Lenovo, a leading technology company, has partnered with IDC to examine the fundamental shifts that will change the concept of work and how it will be done in the next few years. The IDC InfoBrief, Powering Intelligent Enterprise Transformation, commissioned by Lenovo, reinforces the vision that humans and bots will work together to drive a digital transformation (DX) in the Industry 4.0 era. In the InfoBrief, IDC and Lenovo set out recommendations on how Asia Pacific enterprises can navigate this workplace transformation seamlessly and take advantage of the new opportunities.
By 2020, millennials will make up more than 50% of the workforce in Asia Pacific . Together with Generation X, Y and Z’s multi-generational workforce’s diversified needs and desires, organisations are re-evaluating the way they view and adopt technology in the workplace of tomorrow to enable employees to work anywhere, anytime, and on any device they want to. Primarily driven by rapid adoption of innovation accelerator (IA) technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR/VR), IDC expects ICT spending in Asia Pacific to cross the US$1.5 trillion mark in 2021.
The Future of Work
The latest enterprise transformation trends for 2019 and beyond identified in the IDC InfoBrief emphasise on automation, XaaS, employee experience, and the push for capabilities outside of one’s core industry and experience to drive new revenue streams.
According to IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Work 2019 Predictions, enterprises are rethinking the future of their industries and investing in start-ups or companies that can help reinvent their core business to diversify their revenue portfolios. By 2023, 30 per cent of G2000 companies will generate at least 20 per cent of their revenue outside their core industries, using crowdsourcing and agile aggregation models to source talent and business capabilities.
With a global shortage of talent, automation and automation-enabled IT workflows will help free more human and capital resources to focus on more strategic tasks. Enterprise adoption of intelligent technologies and smart solutions will empower organisations for a smarter and more efficient future workplace.
The Holistic Approach to Workplace Transformation
As defined by IDC’s Future of Work research practice, organisations need to take a holistic strategy to leverage digital technologies across three critical tenets—workspace, workculture and workforce—to transform into intelligent enterprises. Yet, 60 per cent of organisations in Asia Pacific are struggling to achieve enterprise-wide digital transformation because of multi-faceted challenges such as looming trade tensions, security and identity, privacy and data sovereignty, and taxation and IP protection.
According to Lenovo, technology and its ability to engage and motivate talent and unlock the fullest productivity is the key enabler of every enterprise’s most valuable capital in its transformation journey—its workforce
“The path to deliver top-notch customer experience and unlock business value first needs to be paved by elevating the employee experience. A big part of workplace transformation is about computing where users expect different types of control across devices and solutions, said Ken Wong, President of Lenovo Asia Pacific. “Investing in technologies such as Device-as-a-Service, AI, and AR then becomes critical to keep up with end-users’ expectations of mobility, flexibility and augmented experiences connectivity. In turn, this empowers enterprises to improve their employee experience by creating a smarter, more secure, productive and collaborative workplace.”
“Technology today is changing at a breakneck pace, and it will continue to evolve and drive productivity, collaboration, and efficiency in many new ways. However, technology is only an enabler and Future of Work transformation should not be confused with just automation or technology upgrade drive. There are many moving parts here from multi-generational workforce to advent of AI, change management, as well as compliance, privacy and security issues that enterprises need to consider. Therefore, organisations that focus on holistic transformation and develop an experience-centric model — front, back, and center — along with highly agile structures that can constantly adapt to rapidly changing technology and consumer preferences will be the ones leading in the industry 4.0 era,” said Avinav Trigunait, research director, IDC Asia Pacific.
For more insights and IDC’s latest Future of Work predictions, read the IDC InfoBrief, Powering Intelligent Enterprise Transformation, November 2018.
