NewsStrategy

ASEAN-based C-level executives are recognizing a growing need to innovate for business success in an increasingly competitive marketplace, according to an IDC survey sponsored by CA Technologies. The study polled more than 120 IT decision makers from businesses across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to discover how views and strategies for ICT investments vary in Asia South.

Top technologies that are being considered for this year and 2013 by these businesses are virtualization, security, mobile, cloud and green IT. Business process transformation was cited by 70% of respondents as an IT-led innovation that their organization is currently investing in.

Budget allocations for IT innovation are typically assigned according to a traditional 80/20 principle, with 20% allocated for innovation-related initiatives, and 80% dedicated to day-to-day operations and maintenance costs. But the Asia South market has demonstrated a mindset shift. An average of 38% of budgets were allocated for innovation in 2012, as opposed to the expected 20%. This figure is 39.8% for 2013, indicating an increasing emphasis on investing in innovation as a strategy for growth and differentiation.

Furthermore, 75% of CEOs or CIOs in Asia South are seen as enablers, champions or experts on innovation. Only 25% play no major role or are seen as barriers to innovation. In a typically top-down culture of Asia South markets, this is a promising sign of having lead stakeholders playing a pivotal role in driving innovation for their organizations.

With rising operation costs and the need to continually engage customers on new platforms being key concerns, there exists a pressing need to accelerate development cycles and transform processes to match customer needs, while securing the broad range of devices and platforms to access data on cloud, virtual or mobile assets.

"IDC believes that organizations need to first achieve a level of effectiveness in harnessing IT, followed by aligning IT with business priorities, before driving IT-led innovations to achieve desired outcomes," said Sandra Ng, group vice president of IDC Asia Pacific's Practice Group. "By identifying the key influencers in their leadership and working strategically to plan and invest in IT-led innovation, businesses can directly address some of their key business concerns in challenging economic environments."

"The landscape in Asia South is very dynamic and highly competitive," said Victor Cheng, vice president of Asia South at CA Technologies. "Businesses can look to IT-led innovations to address specific business issues such as cost optimization or how to increase customer engagement in order to remain relevant in today's economy."

CA Technologies has its Asia Pacific and Japan headquarters located in Singapore, and established Country Representative Partners offices in Malaysia and Thailand this year.