The government will have a more strategic ICT push to enable technology adoption among organizations by 2021, research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts.
In its latest forecast for the country, IDC Philippines noted that with a new dedicated, centralized agency at the helm of the country’s ICT development, the government will be able to lay the much-needed groundwork to enable technology adoption for organizations.
The country’s Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) was set up last June following the signing of the law creating the new Department by outgoing President Benigno Aquino before the presidential elections in May. The inaugural secretary of the department was appointed by Aquino’s successor, Rodrigo Duterte in June.
The department is designated as the chief policymaking body involving the use of ICT in the country, and carrying the mandate of the previous Department of Science and Technology’s ICT Office, its first project was the rollout of more free WiFi connections in public places throughout the country and the crafting of a new national broadband plan. It has also been working to slash the processing time of permits for local telecommunications companies to speed up the rollout of infrastructure, especially in the countryside.
Citing the latest findings of the United Nations E-Government Survey, IDC Philippines said the country already went up 24 notches to rank 71st out of 193 countries in e-government development.
The research firm, however, sees major disruptions in the country’s ICT-BPO industry, which launched a new roadmap last October eyeing approximately $38.9 billion in revenues in five years from almost $25 billion in 2016.
By 2020, IDC Philippines believes that the ICT and BPO markets will be disrupted by the pivot and policy changes from the Duterte administration, as well as the election of Donald Trump in the US if the industry does not take critical steps safeguarding the country’s inherent growth drivers.
The BPO industry is one of the great contributors to the total ICT spending in the country, which IDC sees as evolving to higher-value services around contact centers, medical transcription, software development, animation and game development, and global captive operations centers.
“In the longer-term view, however, this may change due to the shift in pivot and policy changes from the Duterte and Trump administrations. This may lead to an impression of the country’s volatility and together with issues on manpower and availability of skill sets, it may result in the industry stagnating in the near future due to lack of new investments and expansionary plans from incumbents. Far-reaching measures to address key issues are of paramount importance this year,” said Jubert Alberto, Business Operations Head, IDC Philippines.
In the private sector, the research firm predicts that 25 percent of the country’s top 1,000 companies will see the majority of their business depend on their ability to create digitally enhanced products, services, and experiences by 2020. It expects digital transformation (DX) to attain macroeconomic scale over the next three to four years.
“The year 2020 will see Filipino companies level up their DX journey to a macroeconomic scale, as their ability to offer digitally transformed offerings and experiences becomes an important measure of competitiveness and success in the market,” said Karen Rondon, Research Manager for Enterprise Computing – Networking, IDC Asia-Pacific.
Other predictions of IDC Philippines for 2017 are as follows:
Filipino DX Teams. By 2018, 25 percent of Philippine organizations will have dedicated digital transformation/innovation teams.
“These specialized ‘PH DX teams’ will be in charge of formulating plans both for internal and external applications of digital technology. These include identifying and using new technologies to improve operations, creating digital marketing strategies, developing their IT capabilities, and other related initiatives,” said Jan Edward Tañeca, Market Analyst – Imaging, Printing, Document Solutions (IPDS), IDC Philippines.
Cybersecurity. By 2018, cyber security will become a tier-1 business priority receiving fixed capital spending for 30 of the top 1,000 companies in the Philippines.
“In the coming years, enterprises will realize that rather than reacting to global security trends, the best-run businesses try to anticipate them. Thus, they will make cybersecurity a core part of their overall business strategy, taking into account the existing security industry trends and evolving criminal tactics and couple those factors with the organization’s risk tolerance, security program maturity, a holistic security strategy and, most importantly, business targets,” said Jan Edward Tañeca, Market Analyst – Imaging, Printing, Document Solutions (IPDS), IDC Philippines.
Information-Based Products. By 2020, revenue growth from information-based products will be double that of the rest of the product/service portfolio for a quarter of the top 1,000 Philippine companies.
“In the Philippines, companies in the telecommunications, retail, and banking industries, among others, have unlocked new opportunities in creating revenue through analyzing and making sense of the aggregated customer information. Some organizations that have explored these options benefited in the form of penetrating new markets and generating new revenue streams as the information may vary from customer data to consumer buying patterns,” said Nicolo Santos, Market Analyst – Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions (IPDS), IDC Philippines. “This opportunity requires a constant effort for organizations to address data privacy and security issues, and government regulations that surround the collection, storage, use, and sale of consumer data.”
Hyper-disruptive marketplaces. By 2019, 40 percent of customer-facing top 1,000 companies will experiment with augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) as part of their marketing efforts.
The potential impact of AR/VR across industries will become so big that by 2019, IDC sees 40 percent of the Philippines’ top 1,000 companies experimenting with these technologies to create their own unique experiential marketing strategies. “Consumer brands will be compelled to think out of the box and reinvent their marketing approaches – incorporating more AR/VR elements and placing emphasis on gamification – in a bid to gain the patronage and loyalty of consumers, especially young and tech-savvy millennials,” said Sean Agapito, Market Analyst – Client Devices, IDC Philippines.
Customer-/Ecosystem-Facing Digital Services. By 2019, 65 percent of Philippine IT organizations will create new customer-facing and ecosystem-facing services to meet the business DX needs.
“Failure to scale up the number of direct and indirect customers with whom an organization does business will lead to revenue shortfalls and uncompetitive cost structures. Improve profitability, we expect organizations to increase their use of virtual agents or digital assistants. Intelligent assistants will use artificial intelligence (AI)/cognitive technology to automatically adjust experiences to the users’ preferences and context,” says Alon Anthony Rejano, Market Analyst – IT Services, IDC Philippines.
Digitalized Customer Support Interaction. By 2018, 60 percent of customer support interactions will be digitalized and occur in online communities. With an increasing proportion of the Filipino population – reaching nearly half of the country’s total population in 2016 – actively using social media, IDC expects more organizations to interact with customers through social and online communities. Online customer support not only helps solve customer problems but it also improves brand image.
Additionally, a successful community will create brand champions or advocates and will not only recommend the product or the service to customers but will help solve customer problems on behalf of the brand. “This will make the theme of customer reciprocity strong moving forward. Also in the near future, more organizations will use IT to integrate existing customer services and support systems like integrating pre-built connectors, mining the community for insight into customers’ behavior, and proactively solve any emerging issues,” says Jerome Dominguez, Market Analyst – Client Devices, IDC Philippines.
Next-Wave Sari-Sari Store. By 2020, 30 percent of Philippine sari-sari stores will evolve to become another channel for one-stop payments and remittance centers.
Something unique in the Philippine retail scene will be the presence of sari-sari stores in different localities. IDC foresees a future where sari-sari stores, a Pinoy cultural phenomenon, can offer services such as payment of utility bills, e-loading, and buying of travel tickets can also be done through these neighborhood stores. Serving as complimentary touchpoints especially in the rural areas, sari-sari stores play a pivotal role in filling the “unbanked” gap in the countryside.
Organizations looking to engage more in the rural areas will have a viable channel, as in alternative to building brick-and-mortar branches, which may be cost-prohibitive to most companies.