The all-pervasive digital shift by Asia-Pacific enterprises (excluding Japan) to attain digital resiliency is helping ICT spending grow by over 7.1% to reach $950 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2025, according to the latest release of IDC’s Worldwide ICT Spending Guide Industry and Company Size.
In anticipation of multiple waves of infections, enterprises revisited and upgraded their business plan. Multiple sectors have already begun their infrastructure as business models changed throughout the year, pushing a relatively large spend in innovating current offerings and undergoing the digital journey.
“As vaccinations gather pace in the region, organisations across industries will focus their efforts to have a hybrid business model,” said Mario Allen Clement, IDC Asia-Pacific senior market analyst on IT Spending Guide. “Innovative products and customer satisfaction will be key to continued operations.”
Professional Services expect the highest year-on-year growth within the Distribution and Services sector right through the forecast period. The digital journey across the Professional Services sector has remote working as one of its priorities and has continuously invested in upgrading for faster operations.
Personal and Consumer Services follow with second-highest growth compared to all other verticals as countries have started to allow travelers with utmost caution. Therefore, leisure and business travel activities show the highest growth in 2021 after a complete slowdown.
“Financial, Infrastructure, Transportation and Media sectors realized improved operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and innovation in services post their digital transformation investment,” said Vinay Gupta, IDC Asia-Pacific research director on IT Spending Guide/Pacific. “This, in turn, de-risked their business from further disruptions.”
Very large businesses — those with more than 1,000 employees — continue to hold the largest market throughout the forecast . They contribute to almost half of the ICT spending with expected growth of 7% year-on-year for 2021.
Based on IDC’s 2021 Future Enterprise Resilience and Spending Survey, these enterprises will shift or add close to 45% of their technology budget to either address COVID-triggered business change or make the organization more competitive.
