Digital Lifescapes

Digital transformation fuels upside market opportunities, and related growth goals are now the CEO's top business priority, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner. Moreover, a growing number of CEOs will focus more on financial priorities -- especially profitability improvement. The annual survey of CEO and senior business executives in the fourth quarter of 2018 examined their business issues, as well as some areas of technology agenda impact. In total, 473 business leaders of companies with $50 million or more -- and 60 percent with $1 billion or more -- in annual revenue were qualified and surveyed. Digital Business Market Development  "After a significant fall last year, mentions of growth increased this year to 53 percent, up from 40 percent in 2018," said Mark Raskino, vice president at Gartner . "This suggests that CEOs have switched their focus back to tactical performance as clouds gather on the horizon." The survey results showed th...

The benefit of a digital wallet is that, for both online and offline transactions, it enables the wallet user to easily make secure, quick transactions, thereby removing the requirement for a plastic card -- or the need to enter bank account details for every online purchase. For the 'unbanked' populous across the globe, the availability of a digital wallet and cryptocurrency on a mobile phone will provide a means of financial inclusion, both as an alternative to cash payments and as a way of accessing services such as personal loans and savings accounts. Digital Wallet Market Development For the savvy digital wallet provider, the fintech revolution in online payments and person-to-person remittance has enabled several new players to achieve a growing presence across the global financial services and retail ecosystems. In some cases, this transition enables vendors to provide offline or online payments on their own and via third-party storefronts, together with consumer...

Demand for cloud computing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is expected to drive the current $45.6 billion market toward $150.7 billion by 2023 -- that's a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by Frost & Sullivan. Enterprises are using cloud services for strategic benefits such as supporting digital transformation efforts rather than for tactical ones, like reducing IT infrastructure costs and the hardware or software maintenance burden. This market shift has changed the way enterprises choose and manage their IT infrastructure, and led them to deploy applications across multiple infrastructures, from on-premises private cloud to public cloud (multi- and single-tenant), resulting in higher demand for IaaS offerings. Hybrid Multi-Cloud Market Development "As the mix of deployment models and best-of-breed cloud IaaS vendors becomes increasingly diverse, single-tenant IaaS will gain revenue share over multi-tenant...

Simulation software applications have more upside growth potential across the globe. Industrial companies have already applied the software for use cases to build manufacturing systems, deploy new production lines, and evolve factory planning methodologies. While no single manufacturing technology drives this transformation movement, simulation software now holds the potential to act as a significant catalyst for a new Industry 4.0 platforms. Simulation Software Market Development If simulation software can accurately predict the effects of other technologies on the core goals of manufacturers -- i.e. more production, more uptime, improved time to market, improved quality, fewer delays, more efficiencies, greater utilization of assets, all at lower costs -- then companies will deploy more technologies at scale with greater confidence. The market for factory simulation software products will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent to reach $4.1 billion for over 172,0...

The World Bank estimates that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017. All global remittances -- including money transfer flows to high-income countries -- reached $689 billion in 2018. Mobile and online (digital) money transfer offerings will continue to transform the market. New technologies, such as blockchain, will further accelerate the trend. Money Transfer Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, international digital remittances will reach $525 billion by 2024 -- that's up from an estimated $332 in 2019. The mobile channel will become increasingly popular; accounting for 41 percent of international digital money transfers by volume in 2024 -- that's up from 33 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, blockchain-based payments have the potential to increase digital payments further, as the technology has a ...

More CIOs and CTOs seek vendor expertise as demand for digital transformation guidance grows. Worldwide revenues for IT Services and Business Services totaled $513 billion in the second half of 2018 (2H18) -- that's an increase of 4.5 percent year-over-year, according to the latest study by International Data Corporation (IDC). For the entire year, worldwide IT services revenues crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2018. Annual growth accelerated slightly to 4.3 percent. This largely reflects overall healthy corporate IT spending sustained by large enterprises' cautious yet optimistic business outlook. "Steady growth in the services markets are driven by continued demand for digital solutions across the regions with the Americas continuing to contribute to the bulk of the revenue growth," said Lisa Nagamine, research manager at IDC . IT Services Market Development Looking at different services markets, project-oriented revenues (i.e. consulting, integration, applic...

The pace of change from a traditional capital-intensive IT infrastructure model to a more flexible hybrid multi-cloud services model is influencing enterprise spending trends across the globe. Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.79 trillion in 2019 -- that's an increase of just 1.1 percent from 2018, according to the latest global market study by Gartner. IT Infrastructure Market Development "Currency headwinds fueled by the strengthening U.S. dollar have caused us to revise our 2019 IT spending forecast down from the previous quarter," said John-David Lovelock, vice president at Gartner . "Through the remainder of 2019, the U.S. dollar is expected to trend stronger, while enduring tremendous volatility due to uncertain economic and political environments and trade wars." In 2019, technology product managers will have to get more strategic with their portfolio mix by balancing products and services that will post growth in 2019 with those large...

The term 'Fintech’ has been applied to describe the transformation taking place in the financial services sector across the globe. Traditional forms of payment such as cheques have been displaced by debit and credit cards. In turn, contactless payment and digital wallets will likely replace the cards. Moreover, new and evolving banking business models have resulted in both the legacy financial services industry and fintech start-ups investing in digital technologies. Initially, the focus was an organization's website or automating aspects of their customer service call center. Now the focus has shifted to service delivery via smartphone software apps. The savvy financial services start-up entrepreneurs embrace innovative methodologies to differentiate themselves from the incumbents, but the CIOs and CTOs at traditional banks are now starting to catch-up. Fintech Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, driven by the increasi...