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Demonstrating IT value tops CIO concerns in '06

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CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

Here are some of the its Forecasts



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1. Top Concerns of Asia Pacific CIOs: Demonstrated IT Value Tops the List

According to XMG, the top concerns of IT executives heading into 2006 are:

  • Measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of IT investments.
  • Instituting corporate governance effectively.
  • Reducing total IT spend on RTB (running the business) to increase

    technology and services support for new business models.
  • Deploying enterprise information integration projects, primarily customer

    data integration.
  • Enhancing business continuity and optimizing disaster recovery.
  • Investing in human capital management retention programs.
  • Upgrading ERPs mainly driven by enabling web-services in support of

    inter-enterprise integration.
  • Server consolidation.
  • Improving service levels and overall value from outsourcing partners or

    managed services providers.
  • Facilitating agreement and direction from end-clients and IT stakeholders

    to evolve a Service-Oriented Architecture.
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2. Peer Advisory Will Continue to Dominate in IT Decision Making

Peer advisory will continue to be the basis for decision making of Asia

Pacific IT executives with a slight increase in the focus and adoption of best

practices with a bottom-line focus. Vendors will continually try to influence

investment decisions through proof of concepts, internally developed value

calculators, events and the media with lack of noticeable returns.

3. Outsourcing Will Lose Shine; Internally Managed Offshore Captives Will

Glow

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As a number of multi-year deals are up for renewal globally, outsourcing will

lose its luster as organizations take back certain IT functions, selectively

outsource, or setup their own remote operations. With heightened awareness of

the capabilities of Asia Pacific countries and the increasing internal tolerance

for risks in operating offshore, several organizations that have previously

outsourced multi-year contracts with an offshore component will setup its own

remote operations offshore to support its internal business process and IT

requirements.

4. Mobile Subscriber Base Will Increase as the Mobile Phone Becomes More

Than Just a Telecommunication Device

More Asia Pacific consumers, who would otherwise not subscribe to mobile

telecommunication services, will increasingly spend money on mobile phones and

mobile subscription services. Innovations in mobile applications development,

integration with other electronic media and data distribution systems (such as

with broadcast and banking services) and vast improvements in data security,

particularly with the new Advanced Encryption Standard (called Rijndael), will

be driving the entry into these new markets. Applications that will ensure a

smooth flow of streaming media content, or that will shorten the download time

of broadcasted materials, will soon find their way in the next generation of

handsets.

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5. Online Games Will Overtake Revenues of Movies

Online gaming revenues (including revenues from internet games, online

console games, online PC games, and online mobile games) have been increasing

between 35% and 50% for the last two years and is expected to grow well into

2009. Much of this growth is driven by the emerging convergence of

interactivity, mobility and connectivity in the online gaming realm — an

experience that is limiting from the viewpoint of purely PC- and console-based

gaming. As the lifestyle of the modern “wired” consumer increasingly becomes

mobile and thirsty for more involving entertainment experiences, the online

gaming environment will slowly overtake all other forms of electronic

entertainment.

6. US Is Still Primary Market for Medical Transcription Services in Asia

Pacific

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The unique regulatory regime for healthcare in the US (HIPAA) makes it the

dominant source of global demand for outsourced medical transcription services.

Majority of the demand will increasingly be outsourced to offshore destinations

in Asia such as India and the Philippines, but to an increasingly smaller group

of high-quality service providers. With healthcare increasingly becoming a

concern for the aging population of the continental US, the demand for

transcribing patient care records into electronic format for greater record

integrity and accessibility will drive continuous growth in 2006 and in the

coming years. Global revenues on outsourced medical transcription services in

2005 is already estimated to be at $2.2 Billion with the US market accounting

for more than 85% of global demand. Concerns over data security will keep

sourcing to few countries with business operations that are certified by ISO

17799.

7. Regulatory Setting for VoIP Will Continually Evolve

VoIP will continually make astonishing traction in both the consumer and

enterprise space in 2006. Consequently, the regulatory setting in each Asia

Pacific country will evolve and several carrier models for VoIP will emerge.

Although most Asia Pacific countries will consider VoIP as an information

service and/or value-add service over the Internet, organizations adopting

enterprise VoIP spanning multiple countries should conduct a legal review on a

per country basis of the laws affecting their VoIP implementation.

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8. Integration of Service Delivery as Business Strategic Outsourcing

Unfolds

As strategic outsourcing clients seek more value and innovation, service

providers will continually streamline service delivery models to integrate and

manage business processes across client organizations such as the integration of

the customer call center and back-office BPO enhanced with IT application

capabilities and support. As this trend continues, the line between domestic and

offshore delivery will gradually disappear as well. In Asia Pacific, service

providers such as Accenture and IBM will compete for the top spots and will be

in a position to offer gain sharing pricing methods. HP will see some success.

EDS will be the laggard.

9. Business Intelligence (BI) Resurgence but Proceed with Caution

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Interests in business intelligence will see resurgence in Asia Pacific by

25%, despite a staggering 12% of BI tools purchased are either not deployed or

underutilized. BI has consistently been one of the top five priorities in the

mind of every IT executive for the last four years and therefore the ongoing

interest is of no surprise. Continuing interests will be driven by the allure of

intuitive reporting features, streamlined navigation, better search features and

vendor bundling. Savvy IT leaders will look beyond these technology improvements

and focus on BI standards first to increase consistency, encourage usability and

reduce cost in enterprise reporting, ad hoc reporting, OLAP and business

performance management.

10. Rising Technology-enabled Commerce and Service Oriented Architecture

'Service oriented architecture' (SOA) will become the operative term

amongst forward thinking IT executives entrusted by their business colleagues to

implement technology-enabled commerce. The uptake for technology-enabled

commerce in Asia Pacific will continually see growth upwards to 25% heading into

2006. Data integration technologies such as ETL and EAI will converge as

intermediaries to SOA and must be architected as such.

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