Digital Lifescapes

The personal computing device market continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience despite recent fluctuations. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments are projected to reach 273 million units in 2025—a modest but significant 3.7 percent increase over the previous year. This growth reflects the market's adaptation to post-pandemic realities and evolving technology needs across the globe. Personal Computing Market Development While COVID-19 initially triggered unprecedented demand for computing devices during the shift to remote work and online education, we now see a more measured growth pattern. IDC has slightly adjusted its projections downward, indicating a market growing steadily rather than explosively. "In light of so many challenges around the world, Japan is a much-needed source of double-digit growth this year. Enterprises there as well as SMBs have been quickly replacing PCs in advance of the Window...

Is your workforce truly your greatest asset, or is it simply another cost center? The CEO’s role has traditionally been synonymous with strategy, innovation, and financial performance.  However, a seismic shift is underway -- the strategic imperative for Business Technology talent development. The C-suite is increasingly recognizing that the key to unlocking business value lies not just in technology or market share, but in the skilled people who power the organization. Gartner’s latest research study findings underscore this shift, placing workforce considerations as a top-three business priority for chief executives. Business Technologist Market Development This elevation of the workforce to strategic prominence is a direct consequence of several converging trends. The Great Resignation, coupled with an increasingly competitive global talent market, has made talent acquisition and retention a paramount challenge. Moreover, the rapid pace of information technology change demands a...

The importance of data in today's business landscape fundamentally reshapes how CIOs invest in their IT infrastructure. A recent International Data Corporation ( IDC ) market study highlights this trend, revealing insights into spending patterns. The study indicates that structured database and data management workloads are the largest spending category within enterprise IT infrastructure. This is unsurprising, considering the foundational role these workloads play in managing digital business data. However, IDC's worldwide market study also sheds light on a noteworthy shift – spending in some categories witnessed a slight decline in 2023 compared to 2022. Data Workload Market Development This dip could be attributed to several factors. Organizations might optimize their existing data management processes, potentially leveraging more efficient storage solutions or cloud-based data management services. Additionally, the rise of alternative data sources, such as unstructured and ...

The digital workplace solutions market has been on the rise in recent years as many large enterprise organizations have embraced hybrid working and remote work models. Solutions like Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tools have enabled companies to support their distributed workforce and enhance employee productivity.   Digital Workplace Market Development However, a new study from Gartner reveals that the digital workplace is about to play an even bigger role as companies turn their focus toward Environmental, Social, and Governance ( ESG ) initiatives. According to Gartner, 80 percent of digital workplace and IT leaders will integrate their tools with ESG management and reporting solutions by 2027 -- that's up from less than 5 percent today. This expected rapid convergence is being driven by growing regulatory requirements around ESG disclosure, as well as rising CEO and leadership prioritization of environ...

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, 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...

The knowledge worker and frontline employee experience must adapt to support evolving work models. That includes a digital workspace solution, and perhaps a reimagined physical workplace. Workflow that is performed online will be augmented and optimized. Moreover, the format and design of enterprise office spaces are likely to be significantly transformed. It's inevitable. Traditional leaders who expected a return-to-normal environment have been greatly disappointed by the abandonment of inflexible workplaces. In contrast, many employees welcome the change.  Future Workspace Market Development Around 25 percent of organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are already redesigning their offices, and 70 percent will do so in an 18-month period, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Why invest now -- given the current economic outlook? Organizations are redesigning their offices to bring employees back onsite and, at the same time, attempt to...

Organizations are now in the digital business transformation era, where acting as a digital-first enterprise is a CEO mandate, and a strategic differentiator to ensure future prosperity and growth. Enterprise investment in business technology and related digital application growth initiatives has been remarkably robust, in spite of the currently projected outlook of global economic headwinds. Worldwide information technology (IT) and business services revenue will grow by 5.7 percent this year and is forecast at 5.2 percent for 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Business Technology Market Development IDC has maintained its outlook for the worldwide Services market against the backdrop of a potential global recession. Worldwide GDP growth worsened since earlier in the year and is now expected to grow by 2.7 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2023. IDC remains cautiously optimistic based on reported results from vendors in the ...

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...

Across the globe, business leaders and government policymakers are exploring applications for human augmentation. These enhancements are described as the natural, artificial, or technological alteration of the human body in order to improve physical or mental capabilities. The European human augmentation market -- including augmented and virtual reality, biometrics, exoskeletons, wearables, affective computing, and other human augmentation technologies -- will reach over $62 billion by the end of 2022 and more than $100 billion by 2026. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), businesses are increasing their investments in these technologies, and the overall human augmentation market will grow 37 percent in Europe by the end of 2022. Human Augmentation Market Development Companies are adopting a digital-first model and adapting to new realities and work policies that require support for use cases such as remote work collaboration, virtualized presen...

Global cybersecurity spending within critical infrastructure sectors is forecast to reach $23 billion by the end of 2022, that's growing at a 10 percent CAGR to reach $36.67 billion in 2027 -- according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "Businesses, industries, and in fact the entire world, have never been more connected than they are right now. They have also never been more at risk," said Michela Menting, research director at ABI Research . Organizations and key verticals continue to integrate technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G wireless networks, and blockchain-based distributed ledgers -- creating more points of connection, and more points of cyber-security vulnerability. Critical Infrastructure Security Market Development ABI Research has explored the cyber and digital security landscape in its entirety. Their analysis explores actionable cybersecurity trends and market growth forecasts from their ongoing research. According to t...

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,...

CEOs who have continued their quest for a "return to normal" environment during the COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for human resource (HR) leaders who had to develop new policies. Senior executives that resisted the need to change perpetuated a culture of ongoing denial. Now, organizations must focus on equipping people managers, who are the stewards of sustainable performance, with the right skillsets to ensure they and their teams succeed in their preferred "hybrid working" environment, according to the latest research by Gartner. To achieve these desired outcomes, Gartner recommends that organizations pursue new tactics to ensure managers are prepared to lead people in this new setting -- hoping that a hybrid work model is eventually manageable and successful. However, many troubling questions still remain. Why not simply accept the 'remote working' phenomenon, and learn how to evolve away from a 'command and control' mindset tha...

Savvy senior executives have moved beyond denial. They know their "Future of Work" vision can't include a return-to-normal approach. Instead, it embodies the adoption of hybrid work models by a majority of forward-thinking organizations, supported by the broad deployment of digital business technology. Driven by digital transformation initiatives and the realities of a rapidly evolving global economy, employers will adopt more dynamic ways of working. Meanwhile, employees will redefine themselves as members of reconfigurable teams that adapt quickly -- anytime, anywhere, and from any location. Led by CEOs and the board of directors, Future of Work initiatives will be key enterprise-wide imperatives. The insights gained from digital-first ways of working will enable organizations to respond to the needs of key stakeholders, with solutions that empower an acceleration of workflows. Future of Work Solutions Market Development "As organizations continue to define and ref...

While most senior executives at progressive organizations have already evolved their human resource policies to accommodate employee desire for flexible working models, others still resist change. Unfortunately, many of the laggards are now experiencing the "Great Resignation" phenomenon. The global pandemic required business leaders to rethink when, where, and how their knowledge workers and front-line employees perform their work. Yet even with the ongoing pandemic recovery slowly underway, some organizations are still trying to determine their workforce approach. According to the latest worldwide market study and recent survey data from International Data Corporation (IDC), stability and geography will likely define the balance of future work strategies. Distributed Workforce Market Development On a global basis, physical office sites are expected to be the dominant location for work as legacy organizations eventually find themselves in a more stable environment. However, ...

When you hire qualified talent for a key role and trust them to perform, you'll likely achieve the best outcome. Skilled and experienced people will deliver results, regardless of the challenges. That's a key lesson learned from the pandemic experience as most knowledge workers were asked to work from their homes. However, some resist returning to an open-plan office. It's unacceptable. Meanwhile, forward-thinking leaders decided a "return to normal" is undesirable, and in hindsight, everyone should aspire to be more accomodating than before. Therefore, location flexibility is okay. Hybrid Workforce Market Development How will people adapt to these changes? They'll apply the modern IT tools at their disposal. They'll learn new skills and thrive. Nearly 80 percent of employees are now successfully using online collaboration tools for work in 2021 -- that's up from just over half of workers in 2019, according to the latest market study by Gartner. This g...

Enterprise CIOs crave practical insights and guidance to help them drive digital business transformation projects. They've been tasked to develop comprehensive IT investment strategies across hardware, software, professional services, and telecom networks. That, in turn, drives IT vendor revenue growth. Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.1 trillion in 2021 -- that's an increase of 8.4 percent from 2020, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. The source of funds for new digital business initiatives will more frequently come from groups outside the traditional IT organization and charged as a cost of revenue, or cost of goods sold. Business Technology Market Development Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on the analysis of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. They use primary research, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a database of market size data on which to base their forecast. ...

As more enterprises adopt a 'hybrid work by design' model, we'll witness the rapid evolution of traditional offices and digital workspaces, plus a new and compelling approach to executive leadership that will drive innovation and productivity -- fueling exponential digital business growth. IDC has completed a worldwide market study that contextualizes their 'Future of Work' predictions for 2021. The ongoing transformation of the environment for typical office-based knowledge workers has been one of the hottest topics of discussion among CEOs and their leadership team. With the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacting every aspect of office work, there is growing interest in developing a holistic strategy that focuses on business technology upgrades, and the culture of organizations, to deliver an enhanced experience that will result in a sustained competitive advantage. Global 'Future of Work' Market Development "Every aspect of 'Future of Work...