The year 2020 will go down in history as a pivotal one for digital transformation, thanks in part to how COVID-19 has drastically accelerated digitization initiatives and the mass shift to remote work.
While there is no doubt that the impact of the pandemic will still be felt in the years to come, the difficulties faced in the past year will serve as valuable guidance for enterprises on how to future proof their business moving forward.
The following are predictions for the year ahead from Kent Nash, General Manager, Middle East, Asia Pacific & Japan at Solace.
Production post-Covid-19 will rely heavily on real-time data to optimize output
In the past year the global supply chain has faced an unprecedented level of disruption and manufacturers are under significant pressure to keep up with rapidly changing demand, despite the uncertain economic outlook.
With the impact of Covid-19 likely to last for years to come, manufacturers need to rethink their operational strategies to ensure that they are sustainable in the long term. This would be a critical time for businesses to look into how automation tools and technologies can help to decrease worker density, facilitate proactive maintenance scheduling, and stabilize production. Enabling event-driven communications across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures will unlock the value of real-time data to ensure that manufacturers have the visibility necessary to optimize operations and elastically scale as and when required.
COVID-19 will propel open digitization initiatives for smarter cities
When we hear the term ‘smart cities’ we tend to picture heavily urbanized, dense, concrete jungles- that might start to change in the coming year. Southeast Asia is home to some of the world’s fastest urbanizing countries, many of which are feeling the pressure of lagging behind their neighbors in implementing digital regulations and services, exacerbated by the pandemic.
For cities that already have already implemented some form of smart technology, the next barrier to overcome would be proprietary legacy technology. By embracing open source standards-based tools, we can ensure that all the components of our future smart cities will eventually meld into one seamless, interoperable unit for greater cohesion and effectiveness.
Banks will turn to personalized services to differentiate their offerings
We’re in the midst of a digital banking revolution in Asia. In Singapore alone, the central bank is spearheading efforts to make open banking APIs available and facilitating data portability in the interim as demonstrated in the recent launch of the Singapore Financial Data Exchange (SGFinDex). Disruptors in the financial space like the upcoming fully digital banks will raise the industry’s bar in delivering innovative financial services and threaten the longstanding dominance of traditional banks.
For incumbent players to differentiate their offerings and remain relevant, they’ll need to relook at their technological infrastructure to see how best they can cater to customers’ demands for real-time responsiveness and hyper-personalized services. Not to mention, how they can best shorten the time-to-market for new offerings to stay ahead of the game.
