Digitalization for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Beyond 2021: Shifting to the Cloud and Other Digital-First Priorities

Digitalization for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Beyond 2021: Shifting to the Cloud and Other Digital-First Priorities

Organizations across the globe have been adversely altered by the pandemic. Unfortunately, Asia/Pacific small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), particularly those in emerging countries, have been among the hardest hit because of their vulnerabilities. Given that they take up almost 90% of the region's businesses and roughly 60% of the workforce, their prolonged woes and troubles have translated into recessions. Prior to the pandemic, many SMBs already knew the value of digitalization but were only looking into how to use different technologies in different areas of the business. There was no sense of urgency from their end. Instead of viewing digitalization as an investment, SMBs perceived it as an added expense. Now more than ever, SMBs are accelerating their digitalization journeys to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving landscape. This IDC Perspective outlines Asia/Pacific SMBs' most affected areas in terms of the impact of the pandemic, the role of digitalization in their road to recovery, and their top investment areas to build resilience for a digital-first world. According to IDC's research, hardware investments were among the top technology priorities for SMBs. Now, this is no longer the case. IDC predicts that by 2024, 30% of SMBs will have adopted public cloud platforms for some aspect of their technology architecture, with the digitally determined ones deepening their public cloud platform adoption the most."With the emergence of a digital-first world, Asia/Pacific SMBs must drive their businesses forward by maximizing their resources and examining how particular platforms can add the most value to their respective ecosystems. In this regard, they must evaluate how the cloud and other key digital investments can help them accomplish their business objectives and positively affect their bottom-line," says Daniel-Zoe Jimenez, associate VP, IDC Asia/Pacific.

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