Red Hat & IDC findings show growing demand for mobile applications in ASEAN countries

Red Hat  Inc, a provider of open source solutions, announced the results of a survey on enterprise mobility adoption in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The survey, conducted by IDC and commissioned by Red Hat, includes responses from 275 IT professionals across the three countries.

The survey results, detailed in the IDC InfoBrief, The Maturing Mobile Journey for Enterprises – ASEAN Perspectives, commissioned by Red Hat in February 2017, found that while a significant number of respondents claim to have a strategy in place around mobility, quite a few still struggle when it comes to processes, including execution. Furthermore, the survey also revealed that mobile-specific skills can be difficult to acquire and develop in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

“Enterprise mobility remains high on the boardroom agenda for business leaders across most of the Asia/Pacific region, as organizations move past the experimentation stage to treating mobility as a key driver for digital transformation. The coming years will be an inflection point for mobility in the region as more enterprises continue to mobilize their core business processes through apps and related services to help drive sustainable business value and better user experience,” stated Avinav Trigunait, associate director for enterprise mobility research, IDC Asia/Pacific

Key insights from the IDC InfoBrief include:

• Respondents in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are moving beyond devices towards workflow mobility

Fifty-six (56) percent of survey respondents consider mobility strategic to their business, while 40 percent plan to focus on mobile application-related projects in the next 12 to 24 months.

• Demand for mobile applications across the three countries is growing with legacy system integration being a priority

Seventy-six (76) percent of survey respondents either have budgets in place or plan to invest in mobile app projects within the next 24 months; 58 percent plan to deploy between one and five mobile apps within the next 24 months.

• Survey respondents from Singapore view mobility as transformative

Forty-four (44) percent of survey respondents from Singapore consider mobility a strategic business priority; 24 percent have already deployed more than 10 apps in their organization; and one-third believe they have a mature mobile IT organization that can consistently deliver solutions to support their businesses.

• Acquiring the right skill set is viewed as a challenge across the region

Nearly 50 percent of survey respondents believe their organizations have minimal or contracted skills to support mobile projects—this challenge was noted by 60 percent of respondents from Malaysia.

The IDC InfoBrief concludes that in today’s increasingly digital era, having a clear mobility strategy is an essential for organizations. As organizations continue to expand their mobile-related projects, having the requisite mobile-specific skills internally is expected to become a necessity, as managing and supporting these projects will require dedicated resources. Investing in this competency can help enable successful mobile deployments.

”Mobility presents an opportunity for organizations to revisit business processes and engage customers in new ways. Red Hat Mobile Application Platform is well-poised to support this strategy by providing an agile approach to developing enterprise mobile applications, enabling enterprises to meet their mobile requirements and turn their mobile-first strategy into reality,” said Damien Wong, vice president and general manager, ASEAN at Red Hat.

On behalf of Red Hat, IDC interviewed 275 IT managers and above from organizations in Malaysia,  Singapore and Indonesia with more than 500 staff and a dedicated IT team focused on mobile, identifying insights related to mobile enterprise application strategy, budgeting, technology consideration, and implementation challenges. Survey respondents represented several verticals, including financial services (including banking and insurance); manufacturing and construction; communications and media; trading; transportation and utilities.