Digital Lifescapes

Within the C-suite of forward-thinking organizations, something remarkable is happening. More executive leaders are now focused on an inspirational alternative to the legacy status quo "Return to Normal" mindset. According to the latest market study by IDC, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) "Future of Work" spending is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 18.4 percent and reach $196.2 billion by 2026. IDC expects APeJ FoW spending to grow at a year-over-year rate of 19.9 percent in 2023 compared to 21.5 percent in 2022. Despite the slowdown of the growth rate, the total spending of the market continues to increase over the forecast period. Future of Work Market Development IDC defines the Future of Work (FoW) as a fundamental change to the work model to one that fosters human-machine collaboration, enables new skills and worker experiences, and supports a re-imagined physical workplace and border-less digital workspace. This IDC market forecast presents spending forecast...

Across the globe, the future for leaders of government agencies who crave digital business transformation progress is looking good. Artificial intelligence (AI) and no-code or low-code solutions will enable them to overcome software development challenges. Worldwide government IT spending is forecast to total $589.8 billion in 2023 -- that's an increase of 7.6 percent from 2022, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. "Global challenges like inflation and workforce scarcity and their local repercussions are testing the abilities of government CIOs to respond with appropriate service delivery mechanisms and organizational accountability," said Apeksha Kaushik, principal analyst at Gartner . Government IT Solutions Market Development In addition, the ongoing IT Great Resignation and the competing demand from the commercial sector have forced governments to re-examine their approaches to counterbalance internal talent scarcity. In 2023, government IT organ...

Across the globe, many employers are assessing their human resource policies to determine the most effective working model for their digital workers. While some CEOs still attempt to force employees to work full-time in offices, the enlightened leaders have embraced flexibility. According to the latest market study by Gartner, 77 percent of digital business workers want to participate in creating their Hybrid Work model, while 14 percent prefer to have their environment mandated. "One of the biggest challenges to hybrid work is the lack of alignment between the variability between what workers want and the predictability organizations, managers and workers need to be effective,” said Caitlin Duffy, director analyst at Gartner . Hybrid Work Market Development As employee wants and needs have shifted toward flexible working models, organizations must respond thoughtfully in order to maintain productivity and avoid attrition from oppressive mandates. Their fifth 'Digital Worker E...

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul...

Hybrid and fully remote work are inevitable in the Global Networked Economy where high-performance talent demands flexibility from employers. To enable these progressive work models, organizations are investing in a wide range of technologies to support more agile types of employment.  According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), leading organizations will spend nearly $1 billion on the Future of Work (FoW) in 2023 -- that's an increase of 18.8 percent over 2022. Future of Work Market Development "Work models continue to evolve, but 37 percent of decision-makers in a recent global survey note that Remote and Hybrid work models will be an embedded part of accepted work practices, supported by a continued shift to the cloud, increasingly instrumented and interconnected physical workplaces, and intelligent digital workspaces," said Holly Muscolino, group vice president at IDC . According to the IDC assessment, organizations must mak...

As we look to the year ahead, there will be significant challenges and opportunities facing the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) role. In order to be successful, savvy HR leaders must be prepared to take proactive steps that adapt and evolve. "HR leaders have faced an increasingly unpredictable environment amid many organizations mandating a return to office, permanently higher turnover and burnt out employees," said Emily Rose McRae, senior director at Gartner . HR Innovation Market Development One of Gartner's key predictions for 2023 is that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will continue to increase within the enlightened digital workplace. This transition will require HR leaders to develop new skills and competencies in order to effectively manage and lead teams that are increasingly relying on these enabling technologies. Additionally, HR leaders will need to ensure that their organizations are investing in the necessary infrastructure and re...

Supply chain resolved, or overcapacity, what's the issue? Global semiconductor revenue is projected to decline by 3.6 percent in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. In 2022, the market is on pace to grow 4 percent and total $618 billion. Moreover, global semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $596 billion in 2023 -- that's down from the previous forecast of $623 billion. "The short-term outlook for semiconductor revenue has worsened," said Richard Gordon, vice president at Gartner . "Rapid deterioration in the global economy and weakening consumer demand will negatively impact the semiconductor market in 2023." Semiconductor Technology Market Development Currently, the semiconductor market is polarized between consumer-driven markets and enterprise-driven markets. Weakness in the consumer-driven markets is being driven largely by the decline in disposable income caused by rising inflation and loan interest rates. Also, it...

Cloud computing adoption continues to gain momentum across the globe. The public cloud services (PCS) market in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) will reach $165.2 billion in 2026, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC expects the Asia-Pacific market to grow at a higher year-over-year (YoY) rate in 2022 at 31.4 percent, in comparison to 30 percent in 2021, as cloud migration continues to accelerate. However, IDC expects the YoY growth rates to slow down beginning from 2023 with a YoY growth of 28.3 percent to 22.4 percent in 2026. Asia-Pacific Cloud Services Market Development "Majority of organizations have pivoted rapidly toward a digital-centric modus operandi to adapt to new ways of operating, working, and selling products and services amid various disruptions," said Estelle Quek, senior research manager at IDC . These organizations demand better business outcomes from their adoption of digital technologies to increase efficiency, ...

CEOs are requiring their Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) to reimagine the HR charter to focus more on enabling the organization to achieve strategic business outcomes through superior talent development practices. As a result, 49 percent of HR leaders named "Innovating for Success" as one of their top three priorities for 2022, according to the latest survey findings from Gartner. Despite HR leaders prioritizing innovations, a Gartner survey of more than 3,500 employees found that only 46 percent of employees agree that their organization encourages creative thinking. HR Innovation Market Development "The survey results show that an organization’s actions directly impact the ability of employees to be creative by 25 percent," said Emily Rose McRae, senior director at Gartner . "In fact, an organization’s actions have more than double the impact of an individual's personality when it comes to driving employee creativity." According to the Gartner a...

The global enterprise wireless networking market is evolving. Driven by a desire to take advantage of the available 6 GHz communications spectrum, with greatly improved broadband throughput and latency rates, more organizations may choose to adopt Wi-Fi 6E technologies. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, shipments of Wi-Fi 6E access points and routers will rise from 1.5 million units in 2022 to 5.2 million units by 2024. Wireless spectrum expansion is just one facet of the commercial wireless network market transition, as the technology of Wi-Fi customer premise equipment will be upgraded once again with Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be standard) devices. Enterprise Wireless Network Market Development "The adoption of Wi-Fi 7 access points will accelerate following the protocols standardization in 2024, and just two years later, most 6 GHz enabled access point shipments will be supporting Wi-Fi 7," said Andrew Spivey, industry analyst at ABI Research . Anot...

The main reasons for the Great Resignation are obsolete leadership, fearful middle managers, and a toxic culture that hinders employee engagement. Perhaps that's why some organizations are still struggling with the consideration and development of a flexible working model.  They're incapable of evolving to a more enlightened approach to work where employees are treated with respect. They're stuck in a bygone era of the 20th-century industrial revolution where 'shareholder value' tops all other values, and where spreadsheets and financial data analysis drives all key decision making. We should not be surprised that 76 percent of human resource (HR) leaders now feel that hybrid work challenges an employee's connection to organizational culture, according to a recent survey by Gartner. A 2022 poll of HR leaders reveals the most challenging aspect of setting their hybrid strategy is adjusting the current organizational culture to support a hybrid workforce. In fact,...