ICT spending in Asia to grow 7.1% in 2021 driven by digital shift in industries: IDC

The shift to attain digital resilience by enterprises across the Asia Pacific region, except Japan, has helped ICT spending grow by 7.1% to reach $950 billion in 2021 and it is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2025, said Worldwide ICT Spending Guide: Industry and Company Size in a report.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), digital resiliency refers to the ability of an organisation to rapidly adapt to business disruptions by leveraging digital capabilities to restore business operations and capitalise on the changed conditions.

In anticipation of multiple waves of infections, enterprises revisited and upgraded their business plans which helped industries evolve and look towards better offerings and thereby improve customer satisfaction.

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.

The trend is expected to continue in the post-pandemic era.

"Organisations are bracing themselves to have a smooth transition post-pandemic. As vaccinations gather pace in the region, organisations across industries will focus their efforts to have a hybrid business model," said Mario Allen Clement, senior market analyst, IT Spending Guide, IDC Asia/Pacific.

"Innovative products and customer satisfaction will be key to continued operations," he added.

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 travellers 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 realised improved operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and innovation in services post their digital transformation investment," said Vinay Gupta, Research Director, IT Spending Guide, IDC Asia/Pacific.

"This, in turn, de-risked their business from further disruptions," he added.

Very large businesses (1000+ employees) continue to hold the largest market throughout the forecast – it contributes to almost half of the ICT spending with expected growth of 7% year-on-year for 2021.

As per IDC's 2021 Future Enterprise Resilience and Spending Survey (Wave 5), 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.