IDC predicts top Australian DX trends for 2020 and beyond

Digital transformation (DX) budgets and value are set to come under scrutiny as investments start to eclipse traditional IT, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

The development of more refined, business-driven digital key performance indicators (KPIs) is just one of IDC’s top 10 DX trends for Australia in 2020–2025.

“By 2020, 35% of companies would have aligned digital KPIs to direct business value measures of revenue and profitability, eliminating today’s measurement crisis in which DX KPIs are not directly aligned,” IDC said.

“CEOs, boards and DX decision-makers will demand and expect metrics that demonstrate the true value and return on investment. With DX budgets now outstripping traditional IT budgets it is not a matter of if, but when businesses will move to an enriched metrics model,” added IDC Australia and New Zealand Research Director Louise Francis.

Digital investment is still set to continue, however, with DX spending to reach over 55% of all ICT investment by 2021, up from 45% today.

Further, “68% of organisations will aggressively modernise legacy systems with extensive new technology platform investments through 2023,” IDC said.

Fortunately, IDC’s trends indicate DX will create at least some concrete business value, with digital enhancements projected to improve workers’ effectiveness, productivity and innovation, and digital co-innovation between partners and competitors expected to drive 20% of collective growth in customer lifetime value.

DX is also expected to improve customer value, with AI projected to help organisations respond over 20% faster than their peers by 2022.

Conversely, organisations that neglect investing in market-driven operations will lose market share to existing competitors that have made the investments as well as new digital entries by 2022, IDC said.

Other trends include the differentiation of “end customer value measures from platform ecosystem participation, including an estimate of the ecosystem’s multiplier effects” and business leaders’ development of ‘future of culture’ traits, such as empathy, empowerment, innovation and customer data centricity.

Finally, “By 2023, enterprises seeking to monetise benefits of new digital technologies will invest over US$5.5 billion in Australia, making the DC business decision analytics and AI domain a nexus for digital information,” IDC said.

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