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As outlined in the previous article in this series, digital transformation is not optional for enterprises across South-East Asia. Nearly two thirds of enterprises have significantly accelerated transformation activities through the COVID-19 pandemic, and roughly the same percentage are planning on continue to do so into the future.
This is the second article in a series that highlights how Telstra, in collaboration with other leading enterprises across Asia-Pacific, is assisting partners and their customers in achieving the potential of digital transformation. Read part one here or read part three here.
As IDC research shows, Asia-Pacific spending on IT will reach $1.1 trillion by 2025. This is being driven by the “digital shift across industries”, IDC reports, with enterprises revisiting and upgrading their entire business plans to accommodate the rapid shifts running through society.
"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," Mario Allen Clement, Senior Market Analyst, IT Spending Guide, IDC Asia/Pacific, said in a statement. "Innovative products and customer satisfaction will be key to continued operations," he added.
One of the biggest challenges that these shifts will cause organisations – and something that they will be looking to their channel partners to address – is the challenge of scale.
What does scalability mean?
It’s difficult to measure the ROI of digital transformation activities, however, successful transformation will generally deliver to the enterprise the following benefits:
- An increase in sales, as a result of an influx of new customers, better customer retention, and improved customer satisfaction.
- Improved processes internationally and with regards to the customer experience.
- Improved quality, as a result of better productivity and efficiency, as well as greater precision in processes.
What this means for the enterprise, however, is accelerating pools of data, deeper engagement with customers in digital fields, and more rapidly bringing new products to market. As McKinsey research shows, transformation to the customer experience alone can result in a 15-20 per cent increase in sales conversion rates, and a 20 to 50 per cent decline in services costs.
Partners, with their deep knowledge and reach into businesses, are the best-placed to have the strategic conversations that are necessary to address challenges of scalability and properly assist their customers with transforming the customer experience.
For these partners, delivering this kind of scalability to their clients relies on their ability to find the right solutions, backed by enterprise-class technology that can deliver reliability, security, and flexibility. “Scalability is important especially in a climate of uncertainty. It is important to be able to flexibly meet changing demands quickly and pivot to avoid service and business disruptions,” Telstra Regional Head of Indirect Channels, Johnny Tan, said.
To this end, Telstra has developed a large network of partnerships with leading vendors that understand the challenge in scalability. Telstra channel partners can bring to their customers, solutions that involve Cisco, Equinix, Genesys, Microsoft and VMware technology, which Telstra promotes as a “one-stop shop” for both transformation and subsequent scalability.
Scalability in action
An example of a technology partnership where scalability is at the core, is the Telstra Equinix Alliance in Asia. This Telstra ecosystem and Platform Equinix Architecture is deployed across 38 markets globally, allowing channel organisations to provide network and technology products and services to such markets for their enterprise customers and bringing them along the cloud and digital transformation journey.
Thought this, combined with Telstra’s other services, channel partners will be able to continually engage their customers with holistic solutions from the one source.
The initial value proposition of the cloud – and why it was such a driver for transformation early in the COVID-19 response strategy for enterprises – is that it allowed organisations to continue operating with a remote workforce. It wasn’t long before CIOs and other IT leaders realised that there was competitive opportunity in there, to start to look towards AI, the edge, IoT and other transformative technologies – what McKinsey has termed a “$1 trillion opportunity.”
The challenge that CIOs have faced in delivering this has generally been one of scale, and being able to operate an efficient, agile business that consumes on demand. This requires a re-think in how the very foundations of IT operated. For channel partners this has been an opportunity, as their expertise and ability to bring together solutions has been core to delivering the ongoing transformation that their customers have required.
