The Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region will see annual spending on digital transformation (DX) initiatives cross the $20-billion mark by the end of this year, according to the latest insights from International Data Corporation (IDC).
The global technology research and advisory services firm expects this figure to more than double over the coming years, passing $40-billion by 2022 as the pursuit of game-changing innovation accelerates to keep pace with evolving customer demands.
“As digital transformation continues to reshape the global economy, innovation will multiply, platform wars will intensify, and data will increasingly be used for competitive advantage,” says Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice-president and regional MD for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. “And with market leadership ranks being disrupted, a new ICT world order is taking shape, built around innovative technology offerings, evolving business models, and emerging DX use cases. Given this unprecedented disruption, it’s imperative that organizations make the right decisions today to ensure they remain competitive tomorrow.”
By 2020, IDC expects at least 55% of the world’s organizations to be digitally determined, transforming markets and re-imagining the future through the implementation of new business models and the provision of digitally enabled products and services. And with global DX investments forecast to total $5,9-trillion for the three years between 2018 and 2021, this topic continues to be a central area of business leadership thinking.