The Economist (Intelligence Unit) - The Potential and The Reality (2013) by (Illyrian-King)

The potential and the reality:
The opportunities and challenges around IT adoption in Asia

An Economist Intelligence Unit report
SPONSORED BY:
The potential and the reality: The opportunities and challenges around IT adoption in Asia
Contents
Preface2
Executive summary 3
Introduction5
Perceived business value of new information technologies 6
Technology adoption in Asia 8
Cautious adoption for competitive advantage? 11
Technology in the financial services sector 12
Other industry-specific IT adoption 14
Technology leapfrogging 16
Conclusion17
Appendix: Survey results 18
© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

1
Preface
The potential and the reality: The opportunities We would like to thank the following interviewees
and challenges around IT adoption in Asia is for their time and insights (listed alphabetically
an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report, by organisation):
commissioned by SAP. The EIU conducted the
survey and interviews independently and wrote Ron Fons, global head, financial services
the report. The findings and views expressed here industries, Huawei
are those of the EIU alone.
Kathleen McQuire, infrastructure project
This report is one in a series of three—the others, manager, JP Morgan
The new planning conversation and Plan to
Achal Agarwal, president, Asia-Pacific, Kimberly-
change, change the plan, are based on the same
Clark
survey.
Arina Campbell-Pitt, senior IT executive, Li &
Ross O’Brien was the author of the report and
Fung
Sudhir Vadaketh was the editor. Tan Kane Juan
was responsible for design and layout.
Brandon Lee, chief strategy officer, NTT
Communications
Indra Utoyo, chief information officer, Telkom

Indonesia
March 2013
2 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

Executive
summary
Technology decision-makers in Asia are Among the key findings of this report are the
constantly reacting to both a dynamic technology following:
landscape and the ever-changing needs of
l C-suite executives at firms in Asia clearly
internal users and customers. Asia’s rapid
recognise the benefits of new information
economic growth, and the expectations on firms
technologies. The majority of survey
to grow quickly and profitably, make the job of
respondents believe that technologies such as
managing these pressures that much harder. In
cloud computing, data capture and analytics
addition, when making their technology adoption
(managing big data), enterprise mobility,
decisions, decision-makers must consider a
software as a service (SaaS), IT security and
wide variety of factors, including business
social media will have a positive impact on
value, alignment with corporate strategy, and
their business strategies in Asia. Almost three-
the likelihood of successful implementation.
quarters of respondents say the ability to adopt
In addition, decision-makers must ensure that
leading-edge IT solutions is critical to business
all senior executives are committed to the
performance. Moreover, close to half of all
information technology (IT) strategy.
respondents believe that most new technologies
Even when the impetus to launch new technology have made collaborative decision-making faster.
is clear, however, and the benefits to the firm l But technology adoption is held back by the
clearly articulated, the changing expectations of lack of established track records, misalignment
internal users and customers often complicate between the new technologies and current
technology selection and implementation. So, business processes, and the bewildering
how do senior executives of global firms in Asia diversity of technologies available. While
assess the value of technological change? Which the drivers for change appear obvious, and
factors promote new technology adoption and the links between technology adoption and
which ones retard it? When can firms realistically meeting business objectives are recognised, it
see results of such change in Asia’s fast-paced is striking that not even one of the six different
markets? This report, based on a survey of over technologies— cloud computing, data capture
350 C-level executives in Asia, attempts to answer and analytics (managing big data), enterprise
these questions. mobility, software as a service, IT security
and social media—has been implemented by a
majority of companies. They are primarily held
3
back by three factors: a lack of proven success and biotechnology sector; and the remainder
metrics; misalignment between current business in IT and technology; professional services;
processes and the outputs of new solutions; and chemicals; consumer goods; transportation,
the diversity of the technology landscape in the travel and tourism; retailing; automotive;
Asian markets in which they operate. logistics and distribution; telecoms; and some
other smaller sectors.
l Those who have cleared these obstacles to
adoption have done so out of necessity rather
than foresight. Respondents from the financial
services industry, for example, have responded
to the recent global crisis with investments
in IT security to protect against information
leaks; SaaS as a way to lower costs; and mobile
technologies to maintain customer loyalty
and generate more revenue. In the healthcare
sector, where cost reduction remains crucial,
respondents are looking to SaaS to reduce costs
and analytics to help them better leverage the
extensive amount of customer data available. All
this indicates that technology adoption in Asia is
still more reactive than proactive.
l Technology leaders incorporate technology
decisions early in the business planning
process. Survey respondents who consider their
firms to be “leaders” in technology adoption
see more alignment between technology and
business planning functions. They consider
two factors as important to their successful
deployments: early identification of technologies
by senior management, and the incorporation
of technology planning at the initial stages of
strategic initiatives.
About the survey:
The EIU surveyed 351 Asia-based C-level
executives. CEOs and CFOs together make up
45% of the respondents; the rest are CIOs, COOs,
CMOs, CHROs and other C-level executives. In
terms of size, 38% work at companies whose
global headcount exceeds 1,000 people. Some
28% of respondents work at firms whose global
annual revenues exceed US$1bn.
The respondents work in a broad mix of
industries—15% in manufacturing; 13% in
financial services; 9% in the energy and natural
resources sector; 9% in construction and real
estate; 9% in the healthcare, pharmaceuticals

Introduction
As decision-makers in global firms seek to expand In this context, technology decision-makers in

their businesses in this post-financial-crisis Asia are constantly reacting to both a dynamic
world, many are contending with both growth technology landscape and the ever-changing
constraints as well as opportunities. These needs of internal users and customers. Asia’s
decision-making tensions are arguably most rapid economic growth, and the expectations on
pronounced in Asia. Not only are Asian markets firms to grow quickly and profitably, make the job
collectively growing the fastest in the world, of managing these pressures that much harder. In
but there are growing ranks of senior executives addition, when making their technology adoption
in Asia who now have business development decisions, decision-makers must consider a
responsibilities defined by the stage of market wide variety of factors, including business
maturity rather than just geographies. value, alignment with corporate strategy, and
the likelihood of successful implementation.
For instance, GE, an industrial conglomerate, In addition, decision-makers must ensure that
GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical firm, and all senior executives are committed to the
IBM, a technology company, today manage all information technology (IT) strategy.
their global growth markets through a single
CEO sitting in Asia—to anchor executive teams Firms that are able to overcome these adoption
and their corresponding decision-making obstacles will position themselves well to develop
architecture to the high-growth markets and a competitive advantage in everything from
customers to whom they are responsible. product innovation to human resource strategies.

5
1 Perceived business value of new

information technologies
C-suite executives at firms in Asia clearly Asia. Almost three-quarters of respondents say
recognise the benefits of new information the ability to adopt leading-edge IT solutions is
technologies. The majority of survey respondents critical to business performance.
believe that solutions such as cloud computing,
data capture and analytics (managing big In short, receptiveness to the technology change
data), enterprise mobility, software as a service is high, as is acceptance that technology change
(SaaS), IT security and social media will have a brings with it positive change for the business as
positive impact on their business strategies in a whole (see chart A).
Chart A: To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

(% respondents)
Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 Strongly disagree 5
Senior management believes the ability

to adopt leading-edge IT solutions is 32 40 23 3 1
critical to business performance
Our firm’s ability to adopt business-relevant technology

has provided us with competitive advantage 30 33 25 9 3
Senior management can clearly see

significant trends on the IT horizon 27 42 21 91
We are usually an early adopter of the IT

solutions that matter most to our firm 23 28 30 15 5
Senior management has the ability to

determine which new IT trends will have 22 39 28 91
significant impact on our business
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

Moreover, close to half of all respondents see that the underpinnings of a decision-making process
most new technologies have made collaborative that is by nature responsive to the benefits of the
decision-making faster, thereby creating a scale and speed brought about by the enabling
virtuous cycle: enabling technologies provide technologies.

7
2 Technology adoption in Asia
Firms in Asia believe that customers and supplier. Ms Campbell-Pitt observes that end-
employees have the most influence on their user demands within the firm tend to be driven
technology adoption decisions (see chart by “I-need-an-app” reactions to the latest new
B). “These stakeholders put pressure on IT technology. Firms need to pursue these in order
environments,” according to Arina Campbell- to stay current.
Pitt, a senior IT executive with Li & Fung, a global
Chart B: What sources of information have the greatest influence on your technology adoption decisions?
(% respondents)
Great Influence 1 2 3 4 No influence 5
Customers 21 42 27 8 3
Employees 12 41 37 7 3
Business partners 12 40 32 9 7
Government/regulators 13 30 33 12 11
Suppliers 9 31 41 14 6
Professional service providers 9 35 42 12 3
Industry peers/ communities 7 34 44 12 4
Analysts 5 26 36 20 13
External consultants 5 23 39 26 7
Google/ search engines 4 22 39 26 9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Therefore, given that there is consensus in the the case for higher technology investment seems
C-suite about the perceived business value of clear. However, it is striking that not even one of
these technologies—and adoption pressure from the six different technologies— cloud computing,
stakeholders such as customers and employees— data capture and analytics (managing big

data), enterprise mobility, software as a

service, IT security and social media—has been
implemented by a majority of companies (see
chart C).
Chart C: At what stage are you in implementing a strategy to address your business challenges?
(% respondents)
Data capture and analytics (managing big data) 47 22 16 6 9
IT security 39 40 11 7 3
Software as a service (or other IT utility usage models) 33 32 15 10 9
Enterprise mobility 33 27 19 10 11
Social media technologies 21 42 17 11 9
Cloud computing 9 37 15 14 25
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fully adopted; in management and refinement stage Considering need for adoption
In process of adopting No action taken
Evaluating implementation options
There appear to be three broad adoption managed rather than made the most of. “One of
challenges for IT executives, all linked to the main directives from my CTO is to manage the
technology maturity. The first is that critical noise from our end users,” she says.
applications for many new trends have yet to
emerge. For instance, firms have for some time The second adoption challenge is that while many
been exploring multiple avenues to manage the technologies, such as big data, are known to
flow of data through mobile devices across the have a critical impact on business performance,
enterprise. “But there is still no silver bullet,” the non-technical processes have yet to catch up
says Ms Campbell-Pitt. to the technical capabilities. “Powerful tools to
manage big data exist, but if industry standards
Similarly, with regards to the latest “apps” for generating standard data do not exist, or
that employees demand, she points out that if day-to-day business decision processes do
these new apps— as they are currently used— not incorporate the regular use of the data’s
rarely help win new business; that remains the implications, it is not very easy to implement,”
purview of established technologies, such as EDI says Ms Campbell-Pitt.
(electronic data interchange), which manages
supply chain information. The resulting mindset These conditions spell an opportunity for
is that these technology options are to be technology providers that can articulate,

9
demonstrate and measure the competitive edge second and more crucial obstacle: the formation
of new technologies to such relatively receptive of isolated management silos within technology
firms. The “killer app” that technology providers departments, hindering the firm’s ability to
can offer may lie less in the technology itself achieve more effective technological change.
than in the integration of new technologies with
companies’ internal structures and processes. For all these reasons, senior management input
is critical to any IT adoption decision. “Executives
Finally, the third obstacle to seamless IT adoption want to understand the business value, and
is the sheer diversity across Asia’s technology understand the implications of technology
landscape. This has two aspects. The first is choices on that value,” says Brandon Lee, chief
the variance in available technologies across strategy officer for NTT Communications, a
countries with differing development levels. This telecommunications firm.
complicates widespread adoption across a firm’s
various locations. This in turn gives rise to a

3 Cautious adoption for competitive

advantage?
The disconnect between respondents’ When can decision-makers see results from
appreciation of technology and their actual technological change in Asia’s fast-paced
adoption reveals a profound and interconnected markets? The realistic answer is “always”—if
implication for the future of technology decision- decision-makers can be both quick to see the
making in Asia. In their low adoption rates, potential impact of new technologies, and careful
firms are exhibiting not a failure to execute, but and deliberate in their adoption.
a level of caution that can in fact be seen as a
competitive advantage in and of itself. Survey respondents who consider their firms to
be “leaders” in technology adoption perhaps
Certainly, part of the deliberation in strike the right balance here by incorporating
technology adoption is a function of the “noise technology decisions early in the business
management” described earlier, which itself is planning process. They consider two factors
informed by previous decades of occasionally as important to their successful deployments:
profligate and over-enthusiastic IT spending. But early identification of technologies by senior
in the new decision-making culture surrounding management, and the incorporation of
technology adoption, our survey respondents technology planning at the initial stages of
are showing that this caution is not informed by strategic initiatives.
pessimism so much as optimism: a desire to not
just adopt a new technology to be current but—as
almost two-thirds of our respondents indicated—
to find business-relevant IT solutions to adopt for
competitive advantage.

11
4 Technology in the financial

services sector
Given that most firms in Asia have been busy Given the pressures on banks to respond
simply keeping abreast of rapid economic growth, to challenging times, there is little time to
it appears as if many of those who have cleared implement the business process redesigns that
the obstacles to IT adoption have done so out must accompany the adoption of new enabling
of necessity rather than foresight. Consider the technology. “A bank that creates new products
financial services sector in the wake of the global doesn’t necessarily always relate them to
financial crisis. The post-crisis fallout, including applications,” observes Ron Fons, global head
tighter budgets, weaker consumer demand and of financial services industries at Huawei, an
more onerous regulations, is largely behind the information and communications technology
string of rapid technology adaptations in the firm. He does, however, expect two different
sector. pressures—the need to increase operational
efficiency and the need to address the desires
In general, financial service industry respondents of internal and external end users—to drive
did not report very different technology adoption tremendous change in the retail banking
rates compared to the survey average (see chart industry.
D). But in two areas the sector is a clear leader.
The first is SaaS—utility application models that The banks’ experience typifies this sometimes
allow users to pay for IT functionality as and clumsy, reactive discovery process, where firms
when they use it. This can relieve pressure on IT appreciate technology’s potential but do not
budgets. know how to maximise it. In cloud computing,
for example, the limiting factor for firms may
The second is IT security. Over half of finance not be costs per se, but the scalability of the
respondents indicated that they have fully technology—the cloud stores massive historical
adopted IT security technologies—as opposed to databases that require the right tools and
less than 40% of all respondents—and another processes to monetise.
quarter are in the process of adopting. This is
undoubtedly part of a long-term effort given
the clear and understandable sensitivities in the
industry. In the years ahead, increased mobile
access to banking services and networks will
further boost adoption.

Chart D: Technologies that are fully adopted
(% of sector respondents)
50
57
Data capture and analytics 43
65
64
41
53
IT security 52
34
30
24
47
Software as a service 42
50
30
28
30
Enterprise mobility 35
50
42
11
30
Social media technologies 24
22
24
9
3
Cloud computing 9
6
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Manufacturing Energy and natural resources

Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology Construction and real estate
Financial services

13
5 Other industry-specific IT adoption
Firms in Asia do face common internal and social media technology, with roughly a quarter
external pressures. The need to expand into new of respondents having adopted it, and over half
markets quickly is a common business imperative in the process of doing so.
across all industries, and while respondents in
the financial services sector may be relatively The adoption of other technologies is more
more concerned with improving profitability, directly matched to tactical aims: cloud
improving business performance and efficiency is computing infrastructure as a response to
a universal concern. So too are the technologies lowering operational costs, or enterprise
employed to address them. For instance, mobility as a tool to enable swift entry into new
respondents from all industries generally agree markets.
that data capture and analytics is the most useful
In some ways, social media represents the front
technology response to business challenges and
line of early adoption for enterprise technology.
strategic initiatives. (see chart E).
Whereas end users appreciate its immediacy,
However, the survey findings show that industry firms find it challenging to articulate exactly
dynamics do also influence technology adoption. how social media can help achieve business
Like in the finance sector, respondents in objectives. “Every worker in every industry finds
healthcare show a higher-than-average adoption social media useful in their lives, but enterprises
of SaaS and IT security. In addition, reflecting the are still struggling to make it business relevant,”
R&D- and customer data-intensive nature of their says Ms Campbell-Pitt at Li & Fung.
industry, healthcare respondents are much more
This link is more easily made for those firms in
on board with data capture and analytics—some
consumer businesses in Asia: “Social media is
57% percent of healthcare industry respondents
one of the most powerful ways to discover what is
indicated that they have fully adopted a big data
relevant to our customers,” says Achal Agarwal,
programme, as compared to 47% of the general
president of Asia-Pacific at Kimberly-Clark, a
survey population.
personal care company. In reference to Huggies,
Meanwhile, respondents in the construction and one of his firm’s popular diaper brands, Mr
real estate sector exhibit higher adoption rates Agarwal cites Kimberly-Clark’s ability to manage
for all technologies, particularly those related to customer relationships through a social media
big data. They are also more enthusiastic about community—known as the “Huggies Club”—as

crucial in expanding its sales presence across Chart E: How companies are using Big Data technologies
the region. For instance, the company has seen
its e-commerce business in Korea grow from (% of sector respondents)
less than 20% of sales to more than 60% in the 38

52
last four years. “In Australia, almost every new Increasing local content in 13
product/design/R&D processes 40
mum in the country is on Facebook—and in the 26
Huggies Club,” he says. 52

38
Creating new products/services 30
On a related note, some survey respondents, 53
31
particularly those in the healthcare industry,
feel that social media can be used as a tool to 36
53
overcome the pressing challenge of insufficient Reducing operational costs 26
33
customer data. Volumes of freely-given customer 46
data may have a downside, however. Bad

42
customer impressions can quickly affect a firm’s 47
Revising/creating new 35
reputation. “You have to be prepared for negative customer segments 57
46
feedback, and be prepared to get engaged in
the conversation in order to mitigate it,” says Mr 45
56
Agarwal. Improving profitability 43
50
48
The implication for all business leaders is that
45
by opening up the enterprise to more informal 41
Building new production facilities 15
customer data, they expose the firm to deeper 40
market insight. Despite this, actual commitment 19
from respondents to adopting social media 42

50
solutions is still low. There are two possible Entering new markets 30
explanations for this. First, unlike additional 35

43
investments in security or SaaS, there is rarely

33
a clear external pressure or an obvious and 22
Staff shortages 13
immediate cost saving associated with a social 30
media platform. Second, unlike formal data 24
analytic platforms, social media tools are not 30

34
as “business-ready”—they are built to capture Rising labour costs 17
30
informal unstructured data, and still used 31
primarily as consumer applications. Thus, the
insights they generate are difficult to adopt in 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
business decision-making structures, and their Construction and real estate Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology
business value still hard to define. Energy and natural resources

Financial services
Manufacturing

15
6 Technology leapfrogging
IT industry observers have long championed technology enthusiasm. “Outside of China, no

the notion that companies and consumers in one has any money to invest!” she suggests.
emerging markets could bypass generations of Ms MacQuire notes that as China continues to
technology because their late development left be one of the world’s fastest growing markets,
them unencumbered by the legacy networks and domestic companies have the necessary capital
systems of more advanced economies. The survey and big aspirations—the means and the will—to
results do suggest a greater willingness to adopt invest in new technologies to increase their
new technologies in emerging markets. global competitiveness. Meanwhile, she says that
multinationals in China need to demonstrate to
For instance, China-based survey respondents shareholders that they have a China growth plan.
indicate much higher rates of adoption for cloud
computing and social networking. A quarter of Meanwhile, Indra Utoyo, the chief information
Chinese respondents say they are using cloud officer at Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest
computing technologies in the building of new telecommunications firm, explains that a lack
production facilities (compared to an overall of fixed broadband infrastructure has made
average of 11%). Meanwhile, 43% of them have Internet access in Indonesia largely a mobile
adopted social media technologies to create new experience for both consumers and businesses.
products and services (compared to an overall “This means that enterprise technology decision-
average of 26%). makers are better able to take advantage of
mobile enterprise strategies, and more willing to
Kathleen McQuire, an infrastructure project jump to BYOD (bring your own device), or cloud
manager with JP Morgan, an investment solutions,” she says.
bank, has a pragmatic explanation for China’s

Conclusion
Our research reveals that while senior executives cloud computing and data analytics, that have
are convinced that leadership in technology been around in some form for some time. Second,
adoption translates into leadership in their while many technologies, such as big data, are
markets, they have yet to show particularly known to have a critical impact on business
strong levels of take-up for the newer technology performance, the non-technical processes have
solutions that are on the IT frontier. Moreover, yet to catch up with the technical capabilities.
respondents across all sectors clearly appreciate Third, the diversity of the technology landscape
the impact that these newer technology tools and in the Asian markets may result at best in
processes could have on their business planning complex integration projects across economies
processes, in that they see technology’s potential with differing technology levels; and at worst
to address key operational and environmental in stridently independent IT silos, without solid
challenges. However, only a minority of firms are governance from the firm’s strategic decision-
actually reaping these benefits now. making centre.
There are several reasons for this. The first is The answer to this adoption conundrum,
that critical applications for many new trends according to our survey respondents, is to ensure
have yet to emerge. Partly as a result, senior that a technology strategy is not only understood
executives of global firms in Asia are still not able and committed to by the firm’s most senior
to measure the success of technological change leaders, but also integrated at the very beginning
for “unproven” concepts, even those, such as of the business planning process.

17
Appendix:
Survey results
Note: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding or the ability of respondents to
choose multiple responses
In which country are you personally located?

(% respondents)
18
India
16
Australia
11
China
11
Singapore
8
Hong Kong
7
Japan
7
Malaysia
7
South Korea
5
Philippines
4
Indonesia
3
Thailand
Vietnam 3
Taiwan 2

What is your primary industry?

(% respondents)
Manufacturing 15
Financial services 13
Construction and real estate 9
Energy and natural resources 9
Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology 9
IT and technology 8
Professional services 8
Chemicals 6
Consumer goods 5
Transportation, travel and tourism 4
Retailing 3
Automotive 2
Entertainment, media and publishing 2
Agriculture and agribusiness 1
Education 1
Logistics and distribution 1
Government/Public sector 1
Telecoms 1
Aerospace and defence 1
How many people work at your organisation?

(% respondents)
1-10 6
11-50 9
51-100 8
101-200 12
201-500 12
501-1,000 14
1,001-10,000 27
Over 10,000 11

19
What are your organisation’s global annual revenues in US dollars?

(% respondents)
$500m or less 47
$500m to $1bn 25
$1bn to $5bn 18
$5bn to $10bn 3
$10bn or more 7
Which of the following best describes your title?

(% respondents)
CEO/President/Managing director, or equivalent 26
CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller, or equivalent 19
COO/Head of operations, or equivalent 15
CMO/Marketing director, or equivalent 12
CIO/Technology director, or equivalent 11
CHRO/HR director, or equivalent 9
Other C-level executive 8
1. Are the following operational challenges keeping you awake at night?

(% respondents)
Staff shortages 53 47
Rising labour costs 49 51
Insufficient market/customer data 41 59
Working capital/getting paid 41 59
Legal/regulatory uncertainty 38 62
Property prices/ rents 35 65
Intellectual property theft 34 66
Infrastructure deficits 30 70
Labour unrest 17 83

2. Is your company undertaking the following strategic initiatives in Asia?

(% respondents)
Improving profitability 82 18
Entering new markets 74 26
Reducing operational costs 72 28
Creating new products/services 72 28
Revising/creating new customer segments 71 29
Increasing local content in product/design/R&D processes 56 44
Building new production facilities 51 49
Reducing capital expenditure 46 54
Other, please specify 12 88
3a. For each of the concerns you’ve identified, please indicate if any of the following technologies
are being adopted to address the challenge. Please tick all that apply.
(% respondents)
44
26
Improving profitability 28
22
17
22
42
19
Revising/creating new 22
customer segments 18
28
15
37
21
Creating new 23
products/services 18
26
17
36
23
Entering new markets 20
15
27
16
Data capture and analytics
34 Enterprise mobility
26
Reducing 27
Software as a service
operational costs 16 Enhancing IT security
15
Social media technologies
22
Cloud computing
29
Increasing local 17
content in product 20
19
/design/R&D processes 17
15
26
17
Building new 18
production facilities 18
11
11
25
11
Insufficient market/ 9
customer data 7
15
6
23
18
Staff shortages 15
12
15
10

21
22
18
16
Rising labour costs
15
10
10
20
17
17
Reducing capital expenditure
11
10
15
17
13
12
Working capital/getting paid
10
6
11
14
6
8
Legal/regulatory uncertainty 11 Data capture and analytics
8
Enterprise mobility
5
13 Enhancing IT security
8 Social media technologies
10
Infrastructure deficits 9
Cloud computing
5
6
11
10
7
Property prices/ rents 7
5
9
11
7
7
Intellectual property theft
24
8
8
8
6
5
Labour unrest
6
5
4
0
4. Please rate the following technology Critical Impact 1 2 3 4 No impact 5
adoption issues in terms of their impact on 26

41
your business strategy in Asia. Rate on a scale Data capture and analytics 19
9
of 1 to 5, where 1 = Critical impact and 5 = No 5
impact. (% respondents) 25
37
IT security 24
10
4
16
36
14
7
15
38
13
6
11
31
15
9
12
21
Cloud computing 32
16
19

5. At what stage are you in implementing a strategy to address your business challenges?
(% respondents)
Data capture and analytics (managing big data) 47 22 16 6 9
IT security 39 40 11 7 3
Software as a service (or other IT utility usage models) 33 32 15 10 9
Enterprise mobility 33 27 19 10 11
Social media technologies 21 42 17 11 9
Cloud computing 9 37 15 14 25
Fully adopted; in management and refinement stage Considering need for adoption
In process of adopting No action taken
Evaluating implementation options
6. How has implementing these technologies changed the perception of IT within the
organisation? Rate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = Strong positive impact and 5 = Strong negative
impact. (% respondents)
Strong positive impact 1 2 3 4 Strong negative impact 5 Have yet to implement
20
39
29
IT security 4
0
8
21
39
24
Data capture and analytics 1
1
14
14
34
28
1
19
13
30
31
1
22
10
36
27
1
21
13
26
21
Cloud computing 2
1
38

23
7. When your company evaluates technology adoption, are strategic objectives or financial/
budgetary considerations more important? (% respondents)
Strategic and budgetary

considerations are 61
equally important
Strategic objectives
22
are more important
Budgetary considerations
17
are more important
8. Which statement best describes your company’s position relative to your industry peers in
terms of technology adoption?(% respondents)
We are on par with

the industry average 52
We are an
industry leader 31
We are lagging
16
our industry peers
Don’t know 1
1
9. Which statement best describes the role of your CIO in decisions regarding business strategy?
(% respondents)
CIO is actively involved in the planning
stages of all firm-wide strategic initiatives,
and makes technology decisions based
33
primarily on the firm’s strategic direction
CIO makes technology decisions based
primarily on the firm’s operational 33
requirements, and/or budgetary parameters
CIO takes direction on technology

implementation primarily from the CEO
25
CIO takes direction on technology

implementation primarily from the CFO
8

10. Which statement best describes the role of your CIO in your IT decisions?
(% respondents)
CIO is involved with big

enterprise IT decisions
but not individual software 27
or IT service discussions
CIO is involved with any
27
software or IT service decision
CIO is actively involved in
the day-to-day operations 23
of the IT department
CIO’s role is purely strategic:
interacting with other CXOs 23
and communicating firm’s
overall strategy with
direct report
11. Which statement best describes the role of your CEO in decisions regarding the adoption of
technology? (% respondents)
CEO is actively involved

in evaluating options based 36
on strategic objectives
CEO is involved in evaluating
options based on operating 23
needs of the company
CEO relies on the
20
advice of the CIO
CEO is involved in evaluating
options based on budgetary 12
constraints.
CEO relies on the 9
advice of the CFO
12. Within your company, what degree of influence do the following functional roles have on
technology adoption decisions? (% respondents)
Ultimate decision maker

Strong influence
Some influence
No influence
CEO 61 27 11 1
CIO/CTO 26 65 81
CFO 19 56 20 5
2 2
IT specialist 40 49 9
Relevant
3 36 49 12
business head

25
13. What sources of information have the greatest influence on your technology adoption
decisions? Rate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = Great influence and 5 = No influence.
(% respondents)
57 Great Influence 1 2 3 4 No influence 5
51
Customers 21 42 27 8 3
Employees 12 41 37 7 3
45
Business partners 12 40 32 9 7
42 Government/regulators 13 30 33 12 11
8
Suppliers 9 31 41 14 6
Professional service providers 9 35 42 12 3
Industry peers/ communities 7 34 44 12 4
Analysts 5 26 36 20 13
External consultants 5 23 39 26 7
Google/ search engines 4 22 39 26 9

36 48 60
14. What methods do you use to capture stakeholder feedback? Select all that apply.
(% respondents)
Regularly scheduled discussions 57
Business intelligence/enterprise planning systems 51
Informal methods (eg, conversations) 45
Point-of-sale/touchpoint feedback collection 42
Trendwatching/market intelligence gathering 38
Social media 34
Commissioned user experience surveys 34
Other, please specify

1 1

15. Which of the following technology adoption issues are of most concern to your external
stakeholders? Select up to three. (% respondents)
Data capture and analytics
56
(managing big data)
IT security 47
36
(or other IT utility usage models)
Cloud computing 27
16. What impact have the following technologies...

(% respondents)
Moved decision-making capabilities down Made collaborative decision-making faster
the corporate hierarchy; front-line empowerment
Increased pressure on managers to respond instantly Have yet to implement
33
50
56 Data capture and analytics
52
15
32
44
IT security
50
13
27
44
42
22
26
44
60 Enterprise mobility
43
24
24
42
Social media technologies
42
27
21
28
Cloud computing
31
44

27
0
17. Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between technology trends
and ongoing strategic planning? (% respondents)
Technology decisions are
formulated as a result of our 43
overall business strategy process
Technology adoption decisions
are evaluated concurrently with 35
larger business strategy decisions
Technology decisions are
largely financially driven 15
and unconnected to core
business strategy
Our technology decisions
7
are reactive to external pressures
18. At what stage of the following types of specific business strategy initiatives is the technology
planning team brought in? (% respondents)
Initial project commissioning
Project specification and design
After project kick-off
Process redesign or
46 38 16
efficiency drive
Addressing/refining 41 39 20
customer experience
New product design 38 35 27
Revising key enterprise
32 40 27
performance metrics
19. To what extent do you agree with the following statements? Rate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 =
Strongly agree and 5 = Strongly disagree. (% respondents)
Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 Strongly disagree 5
Senior management believes the ability

to adopt leading-edge IT solutions is 32 40 23 3 1
critical to business performance
Our firm’s ability to adopt business-relevant technology

has provided us with competitive advantage 30 33 25 9 3
Senior management can clearly see

significant trends on the IT horizon 27 42 21 91
We are usually an early adopter of the IT

solutions that matter most to our firm 23 28 30 15 5
Senior management has the ability to

determine which new IT trends will have 22 29 28 91
significant impact on our business

While every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy
of this information, neither The Economist Intelligence
Unit Ltd. nor the sponsor of this report can accept any
responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on
this white paper or any of the information, opinions or
conclusions set out in this white paper.
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United Kingdom
Tel: (44.20) 7576 8000
Fax: (44.20) 7576 8500
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The potential and the reality:

The opportunities and challenges around IT adoption in Asia

Perceived business value of new information technologies  6

Technology adoption in Asia 8

Cautious adoption for competitive advantage? 11

Technology in the financial services sector 12

Other industry-specific IT adoption 14

Appendix: Survey results 18

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

Indra Utoyo, chief information officer, Telkom

2 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

4 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

As decision-makers in global firms seek to expand In this context, technology decision-makers in

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

1 Perceived business value of new

Chart A: To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 Strongly disagree 5

Senior management believes the ability

Our firm’s ability to adopt business-relevant technology

Senior management can clearly see

We are usually an early adopter of the IT

Senior management has the ability to

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

6 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

2 Technology adoption in Asia

Professional service providers 9 35 42 12 3

Industry peers/ communities 7 34 44 12 4

Google/ search engines 4 22 39 26 9

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

8 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

data), enterprise mobility, software as a

Data capture and analytics (managing big data) 47 22 16 6 9

Software as a service (or other IT utility usage models) 33 32 15 10 9

Social media technologies 21 42 17 11 9

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

10 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

3 Cautious adoption for competitive

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

4 Technology in the financial

12 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

Chart D: Technologies that are fully adopted

Manufacturing Energy and natural resources

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

5 Other industry-specific IT adoption

14 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

less than 20% of sales to more than 60% in the 38

Huggies Club,” he says. 52

data may have a downside, however. Bad

from respondents to adopting social media 42

explanations for this. First, unlike additional 35

investments in security or SaaS, there is rarely

analytic platforms, social media tools are not 30

business value still hard to define. Energy and natural resources

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013

IT industry observers have long championed technology enthusiasm. “Outside of China, no

Perceived business value of new information technologies 6

Technology adoption in Asia 8

Cautious adoption for competitive advantage? 11

Technology in the financial services sector 12

Other industry-specific IT adoption 14

Appendix: Survey results 18