E-empowered employee to fuel ICT spending in 2006, says IDC

The information and communications technology (ICT) spending and growth in the Asia-Pacific region will be fuelled largely by the surge of the e-Empowered Employee (EEE).

IDC said the e-empowered employee is increasingly able to harness technology to be more productive and responsive.

Work takes place anywhere, anytime, anyplace. It’s moving out of the traditional workstation into homes, hotels, airport lounges, and taxis.

"Workspace boundaries are diminishing as the employee is no longer tied to an office location. 9 to 5 work hours make way for 24/7 operations," said Eva Au, IDC Managing Director for Asia/Pacific.

"Technology roadmaps will not only be determined by how it can be applied to enhance productivity, but also how it can support an always-connected, knowledge-driven and rapidly shrinking global economic society," said Au.

Successful companies will be those which can rise to the challenge and capitalize on the technology opportunities further enable by the e-empowered employee — coming up with innovative strategies and delivery models that are adapted to market dynamics and optimizing the employee’s contribution to the organization’s value chain.

"It has direct impact on organizational efficiency, access to real-time information, quicker time-to-market and the ability of businesses to react to dynamic market conditions."

For 2006, IDC predicts that spending on telecommunications services will grow at 8 percent, exceeding US5 billion for Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan).

IT spending in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan will grow at 9 percent to exceed US0 billion, with China and India accounting for 64 percent of the region’s incremental market value, said IDC.

IDC expects the economic outlook for 2006 is healthy, despite continued global political, health, and environmental uncertainties.

"This, combined with the relentless pursuit of enterprises and their employees to be more competitive, bodes well for the ICT industry in the region," noted Au.

IDC believes there will be three core pillars around which industry defining developments will occur, in the Enterprise space where the e-Empowered Employee works, the Vendor community servicing the Enterprise, and finally the ICT Industry.

Continued adoption of hardware, software, connectivity and content by consumers will move beyond the home and into the workplace.

As consumers migrate their home experiences into the Enterprise and demand the same, if not higher, level of knowledge-based services in their work environment, CIOs and line of business managers will need to adapt to the organization’s competitive needs and employee demands by becoming more discriminating in their investments. The race for scalability is back on corporate agendas.

The vendor community will need to innovate on the business models front to evolve their mode of delivery, spectrum of functionality and customer services to keep up with Enterprise demands, and purchasing styles.

Established industry models will face pressure to change their go-to-market strategies and this will encourage experimentation with development, distribution and support in order to drive costs downwards. These opportunities will open up the industry to new players.

Defined by consumer-led experiences, e-empowerment will become the basis by which employees, customers, suppliers, partners and citizens view what they expect from ICT at the workplace.