What’s to come next year? According to IDC’s 2021 predictions, more massive growth in digital transformation investment and IT, and a pivotal role for CIOs in economic recovery.
Every year, the leading DX market research firm releases its series of FutureScape reports, which, according to IDC, “are used to shape IT strategy and planning for the enterprise by providing a basic framework for evaluating IT initiatives in terms of their value to business strategy now and in the foreseeable future.”
Let’s look at the highlights for three of the IDC FutureScape reports for 2021:
Digital Transformation Predictions
As we’ve firmly established, the global COVID-19 pandemic has largely accelerated DX efforts.
According to IDC’s report, “direct digital transformation (DX) investment is still growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.5% from 2020 to 2023.” It’s expected that investment will approach $6.8 trillion, as a result of companies quickly modifying their existing strategies in an effort to prioritize digital-first.
“Organizations with new digital business models at their core that are successfully executing their enterprise-wide strategies on digital platforms are well-positioned for continued success in the digital platform economy,” explains Shawn Fitzgerald, research director, Worldwide Digital Transformation Strategies.
“Our 2021 digital transformation predictions represent areas of notable opportunity to differentiate your own digital transformation strategic efforts.”
IDC has also revealed their top 10 DX predictions. The top three are:
- Accelerated DX Investments Create Economic Gravity: “The economy remains on course to its digital destiny with 65% of global GDP digitized by 2022.”
- Digital Organization Structures and Roadmaps Mature: “By 2023, 75% of organizations will have comprehensive digital transformation (DX) implementation roadmaps, up from 27% today, resulting in true transformation across all facets of business and society.”
- Digital Management Systems Mature: “By 2023, 60% of leaders in G2000 organizations will have shifted their management orientation from processes to outcomes, establishing more agile, innovative, and empathetic operating models.”
Read the full list here.
IT Predictions
When looking at IDC’s IT predictions for 2021, the firm explains that “to succeed in this period of change, CIOs and digitally driven C-suites need to focus on three areas over the next five years.”
First, they need to address gaps within IT that emerged in the immediate response to the pandemic. Up next, is making sure that accelerated IT and DX efforts are “locked in.”
Finally, and as IDC says, most importantly, “they must seek opportunities to leverage new technologies to take advantage of competitive/industry disruptions and extend capabilities for business acceleration in the Next Normal.”
While COVID has shown that organizations can — and for the most part, did — respond and adapt quickly, to do so is a marker of future success in the digital economy, explained IDC Group Vice President for Worldwide Research, Rick Villars.
“A large percentage of a future enterprise’s revenue depends upon the responsiveness, scalability, and resiliency of its infrastructure, applications, and data resources.”
IDC again released a top 10 list of predictions for this category. The top three are:
- The acceleration of the shift to cloud-centric infrastructure
- The increasing importance of the edge
- “The Intelligent Digital Workspace”
Read the full list here.
CIO Agenda predictions
The pandemic has caused many business leaders to rethink their entire organizational structure and workflow.
CIOs have faced many challenges this year — given the speed of digitization for most businesses — and they’ll need to be in the front seat of the upcoming recovery efforts as well, IDC reports.
“In a time of turbulence and uncertainty, CIOs and senior IT leaders must discern how IT will enable the future growth and success of their enterprise while ensuring its resilience,” said Serge Findling, vice president of Research for IDC’s IT Executive Programs.
IDC’s list of predictions starts with these three at the top:
- “By 2022, 65% of CIOs will digitally empower and enable front-line workers with data, AI, and security to extend their productivity, adaptability, and decision-making in the face of rapid changes.”
- Cyber attacks, trade wars, and a shaky economy will mean CIO struggle to adapt. IDC predicts that 30% of CIOs will not be able to protect trust.
- The accumulation of technical debt accumulated during the pandemic will cause “financial stress, inertial drag on IT agility, and “forced march” migrations to the cloud.”
Read the full list here.
