IDC: IT transformation strong despite modest economy

Details: Category: Trends & Forecasts; 11 February 2010; 9965 views

Governments in APEJ, that is, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan will continue to spend until their countries recover from recession. Ten predictions are recorded in IDC’s recently released Asia/Pacific Public Sector 2010 Top Ten Predictions...

Despite improvements in the economy, governments in the Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) region will continue to maintain spending in 2010 until recovery from the global recession is secured. They have put in place ambitious IT transformation plans and this is expected to revolutionise the marketplace radically. More insights are revealed by IDC in Asia/Pacific Public Sector 2010 Top 10 Predictions, which discusses the top ten IT predictions for the public sector in Asia-Pacific for 2010.

"We expect a marketplace driven by the growth of next-generation telecommunications infrastructures and the rising use of mobile services. Greater attention will be paid to cloud services and business analytics. There will also be a demand in emerging markets with notable geo-political interests to build intelligent sustainable cities," says Alex S Kim, Director for IDC Government Insights Asia-Pacific.

Alex Kim adds, "The notion of intelligent or smart cities has emerged as the next wave for attracting new investments and retaining the presence of foreign companies. This up-and-coming business model of the Trinity represents a holistic interaction between the public sector, vendors and citizens - all three working in sync to make inroads for building a smarter and more sustainable world"

With the advent of economic stimulus monies, the healthcare vertical will be revolutionising its services through increased consumer participation and standards interoperability. Alex Kim continues, "We have observed the sector's upcoming plans and it will be moving toward an evidence-based practice of medicine in an increasingly connected environment." For the education vertical, 1:1 computing will characterise the sector's transformation strategy as it takes a step closer to reality through the mass availability of affordable mini notebooks and learning content.

To assist government organisations and the vendors that serve this market, IDC Government Insights Asia/Pacific annually identifies the top trends for the year that will heavily influence the direction and magnitude of IT investment, management, and technology evaluation. Highlights of this report include:

the public sector's new business awareness — also known as the "Wal-Mart" effect of keeping costs low and productivity high — requires a great demand for organisational agility. Governments today are running businesses themselves and have to manage government organisations like a business. They should take cues from the private sector to gain efficiency amid shrinking budgets;

the new business needs of governments are creating widespread consolidation, integration, and interoperability of IT systems and infrastructure. In doing so, tools and concepts to reduce redundancy and improve standardisation, eg Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), will enable governments to adopt standardised best practices and processes that best fit the requirements of their agencies and departments; and

governments will be more receptive to exploring and assimilating new stakeholder/citizenry engagement models through platforms such as new media and the widespread proliferation of mobile devices applications.

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