stream, agile architecture, and risk management.

#3: People-first - By 2026, enterprises that did not effectively address the talent and digital skills gap in their organization will constrain revenue growth opportunities by 20%. 

In the long-term, business and technology leaders should put their sights on the unfolding new tech world order and the critical challenges it brings:

• Tech Talent. Talent gap will increasingly put a cap on tech RoI.
• Cloud Sovereignty. Digital sovereignty has broad implications and the need for sovereign clouds will grow.
• Sustainability. Tech’s direct impact on sustainability will amplify.
• Machine Vision. Metaverse as an example in this broad category will be a gamechanger.
• Data-first. Data-first will dominate across all industries and economies.

Each year, IDC releases its top predictions through its IDC FutureScape reports to give a crystal ball view of what is ahead for the rapidly changing IT industry. These predictions have been used to shape the strategies and business objectives of technology leaders and business executives in the next 1-5 years.