Spotlight Southeast Asia – The State of Digital Transformation in Malaysia

In late 2020, Forrester fielded a Enterprise Technographics survey in two key Southeast Asian markets to know the present state of digital transformation and cloud adoption. This primary weblog appears to be like on the state of digital transformation in Malaysia.

Solely 46% of companies in Malaysia are on a digital transformation journey

A minority of companies in Malaysia are presently implementing or increasing their DT. However many extra are planning to begin this yr. As seen in different markets, COVID-19 is accelerating digital transformation (DT) initiatives and an extra 34% of companies in Malaysia are planning to begin on this journey in 2021. Extra apparently, of these presently driving a change effort, greater than half say that they’ve really elevated their spending on DT in 2020, regardless of the financial disaster.

Base: 175 companies decision-makers in Malaysia; Supply: Forrester Analytics Enterprise Technographics® Asia Pacific Cloud And Providers Survey, 2020

Adaptiveness and CX enhancements are key enterprise priorities for Malaysian companies in 2021

COVID-19 has proven companies the important significance of adaptiveness for enterprise resiliency and development. It isn’t stunning that high enterprise priorities for 2021 fall into these classes. Bettering CX and enhancing services rank as highest enterprise priorities, together with income development. Priorities aligned to adaptiveness make up the remainder of the Prime 6 priorities, with accelerated response to enterprise and market modifications, growing the flexibility to innovate, and accelerating the shift to digital enterprise. Lowering prices, whereas an vital enterprise precedence, is decrease on the precedence scale for 2021.

Digital Transformers have boosted IT capabilities and operational effectivity

Digital transformers in Malaysia have already reaped some advantages for his or her transformation efforts. Whereas the primary recorded advantages concern operational effectivity (i.e., decrease prices), these companies have additionally seen enhancements in measures of buyer expertise high quality. Additionally they consider that IT’s potential to advertise agility and innovation throughout the enterprise is vital issue of success. Nonetheless, worker expertise was not listed as an space of success for many companies. We anticipate this to vary in 2021 as a big majority of Malaysian companies put worker expertise as a excessive or important busines precedence. In actual fact, the success of their DT will hinge on their potential to draw and retain the expertise they want for his or her transformation.

Base: 62 companies decision-makers in Malaysia who’re concerned of their firm’s digital transformation, are at companies which might be presently implementing or increasing digital transformation, and take into account their agency profitable in some or all of their digital transformation efforts; Supply Forrester Analytics Enterprise Technographics® Asia Pacific Cloud And Providers Survey, 2020

Key digital transformation challenges relate to finances, safety, and technical expertise

However these early successes, key challenges stay for tech leaders in Malaysia. Most battle to show the enterprise worth of their DT and securing the finances required to drive it. Key challenges additionally embody securing their digital transformation, a scenario shared throughout Asia which stays behind on adopting safety frameworks similar to Zero Belief. A lack of expertise, expertise and worker availability signifies a severe expertise crunch. This could give companies another excuse to speculate considerably in worker expertise and retention in order to not jeopardize their DT efforts.

Malaysian tech executives should do extra to drive adaptiveness throughout their group

Corporations made progress in turning into extra agile, however Forrester sees that organizations sometimes battle to scale agile strategies to enterprise groups. Whereas enhancements in IT agility and innovation tops the record of DT success elements, the end result of an general extra agile group is considerably down the record. To handle this, Malaysian tech executives should collaborate throughout traces of enterprise to drive adaptiveness within the form of agile strategies and work with their CFO to rework inflexible annual budgeting cycles into agile monetary planning practices that fund outcomes and never initiatives.

What’s subsequent on Malaysia’s journey to digital innovation

Our information exhibits that by finish 2021 we are able to anticipate 80% of Malaysian companies implementing or increasing their digital transformation. Tech executives of those corporations – particularly these beginning out in 2021 – should handle the challenges head-on. They might want to redefine key tech administration capabilities to give attention to buyer and enterprise outcomes to safe extra investments and speed up their DT, regardless of tight budgets.

For these nonetheless on the fence – time is operating out. For small and medium companies, public initiatives similar to “Malaysia 5.0” may help speed up DT. Massive organizations nonetheless hesitant about DT will see their opponents speed up and can more and more fail to draw digital expertise.