IDC hosted its annual CIO Summit at the Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila exploring practical strategies to move businesses through their digital transformation (DX) journey.
This year's CIO Summit, themed “The Digital Determination Playbook”, aimed at helping CIOs piece
together a playbook for taking their organization from being Digitally Distraught to Digitally Determined.
To be Digitally Determined, Philippine organizations require a 'blueprint' that consists of four key
elements including; a unified enterprise strategy, commitment to organizational and cultural
changes, a long-term investment plan based on the principle that digital is inherently valuable to the
business and a single digital platform to scale technology innovations. IDC’s study revealed that
37% of enterprises in the Philippines are considered Digitally Determined. These businesses have
an integrated strategy where continuous enterprise-wide digital innovation is in place, transforming
their respective markets and reimagining the future through innovative business models and digitally
enabled products and services.
By contrast, the same study found that more than 60% of the local enterprises in the Philippines are
defined as Digitally Distraught. Digitally Distraught enterprises are less mature in their digital
transformation journey and are typically either running digital as an impromptu effort, running
multiple parallel digital strategies initiated by the lines of business or are operating with a short-term
perspective. These organizations are distraught because it is difficult to accomplish a major
transformation when the strategy is not unified or there are high expectations for predictable returns
on investment in the short term.
“Organizations in the Philippines are progressing in their digital transformation maturity where the
percentage of enterprises in the Digitally Determined category is on par with the rest of the Asia
Pacific region. The transition from Distraught to Determined is a difficult one as it relies on the scaling of digital projects within the company which requires investment and consistent execution.”, said Randy Roberts, Head of Operations of IDC Philippines.
Roberts added “After hearing our speakers talk about the real, measurable successes they are
having in their digital transformations, I’m confident we will see more businesses, large and small,
moving into the Digitally Determined category. One of the key performance indicators we saw in the
presentations today is, as IT departments leverage resources to focus more on business outcomes,
the digital transformation strategy moves at a much faster pace. This allows companies to respond
to customers' needs with the rapid creation of new products and services.”
The IDC CIO Summit 2019 brought together almost 100 regional industry leaders and prominent
CIOs across the Philippines including large conglomerates as well as small, start-up companies.
The insights offered at this event will help top business leaders plan the necessary steps to progress
their digital strategy to deliver solutions that disrupt markets and create new revenue streams. Some
of the topics explored at the summit include case studies on leveraging artificial intelligence for more
automation, customer centricity, monetizing data, transitioning traditional business into digital
business, and the needed changes to the culture and skillsets in the workforce.
