Feb10 18

IDC Financial Insights' AFS Congress returns with a stellar line up of speakers from the FSI industry Posted by: Li-May Chew in A.F.S. @ 3:05 PM Tags: financial services, afs congress

Li-May Chew

On February 25-26, as many as 500 financial industry practitioners across the region are expected to converge in Singapore for the 6th Asian Financial Services (AFS) Congress.  This year's  Congress, which takes on the theme "Prescriptions for the Upturn - What Next?", is based around lessons learned from the recent financial crisis and how banks should set themselves up for the return of less turbulent times.

Hot topics that will be featured in the Congress include: where value can be build in the period of uncertainty; how Asia's institutions should create and rebuild their franchise; what technology investments have been pushed to the top of the agenda; and, where the opportunities for business transformation and operational innovation lie.

Here are a selection of presentations lined-up for the AFS Congress:

Weathering the Perfect Storm: Sustaining Growth During Market Turmoil
by Ray Ferguson, Regional CEO, Singapore and SEA, Standard Chartered Bank
The financial tsunami has resulted in the decline of revenue or even the failure of some institutions worldwide. While some may have failed, others are showing signs of turnaround. How do you sustain growth during the crisis and more importantly, gear your processes and resources to capitalize on the recovery? Standard Chartered Bank will share the lessons learnt from the financial crisis and how they managed to perform well during the turbulent period.

Tomorrow's Retail Bank: A Path of Transformation
by Michael Lor, Group CEO, EON Bank Group
Amid the financial crisis and dip in global consumer spending, Asia remains profitable and offers an avenue for growth. How can financial institutions leverage on the opportunities presented during this crisis? EON Bank will be sharing their journey of transformation and insights on the potential pitfalls.

The Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for Asia/Pacific Banks in 2010 - Investing for the Comeback
by IDC Financial Insights' regional team of analysts
This session highlights the business and technology issues that will be relevant to the recovery of Asia/Pacific's financial institutions, and how these priorities bear on the plans of technology providers that serve the banking industry.

At the break-out sessions, hear from other industry thought-leaders as they share their views on:

This is definitely an event not to be missed for executives in the  financial services industry.

For a full description of the agenda and speakers, you can visit AFS Congress 2010 or register here

I look forward to see you there!

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Feb10 08

Improving Productivity: The Challenge for Asia Pacific Posted by: Christopher Holmes in MI Blog @ 5:42 PM Tags: manufacturing, manufacturers, asia/pacific, supply chain, videoconference, plm, engineering

Christopher Holmes

I have been traveling around the region over the last few weeks, spending time in Japan, Australia and Singapore. A common thread of discussion that keeps coming up is how to improve productivity. In Singapore's case, there is the need to see the next wave of growth coming from putting focus on improving the productivity of the workforce, rather than importing workers. In Australia and Japan, the focus is on the need to deal with the ageing workforce.

The key question is: how? Obviously technology is going to play a crucial part. Examples being cited include the use of mobile technologies to improve responsiveness. The use of PDAs in restaurants to speed up service byremotely transmitting the diners' orders to the kitchen, and to the cashier. For manufacturing, we will see a far greater emphasis on moving towards automation of the production line. Other tasks we will see getting automated include product tracking, either through barcode or RFID tags, the use of sensors in production machines to give feedback as to what is happening, reducing the number of operators required. We are also seeing this come to the fore in the product development space where companies are seeking to ensure that engineers spend their time engineering instead of doing administration. The use of videoconferencing is another technology that will find its place as managers seek to reduce the need to travel, in turn improving their productivity by being able to connect face-to-face with customers, partners and suppliers with minimal difficulty.

The key focus will be to ensure that people are used productively; the automation of the production lines, as well as the use of mobile technologies and sensors will be at the forefront as retailers and manufacturers seek to improvep roductivity within their operations. 

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Nov09 19

From Green IT to IT for Green: The Move Towards a Sustainable Society Posted by: Philip Carter in Green IT @ 5:27 PM Tags: green it, economic crisis, pcs

Philip Carter

The 'Green' movement continues to polarize individuals, businesses and policy makers across the globe. The lack of clear direction across this spectrum correlates with the view that significant portions of Green projects do not deliver tangible returns. And when the economy takes a turn for the worse, those 'discretionary projects' get cancelled or put on hold due to increasing budget constraints – which is exactly what has happened over the past 12 months.

However despite these economic pressures, climate change as a global issue is not going away – with the Copenhagen meetings looming in December and new emission reduction targets likely to become more of a reality – increased pressure will be placed on organizations to reduce impact of their operations on the environment. Running in parallel to this, more progressive organizations in the Asia/Pacific region are beginning to realize that objectives around environmental and economic sustainability can coexist, and in fact compliment each other in many instances. The role that ICT can play in terms of fulfilling these objectives is becoming a lot clearer – as part of a better understanding of how the market is transitioning from the Green IT (mainly focusing on reducing the electricity consumption associated with the powering and cooling the existing IT infrastructure) to IT for Green (a more intelligent use of technology to reduce carbon emissions within the business process itself).

The diagram below highlights how the adoption of Green technologies and associated services has evolved over time – thereby tracking the progress of this market transition. The starting point focused on the platform, and specifically energy efficiency within the data center – mainly in terms of virtualization and consolidation projects as part of an infrastructure optimization strategy. Building on this, organizations realized how better data, voice and video connectivity could enhance collaboration – as part of the unified communications trend to help employee productivity, creating a smarter work environment, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions associated with work travel (mainly by air and road). 

The next phase focused on the distributed environment in what IDC called the creation of the Green Office – better management of devices in the distributed environment. This contributed lower electricity consumption associated with PCs and printers – but also included a higher level of focus on responsible IT asset management (from procurement to end-of-life). This phase also placed greater emphasis on changing the corporate culture as it related to the usage of devices in the office environment. For example introducing paper management policies, changing from print to online where possible and launching device switch-off campaigns.  IDC expects the final and most important step of this market evolution to focus on what we call a 'Sustainable Society', which integrates all the underlying components, but takes the advantage of 'smart' technologies – particularly focused on buildings, transport systems and electricity grids to reduce the carbon footprint of the associated processes. We are seeing this being played out most prominently in the context of the wave of investments at the local government level as part of a drive to build 'Intelligent Cities' – a subsection of Intelligent Green and ultimately, the intersection between economic and environmental sustainability.

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Oct09 28

The Perfect Recovery: the Economy, Windows 7, and Aging PCs Posted by: Bryan Ma in Personal Tech @ 11:24 AM Tags: microsoft, windows 7, pcs

Bryan Ma

Although the global economy is showing signs of bottoming out, IDC has not necessarily seen huge signs of improved spending on commercial PCs yet. Even in China, where economic signals are arguably better than the rest of the world, most PC purchases are driven by resilient consumers, whereas enterprises continue in a slump.  IDC expects a gradual recovery starting in 2010, and even then, it could take some time for IT managers to get their budgets back.

But there will be a couple of other factors at play in the PC industry during this period, including the launch of Windows 7 at the end of 2009. While IDC again expects consumers to latch on quickly to Windows 7 (in many cases because of a lack of choice), businesses may still take some time before making a move.  Anecdotally speaking, a large number of Asia/Pacific IT managers questioned by IDC in August 2009 suggested that they were only planning to move to Windows 7 when they could be assured that their legacy applications could run effectively.

Still, these entities were running Windows XP, and many of them were carrying along aging fleets of such XP-based machines that inevitably will need to be upgraded. IDC believes that this, along with the idea of an economic recovery in 2010 plus the marketing funds surrounding Windows 7, could evolve into an optimistic scenario of "the Perfect Storm," where three independently moving factors converge into a single, more powerful force that drives corporate PC upgrades in 2010 and onwards.  The stability and increased usability of Windows 7 (not to mention XP Mode for the really stubborn legacy applications) can further help as more IT managers find Windows 7 environments able to support their businesses dependably. IDC has not factored any significant inflection point into its PC forecast to reflect this scenario yet, but should this "Perfect Storm" really develop, then hopefully the market can rebound more quickly than IDC expects.

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Oct09 21

Counterfeit Products: A concern for Asian Manufacturers Posted by: Christopher Holmes in MI Blog @ 8:31 PM Tags: manufacturing, supply chain

Christopher Holmes

Consumers around the world are feeling the effects of the global slowdown which has resulted to unemployment, job uncertainties, and credit reductions. Consequently, the market for counterfeit products has been growing as more consumers are purchasing them to satisfy their status needs.

Findings from a recent consumer survey conducted by Villanova School of Business in five countries including Brazil, China, India, Russia, and the US in the area of fake products revealed some startling results. 2000 consumers were interviewed in the survey and the results showed that:

• One-third of the interviewees reported a high level of complicity with counterfeit products
• Two-thirds of the interviewees reported some level of complicity with counterfeit products: They willingly obtained, shared or used a counterfeit product
• Although the emerging markets are where counterfeit products are most likely to be purchased, consumers in developed countries are also willing to purchase them

As anti-counterfeiting campaigns in the US would be very different from campaigns in India or China, the study recommended that companies should respond by developing anti-counterfeiting strategies that target specific countries. Although the study made this recommendation, it also pointed out that it will be very costly and complex to develop strategies that are specifically tailored for individual countries.

For manufacturers, this growing problem can be addressed in two specific ways: The first is to take preventative measures and the second, to understand the scale of the problem.

A tighter control of distributors and dealerships is an example of a preventative measure; manufacturers have to put in place processes and systems to monitor sales so as to reduce the chance of fake goods being sold as a replacement for original parts.

To understand the scale of the problem, manufacturers would have to keep track of its intellectual property; maintain a close watch on their competitors to ascertain if they infringing on their intellectual property rights; and, work with supply chain partners to ensure there they are not working "extra shifts" to  produce parts that will later on be sold in the black market.

As Asian markets mature, we will see more and more focus being placed on the removal of counterfeit products as manufacturers seek out opportunities to increase revenues.

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Sep09 22

Concerns in the Cloud: Issues for Manufacturers Posted by: Christopher Holmes in MI Blog @ 5:07 PM Tags: cloud computing, manufacturing, supply chain, it priorities

Christopher Holmes

The CIOs of many manufacturing companies are in a dilemma; they are being tasked to reduce costs, optimize existing infrastructure investments, and provide new applications to support the business. Whilst it is easy to say these things, the delivery of new strategic applications to the business, with a smaller team, is much more difficult. One possible solution to the CIO's dilemma is the use of cloud computing.

However, our research shows that whilst cloud options are being considered, manufacturers have a number of concerns that vendors will need to address.

According to the IDC Manufacturing Insights Asia/Pacific Business and IT Priorites survey, April 2009:

The biggest concern is security: close to 60% of the survey respondents cited confidentiality of company information as their prime concern. The need to protect financial information is a given, and this typically has not been an area where we see interest in cloud computing initiatives. But even if we look beyond the ERP systems, there is a growing need for the protection of intellectual property as well as security of supply chain information. So as new applications connecting the supply chain and supporting product lifecycle management are being considered, security is the top concern.

The second rated issue with just over 50% of all companies citing as a concern is that the cloud delivery model is not able to replicate and support business processes that are specific to the company. As companies seek to differentiate themselves, their applications become increasingly personalized, and the question I often find myself discussing these days is: Can the cloud deliver – and how? This also relates to data integration concerns, where over 40% of respondents expressed their concerns over data integration from applications in the cloud to applications within the four walls.

The third-highest ranked area of concern was the view that moving to a cloud model will not be cost effective in the long term. The shift from a capex to an opex model has long been discussed, and where the shift to an opex model will benefit in the short term by getting new applications deployed and/or scaled quickly, the long-term cost implications are a concern that vendors will need to address if they want companies to embrace this new way of operating.

Cloud does offer a lot of opportunity for manufacturing companies to embrace new applications and scale very quickly; however, vendors must ensure that the needs of security, personalization and ROI are addressed before cloud becomes widely adopted in the manufacturing segment.

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Aug09 31

Hong Kong Bankers Prepare for Growth as Economy Starts to Recover Posted by: Li-May Chew in A.F.S. @ 1:03 PM Tags: asia/pacific, banks, risk management, economic crisis, hong kong

Li-May Chew

IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific hosted 12 CIOs and IT heads from top Hong Kong banks at our recent Hong Kong Banking Roundtable. This was a closed-door session providing a platform for bankers to deliberate on the critical business, operational, and technology-related issues impacting their businesses, and forms part of a series of roundtables that IDC Financial Insights organizes across the Asian region.

Here, the consensus view was that the economic storm clouds seem to have cleared, with a glimmer of sunshine streaming through.

Latest Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) data indicates that Hong Kong has pulled out of its deepest recession since the 1998 crisis, and is currently joining Singapore on the road to recovery. The territory's seasonally adjusted GDP expanded 3.3% quarter on quarter in 2Q09, three times as fast as analysts had forecast, and finally ended four straight quarters of contraction.

Nonetheless, still wary of the fragility of the economic situation, Hong Kong bankers are placing concerted efforts to look for sustainable business growth - whether to consciously control expenses to fatten margins, to continually broaden customer engagements, or to undertake initiatives to strengthen payments and transaction services business.

With that in mind, topics that currently preoccupy business and IT divisional heads at the Hong Kong banks center around IT optimization, distribution channels, customer centricity and analytics, and compliance and risk management, most of which are tied to the omnipresent need to manage cost and unlock more value from customer engagements.

Technology optimization sees a focus on application portfolio management to reduce the cost of maintaining business suites, interest in Web-delivered IT services, and always with an eye on a quick turnaround on investments.

Meanwhile, a saturated, competitive market like Hong Kong where almost 200 banks and deposit-taking institutions jostle for wallet share means that creating an integrated and consistent customer experience across all delivery channels is key. Here, banks have entrenched internet banking presence but a weaker toehold for retail mobile banking, and point to the need to prepare themselves for the inevitable wave of mobile adoption.

The call for wider and deeper customer engagements sees increased investments in analytics to slice and dice customer data and accordingly redefine product design and marketing. Elsewhere, shareholders' push for more prudent risk management, reinforced by regulatory pressures, compels Hong Kong banks to review their internal risk control systems and reexamine technology investment in risk detection, avoidance, and management solutions.

The roundtable further sought feedback from participants on their growth strategy and technology initiatives for the short term. Here, the graph below outlines the strategic imperatives at Hong Kong banks over the next 12 months. There appears to be no letup in the focus on risk management and compliance, cost management and operational efficiencies. Banks are working on reining in cost and making the most out of limited resources via undertakings such as improving  processing turnaround times and throughput, reducing process redundancies, and perhaps integrating solutions onto fewer platforms in their drive to weed out inefficiencies.

The Hong Kong banks are also unique compared to peers around the region in that a core imperative includes market expansion - presumably with an eye into China, given plentiful opportunities in the mainland as it avoided the worst effects of the global downturn and still grew a robust 7.1% in 1H2009.

Note: Full insights are captured in the report entitled "Market Analysis: Hong Kong Banking Update 2009" (Doc #FIN219780). This covers discussions from the roundtable as well as the future strategy and technology undertakings of the participating banks for the upcoming months ahead.

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Aug09 20

Web 2.0 is dead: Long live Advanced Customer Care and Retention Posted by: Claus Mortensen in WebSpace x.0 @ 4:49 PM Tags: web 2.0, accr, social media, customer care

Claus Mortensen

Although the term was reportedly first mentioned back in 1999, Web 2.0 really became part of the global agenda in 2004. Since then, Web 2.0 has been one of the most talked about phenomena in the industry – especially in the last two to three years. And still, most companies are still struggling with how to grasp this phenomenon. Many, if not most, are still asking themselves how they can take advantage of Web 2.0 and turn this "thing" into something that can benefit their business.

And the common denominator for most is this: they are asking the questions – but they still haven't found the answer.

So – it's been more than five years since Web 2.0 and "social media" appeared on the agenda, and in those five years only very few companies have been able to make any real use of it. In the world of technology, five years is a life span these days. In the world of technology, something that fails to mature or produce tangible solutions and products in five years would most often be called a "fad" or a "flop" or a "failure". Arguably, Web 2.0 is not about technology – indeed this is one of the key misconceptions attached to the term – but regardless, five years is a long time for a term to stay alive if only so very few are able to make a buck on it.

Without any tangible benefits in the past five years for the majority, we have arrived at a junction where it makes sense to declare:

WEB 2.0 IS DEAD

If Web 2.0 is no more, that would leave us all with a sense of emptiness and an eagerness to fill this void by focusing on what's next. And, luckily for all of us, there is no reason for despair. The old "king" may be dead – but a new one is ready to take its place:

LONG LIVE ACCR

Today's economic climate has highlighted the need for good Customer Care to the extent that many companies now think of it as not only a key differentiator between companies but as an invaluable tool to capture new markets and new customers. Fortunately, new technology is transforming the way Customer Care can be provisioned. New ways to apply customer analytics, virtual call centers, multiple modes of communication, Web 2.0 and virtual worlds are changing how companies reach new customers and keep existing customers engaged. IDC refers to these new tools as "Advanced Customer Care and Retention" or ACCR.

The observant reader would have noticed that I just mentioned Web 2.0 as part of ACCR. And consequently, I'd be contradicting myself – for if the former were dead, then how could it be part of the latter? (The not too observant reader might have noticed also. The declaration was in all capital letters after all).

And you'd be quite right in saying that. In fact, I take it back: Web 2.0 is not dead. It has merely evolved into something that companies around the globe can finally understand: one of many tools that enable businesses to achieve goals. And a very important tool too. In the case of ACCR, Web 2.0 and social media become tools that enable businesses to listen to and engage with their customers. Businesses should do exactly the same using other means such as face-to-face conversations, good use of IP Contact Centers and so forth – but Web 2.0 enables customer engagement on a much larger scale than ever before.

So, again – I take it back. Web 2.0 is not dead but is evolving into something truly useful for businesses. With ACCR, it's fast becoming a cornerstone of Customer Care and will eventually take center stage in many other vital areas within businesses.

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Jul09 22

Driving for Efficiency in Product Life-Cycle Management Posted by: Christopher Holmes in MI Blog @ 3:19 PM Tags: innovation, manufacturing, plm, engineering, simulation

Christopher Holmes

The results of the Manufacturing Insights' latest survey show an interesting trend that manufacturing companies within the region are focusing their improvement efforts on driving efficiency in the product life-cycle area. That is companies are looking to apply waste reduction efforts, such as lean manufacturing ideas, to their product development processes.

Engineers the world over are expensive, and this has not gone unnoticed by the management within companies, especially with R&D and engineering staff numbers being reduced as companies try to save costs.

This, in turn, is leading to a focus on the efficiency of the product development process. Companies want to ensure that the engineers they employ are productive. They are effectively 'engineering' during the work day rather than focusing on administration or other non-value adding activities.

How do companies gain control and visibility over the development process? This is where the suite of product life-cycle management (PLM) tools comes into play. We have the tools that simplify and remove the administrative burden – things like product information management (PIM) systems, the increase in the use of collaboration tools from desktop videoconferencing through to shared markup. We can also see the increased use of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools to support the efficiency of the engineering process through product, manufacturing and in-service simulations. Finally, we have the project management tools to monitor the progress of development projects as well as analyze the data to gain insights into the status and health of the development process. Such insights are useful as it gives us a better idea of the development costs and risks such as skills bottlenecks.

The next two to three years will see some major restructuring of the product development process as companies focus on waste reduction and increasingly turn to technology to facilitate lean product development.

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