NTT Communications’ Survey Finds 94% of Asian Retailers & Manufacturers Plan to Adopt Disruptive Technologies to Boost Comp...

Security, Legacy IT Infrastructure and Procurement Complexity are Top Barriers to Transformation

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) announced the results of a new survey revealing how Asian retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers are investing in disruptive technologies and the challenges they face. The survey, “The Digital Silk Road to Success”, found that nearly 80 percent of business and IT decision-makers at large corporations based in China, Hong Kong and Singapore are generally positive about the business outlook in the next 12 months, in spite of the challenges including talent shortages, rising wages, price pressure, increasing costs and competition they face. They believe new technologies hold the key to transforming their growth model despite an uncertain economic climate.

IoT and big data analytics already changing supply chain ecosystem

To overcome business challenges, 94% of organizations surveyed said plans were already in place to deploy two or more disruptive technologies to accelerate digital transformation and boost competitiveness. IoT (60%) and big data analytics (58%) are the most widely adopted technologies among those surveyed. Although organizations have been slower to adopt AI, smart robotics and 3D printing, over 60% of responding companies indicated they planned to deploy one or more of these technologies in the next 12 months.

“The success of retail, manufacturing and wholesale industries relies heavily on an efficient supply chain ecosystem where companies’ ability to trace and visualize the bilateral flow of goods, information and cash throughout the value chain at a given moment has become ever more critical,” said Raymond Ng, Vice President, Vertical Solutions, NTT Com Asia. “Asian companies have extensively applied IoT and big data to capture real-time business intelligence from all the touchpoints, and overcome business blind spots in the ecosystem. Though combining IoT and big data is far from new, it is the recent extensive application of these disruptive technologies that is proving to be a game changer for the supply chain,” Ng added.

The proliferation of “connected things" creates security, compliance and compatibility issues

Although corporations appreciate the enormous value these disruptive technologies potentially deliver to transform their business model, various challenges are holding them back. Some 50% of all organizations surveyed rated stringent data security and compliance regulations, legacy IT and the complexity involved in sourcing suitable technologies and supplier for the job are the top three stumbling blocks.

To accelerate business transformation, over 60% of respondents will choose to outsource transformation projects to reduce deployment time and cost, and tap cross domain expertise from suppliers. When sourcing a supplier, the most important criteria is whether the supplier has the technology expertise and capability to provide cross-platform support. The supplier is also expected to have good understanding of different sectors’ needs and the flexibility to handle fast changing business environments.

“Strategically selecting a mix of disruptive technologies to overhaul the supply chain is only the first step of a successful digital transformation journey. It all comes down to three important determining factors – the readiness of infrastructure, connected technology and people to make sense of data to derive actionable business intelligence,” Ng added.

The survey whitepaper can be downloaded at www.nttcominsight.com/digitalsilkroad. For the list of key survey findings by vertical sector, please refer to the Appendix.

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About The Survey

The survey, conducted in the third quarter of 2016 by NTT Communications and IDG Connect, covered over 300 senior business executives and IT decision-makers in China, Hong Kong and Singapore from large retail, manufacturing and wholesale corporations with 250 to 3,000 employees around the world. The results reveal the extent that emerging disruptive technologies and new IT infrastructure are being deployed to tackle business issues, and remove major stumbling blocks during corporations’ digital transformation journey.

About NTT Communications

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimise the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company’s worldwide infrastructure, including leading global tier-1 IP network, Arcstar Universal One™ VPN network reaching 196 countries/regions, and 140 secure data centres worldwide.

NTT Communications’ solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

Please visit www.ntt.com.hk | www.hknet.com | www.facebook.com/nttca | http://www.linkedin.com/company/ntt-com-asia-limited for further information.

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Media contact:NTT Com Asia LtdElaine Ng / Priscilla KwokDL: [phone] / [phone]E: [e-mail] / [e-mail] Public RelationsPriscilla Tong / Terence NipDL: [phone] / [phone]E: [e-mail] / [e-mail]