The cover story of MIS Asia Mar-Apr 2012. IT Nation 2012 Study Findings. Made public today.

1. Cover Story: It NatIoN 2012
Occupy
the
Enterprise
The state of the IT Nation through 2012 is good. All across Asia, exciting moves are underway
or imminent. Here is the report—in numbers.
BY TENG FANG YIH
The latest edition of our annual IT IT Investment and Expenditure
Nation study was conducted through What actions do you expect to take directly in response to current
the last few weeks of 2011. Work behind economic conditions?
it involved the survey of information
75%
and communication technology leaders
1) Cut costs and optimise efficiency of existing systems
across Asia, including Singapore, Malay-
58.05%
sia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, 2) [Foster/Create] more innovation.
Indonesia and Thailand. These IT decision 40.25%
makers of user organisations came from 3) Implement new projects.
across the entire spectrum of sectors/ 38.56%
industries; among the key ones were the 4) [Establish/Maintain] stronger partnership with vendors.
Public Sector, Financial Services, Trans- 29.24%
5) Restructure IT service agreements.
port and Logistics and Manufacturing.
26.27%
So have our IT/IS divisions here 6) Outsource more IT functions.
in Asia stepped up and gained greater 10.59%
respect as the single most important 7) Reinstate hardware/software purchases that were previously deferred.
working part of their respective organi- 8.05%
sations? And have their leaders earned 8) Decrease staff numbers.
their rightful place as key participants 3.81%
9) Other action.
in corporate boardroom discussions?
2.97%
They have occupied the enterprise in 10) No action.
more ways than one. They may not, in
numbers, represent 99 percent of their
respective organisations, but the servic-
es they and their teams provide power IT Investment and Expenditure
In 2012, do you expect your organisation’s overall IT expenditure to:
“We tend to focus on maintenance work
rather than strategic initiatives. This will
continue in 2012 as we are expecting a Remain the same
30.08%
global downturn.” (IT) Singapore 50.85% Increase
more than 99 percent of operations at
their organisations. Now is the time for Decrease
19.07%
them to get acknowledgement for that.
Have they? Perhaps the major
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2. findings below will tell us how well they IT Investment and Expenditure
are doing going down that road. A great number of respondents’ organisations expect to increase
spending on the following.
IT Investment and
46.19%
Expenditure Business Intelligence
The good news is the (marginal) majori- 47.88%
ty of respondents–50.85 percent–expect IT Consolidation
their organisation’s overall expenditure 53.39%
to increase in 2012. Virtualisation
Perennial concerns dominate the 55.08%
top of priority lists for our respondents Information Security and Risk Management
across Asia.
In response to the question, “What
actions do you expect to take directly IT Investment and Expenditure
in response to current economic condi- The largest group of organisations expect no change in their spending on
tions?” the answers in order of priority the following.
were: cut costs and optimise efficien-
46.61%
cy of existing systems; foster and/or Business Continuity Planning
create more innovation; implement
45.76%
new projects; establish and/or maintain Customer Relationship Management
stronger partnership with vendors; and, 47.88%
restructure IT service agreements. Data Warehousing
The respondents’ top five areas of 48.31%
focus in IT through 2012 are (in order of Enterprise Content Management
importance): automate more business 45.34%
Enterprise Resource Planning
47.03%
Green IT
“Use virtualisation and cloud computing to 50.42%
save infrastructure investment.”
IT Service Management
49.58%
(Public Sector—Nonprofit) Hong Kong Knowledge Management
48.31%
Open Source Platform and Development
processes; improve customer satisfac-
46.61%
tion; improve information security; make Outsourcing
my enterprise more agile; and, better 34.32%
manage regulatory compliance. The Public Cloud Computing
top five areas they expect to put more 35.59%
money into in 2012 are (again in order Private Cloud Computing
of importance): new application devel- 41.95%
Software-as-a-Service
opment and implementation; hardware
41.95%
infrastructure; network infrastructure; Unified Communications
security and risk management; and, IT 45.34%
governance and compliance. Web 2.0
As for spending in 2012, the highest
number of votes went to the maintenance
of their level of investment in most areas.
Where we should expect no change in
their expenditure levels are: Business
Continuity Planning; Customer Relation-
ship Management; Data Warehous- “We’re finally seeing some genuine “The economic downturn is expected.
ing; Enterprise Content Management; innovation in storage, but vendors are not We may want to consider increasing
Enterprise Resource Planning; Green
IT; IT Service Management; Knowledge able to engage with anything smaller than spending on infrastructure projects.”
Management; Open Source Platform and Fortune 500.” (FSI) Global (Public Sector—Government) Singapore
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3. Development; Outsourcing; Public Cloud IT Investment and Expenditure
Computing; Private Cloud Computing; The top five areas respondents expect to focus attention on in IT through
Software-as-a-Service; Unified Commu- 2012 are, in order of priority:
nications; and, Web 2.0. 1) Automate more business processes.
On the upside, the majority of 2) Improve customer satisfaction.
respondents (53.39 percent) intend to 3) Improve information security.
increase their spending in Virtualisa- 4) Make my enterprise more agile.
tion, and Information Security and Risk 5) Better manage regulatory compliance.
IT Investment and Expenditure
“There’s too much concern about cloud The top five areas respondents expect to allocate IT budgets to in 2012,
in order of priority, are:
computing but not enough focus on internal 1) New application development and implementation.
development.” (Services) HK 2) Hardware infrastructure.
3) Network infrastructure.
Management (55.08 percent). Increased 4) Security and risk management.
allocation of IT budgets are also expect- 5) IT governance and compliance.
ed in Business Intelligence, at least for
46.19 percent of respondents, and work
in IT Consolidation for 47.88 percent. Major IT Initiatives
How has the priority you placed on Green IT efforts changed in the
Major IT Initiatives past year?
In answer to the question, Has there
been a change in the way your organisa- It was never a priority
18.64%
tion deems the importance of Green IT
in 2011? 40.68 percent of respondents 34.32%
It has seen increased
emphasis and remains
said, No change. a key corporate focus
When it came to their top three
concerns with respect to their enter-
prise deployment of cloud computing, It has seen decreased
It has seen no change 6.36% emphasis due to the
the majority cited the security of data 40.68%
economic downturn
(hackers/breaches), concern about
appropriate levels of SLAs, and, the loss
of control of important IT applications.
The top three uses of business intel- Major IT Initiatives
ligence software at respondents’ organi- What are your major concerns regarding the cloud?
sations currently are: to measure and
analyse business operations data; to 75.42%
Security of data (hackers/breaches)
measure and analyse financial data in
51.69%
relation to business operations data; Concern about appropriate level SLA
and, to create financial reports. 43.22%
The element of unified communica- Loss of control of important IT applications
tions and collaboration software most 10.59%
commonly used at present by respond- No major concerns
ents’ organisations are the integration 5.08%
Others
of e-mail, the control of instant messag-
ing, IP telephony, and other business
applications.
The most common response of
respondents’ organisations to the social
networking phenomenon in 2011: ban “Labour cost is the main issue for us and reducing headcount seems to be inevitable in
employees from using social networking
programs. The second most common the coming months due to lower revenues projected in the coming year.”
response: revise policies on social (Manufacturing) Singapore
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4. Cover Story: It NatIoN 2012
networking to give better guidance on Major IT Initiatives
employee use. How is Business Intelligence software used at your organisation?
The most common response of
61.86%
respondents’ organisations to the BYOD
To measure and analyse business operations data
(bring your own device) trend in 2011:
52.12%
ban the use of such devices on site and To measure and analyse financial data in relation to business operations data
prohibiting its connection to enterprise 48.73%
infrastructure. The second most common To create financial reports
response: revise policies that give better 47.03%
guidance on employee use and connec- To measure and analyse financial and transaction data
tion of such devices to the enterprise 40.68%
To better understand customer behaviour
infrastructure. The third: upgrade enter-
3.39%
prise communications infrastructure to For other functions
accommodate the entry of new devices.
More than 42 percent of respond-
ents said that the current economic
climate has enhanced their organisa- Major IT Initiatives
tions’ awareness and understanding of Which elements of Unified Communications and Collaboration Software
the importance of Business Continuity are currently used at your organisation?
Planning, though they were not looking
at increasing spending on it. Integrated e-mail system
with controlled instant 11.86%
messaging
Last Year’s Deliverables 30.93%
There is no
adoption of Unified
When asked about how much value their Integrated e-mail Communications
system with 14.83%
investments in specific areas of technol- at our organisation
other business
ogy delivered to the business in 2011, applications
the following got the highest number
of votes for having had No Impact Integrated e-mail,
19.92% Integrated e-mail,
controlled instant 22.46%
on their businesses: Business Intelli- messaging and IP
controlled instant
messaging, IP telephony
gence; Business Continuity Planning; telephony and other business
Customer Relationship Management; applications
Data Warehousing; Enterprise Content
Management; Enterprise Resource
Major IT Initiatives
How has your enterprise responded to the social networking phenomenon?
“We hope that the cost of cloud computing Responded in other ways 1.27%
can be decreased significantly.” Done nothing about
(Education) Indonesia implementing social networking
systems for the enterprise 14.41% 28.39%
Banned employees
from using social
networking programs
Planning; Green IT; Intelligent Network- Upgraded training to 7.63%
ensure employees aware
ing; Web 2.0; IT Service Management; of social networking Encouraged employees
Knowledge Management; Open Source issues (incl. security) to use social
Platforms and Development; Outsourc- networking for work
Revised policies on 22.88% 14.83%
ing; Private Cloud Computing; Public social networking to
give better guidance
Cloud Computing; Software-as-a- on employee use 10.59% Developed business-based
systems to capitalise on
Service; and, Unified Communications. social networking
On the other hand, 42.80 percent
of respondents classified their invest-
ments in Information Security and
Risk Management under Most Deliv-
ered. The same with Virtualisation, with
39.83 percent saying it Most Delivered “Having cloud computing is an ongoing trend. The biggest concern would be security,
for them in 2011. whether you’re working with a public or a private cloud.” (Automobile) Singapore
www.mis-asia.com March–april 2012 04

5. Word to the Wise Major IT Initiatives
In their concluding remarks, the major- How has your enterprise responded to the BYOD (bring your own
ity of respondents offered the follow- device) trend?
ing top three pieces of advice to IT
Responded in other ways 1.69%
vendors, who may well be their current
or prospective providers through 2012:
Done nothing because we are 24.15% Banned the use of
be more responsive to issues; reduce not keen on accommodating such devices onsite
19.92% and prohibited its
prices; and, be more realistic when citing these devices
connection to enterprise
delivery deadlines. Upgraded training to ensure infrastructure
More specific comments relating to employees are aware 6.36%
of issues (incl. security) Upgraded enterprise
the issues brought up in the IT Nation related to their use communications
22.03%
2012 study below. infrastructure to
The CxO of a global financial servic- Revised policies that give accommodate these
better guidance regarding 22.46% new devices
es company said: “We’re seeing some employee use and connection
genuine innovation in storage, but to enterprise infrastructure Developed business-
based systems to
vendors remain unable to engage with 3.39%
capitalise on their use
anything smaller than Fortune 500.”
“We tend to focus on doing mainte-
nance work rather than on strategic Major IT Initiatives
initiatives. This will continue in 2012 as How has the current economic climate influenced your organisation’s
we are expecting a global downturn,” approach to Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?
said the IT head of a technology compa-
It has prompted us to cut 2.55%
ny based in Singapore. our BCP budget
“With an economic downturn
expected, we may want to consider It has made us more
28.81% aggressive in our pursuit
It has had no effect on of comprehensive
our approach at all 26.27% business continuity
“Go cloud.” (Hospitality) Singapore coverage, and involves
greater expenditure
increasing spending on infrastructure
projects,” and government technology It has enhanced
chief, also in Singapore, told us. 42.37% our awareness and
“We must encourage more partici- understanding of the
importance of BCP, but we are
pation in the green movement,” said a not increasing spending on it
regional technology leader in agribusi-
ness.
An IT boss in the manufactur-
ing sector said something worrisome:
“Labour cost is the main issue for us and
reducing headcount seems to be inevita-
ble in the coming months due to lower “In the current context there has been a
revenues projected for the coming year.” lot of talk about cloud and virtualisation.
His counterpart working for a Although virtualisation has delivered value,
nonprofit in Hong Kong seems to have
a strategy for combating budget issues: the cloud is still at a nascent stage for “The way organisations change their
“Use virtualisation and cloud comput- deploying mission critical applications. strategies based on quarterly results,
ing to save infrastructure investment.” Our strategy will be to try and understand IT should nowadays have to do the same.
Refer to Word to the Wise boxes on
the pages of these stories for some of the back end agreements the cloud solution There is a large difference between
the more interesting comments from providers will have with the product strategies identified at the beginning of the
our respondents. Immediately follow- vendors. There are licensing issues to year and what we deliver at the end of the
ing each comment are the sector/
industry and geography that it comes be sorted out as well.” (Manufacturing; year. IT has become even more dynamic
from. Energy) India and challenging.” (IT) India
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6. Cover Story: It NatIoN 2012
Major IT Initiatives
The largest group of respondents think their respective initiatives in the following areas Most Delivered in 2011.
39.83%
Virtualisation
42.80%
Information Security and Risk Management
The largest group of respondents think their respective initiatives in the following areas had No Impact
on their operations and businesses in 2011.
34.32%
Business Intelligence
46.19%
Business Continuity Planning
39.83%
Customer Relationship Management
38.98%
Data Warehousing
43.22%
“The consumerisation of IT is a
Enterprise Content Management reality we all have to live with.”
Enterprise Resource Planning
34.75% (Communications) India
36.44%
Green IT
42.80%
Intelligent Networking
IT Service Management
39.83%
“Encourage the green movement.”
Knowledge Management
41.95% (Agribusiness) Singapore
34.75%
Open Source Platforms and Development
36.86%
Outsourcing
Private Cloud Computing
23.73%
“The social network has many impact
25.85% on many fronts. So we should use it
in the right ways and be more
Public Cloud Computing
33.89%
Software-as-a-Service concerned about user satisfactions.”
Unified Communications
31.78%
(Education) Thailand
35.17%
Web 2.0
75.85%
Advice to IT Vendors Be more responsive to issues
What advice would you give to 60.17%
IT vendors based on your Reduce prices
experience working with them 52.54%
Be more realistic when citing delivery deadlines
through 2011?
48.31%
Deliver better follow up
44.49%
Makes SLAs more flexible
42.37%
Share more responsibility
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