Amid a resurgence of the COVID-19 delta variant in the US and across Asia, 69% of CXOs expect business levels to recover to Pre Covid-Levels in 2021.
22% of enterprises stated that they expect their levels of business in 2021 to exceed pre-pandemic levels, with global enterprise services revenues forecast to grow by 8.8% in 2021, after slowing down to 6.2% growth in 2020.
Business priorities in 2021:
34% of enterprises have stated that customer experience and engagement is their top business priority in 2021, with driving innovation ranked second (31%), digitalization of operations/ processes ranked third (30%) and leveraging ICT to take advantage of new market landscapes ranked fourth (30%).
Focusing on improving customer engagement/tools as well as strengthen digital channels especially for B2C business is a key focus. A greater demand for AI / Machine Learning as well new technologies rooted in improving the customer experience through technology and intelligence are a key focus. Businesses are also identifying hyper-personalization with omnichannel customer interaction as a key goal.
These demands will drive further integration and merging of siloed data warehouses resulting in enterprises needed to upgrade and modernize their enterprise applications.
IT priorities in 2021:
Enterprise IT executives point to cybersecurity, simplification of IT and in-sourcing of IT as their top 3 IT priorities for 2021.
The focus on cybersecurity is driven by greater digital initiatives and the expansion of remote working, causing new vulnerabilities for enterprises.
The increasing in-country regulatory requirements will also mean a greater demand for cybersecurity solutions throughout 2021. This will result in service providers needing greater localized expertise to meet in-country compliance requirements.
Automation tools will play a critical role as enterprises look to simplify their IT through virtualization. Software-defined architectures, cloudifying of IT and improvements in backup recovery and storage will result in greater opportunities for service providers across a whole range of services including consulting, design, implementation, and integration.
Demands on service provider / ICT vendor:
47% of enterprises have stated that a service provider/ IT Vendor that selects the best IT architecture and technologies for their digital journey is the number one priority for choosing their next ICT vendor or service provider.
As the market continues to grow the level of complexity of technologies and breadth of solutions makes it even harder for enterprises to navigate the full range of choices and solutions available, therefore, enterprises are looking to IT Service providers for guidance, and roadmaps to help define digital strategies to make informed investments.
Enterprises are now expecting bespoke solutions that are focused on business outcomes of the enterprise, with IT service providers fully understanding their business aspirations of their customers across both business and IT objectives.
Adrian Ho, practice leader, digital enterprise services at Omdia commented: “There is a greater appreciation of the transformational capabilities of technologies amongst the entire C-Suite community than ever before. There is also a realization that as economies rebound, failure to invest adequately and effectively mean their organizations will be left behind.”
