The Future of Digital Transformation

Top 10 Worldwide Predictions for 2019: The Way Forward for Malaysians

Digital transformation is more than just a buzzword; it’s happening for just about every type of business. Digital disruption is inevitable, and it is the way of the world now. Therefore, it is imperative for businesses to embrace the changes that come with digital innovation. To stay competitive, businesses must rapidly adapt to the way technology is changing the rules of business and increasing efficiency.

As the top digital transformation (DX) market research firm in the world, IDC has unveiled the following top 10 Digital Transformation predictions for 2019.

Prediction 1: By 2020, at least 55% of organisations will be digitally determined, transforming markets and reimagining the future through new business models and digitally enabled products and services.
Prediction 2: By 2022, the CDO title will be in decline as digital will have become fully embedded. More than 60% of CEOs will have spent part of their careers leading digital initiatives.
Prediction 3: The paramount importance of customer advocacy will result in 60% of B2C brands embracing net promoter score as their leading success metric by the end of 2020.
Prediction 4: By 2020, 80% of enterprises will create data management and monetisation capabilities, thus enhancing enterprise functions, strengthening competitiveness, and creating new sources of revenue.
Prediction 5: By 2020, 30% of G2000 companies will have implemented advanced digital twins of their operational processes, which will enable flatter organisations and one-third fewer knowledge workers.
Prediction 6: By 2023, 35% of workers will start working with bots or other forms of AI, requiring company leaders to redesign operational processes, performance metrics and recruitment strategies.
Prediction 7: By 2020, 30% of G2000 companies will have allocated capital budget equal to at least 10% of revenue to fuel their digital strategies.
Prediction 8: By 2021, prominent in-industry value chains, enabled by blockchains, will have extended their digital platforms to their entire omni-experience ecosystems, thus reducing transaction costs by 35%.
Prediction 9: By 2021, about 30% of manufacturers and retailers globally will have built digital trust through blockchain services that enable collaborative supply chains and allow consumers to access product histories.
Prediction 10: By 2023, 95% of entities will have incorporated new digital KPI sets – focusing on product/service innovation rates, data capitalisation, and employee experience – to navigate the digital economy.

How will these predictions affect businesses in Malaysia in 2019

The Malaysian Government announced a RM3 billion “Industry Digitalisation Transformation Fund” and RM210 million to support the transition of enterprises to Industry 4.0, as well as an initiative to carry out a “Readiness Assessment” on the first 500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in its national 2019 Budget, outlining the country’s ambitions to prepare for a fully digitised economy. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the fund is to accelerate the adoption of smart technology which includes automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI).

The question is, how big of an impact will these policies have on Malaysia’s digital transformation journey?

“With the initiatives announced in Budget 2019, Malaysia continues to be on the right track towards becoming a fully digitised nation and this is in line with Gartner’s predictions that every industry will be transformed by digital business by 2025.”
– Gartner Inc research vice president Tervinderjit Singh,
The Star (November 2018)

Digital transformation enhances the ecosystem which in turn increases the productivity and sustainability of Malaysia. Companies, whether they are enterprises or SMEs/SMIs, need to future-proof their businesses to remain competitive. Malaysia’s businesses are indeed embracing digital transformation in the hope of becoming more competitive for long-term advancement in the marketplace. This financial assistance provided by the Government, when channelled and utilised properly, is a positive step towards driving Industry 4.0 in Malaysia and supporting SMEs as they continue to embrace digital transformation.

“The 2019 Budget is a testament to the new government’s ambition to drive business digital transformation and accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 among businesses.
Nevertheless, the digital transformation journey is not an easy journey. In general, Malaysia SMEs want to digitise but the lack of financial resources and know-how are hindering progress. As the technology partner for business digital transformation, we can help businesses embark on their digital transformation journeys.”
– Lau Bik Soon, REDtone Group CEO

The foundation of REDtone’s business digital transformation strategy is built upon a culture of customer centricity and customer success. We leverage cloud computing, Big Data, IoT and enhanced applications to facilitate enterprise digitalisation towards agile and smart operations, ultimately to deliver an extraordinary experience to the customer.

We believe the ability to make proper use of data, the ability to be truly customer centric, the ability to connect with the rapidly-expanding ecosystem, coupled with the advantages of the SaaS model, will be the key drivers to accelerate business digital transformation in 2019.

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