The study, based on a survey of SMBs from across the region conducted by IDC and commissioned by Cisco, shows that SMBs that are more digitally mature enjoy twice as many benefits in terms of revenue and productivity compared to those that have an indifferent approach to digitalisation. It highlights that nearly 70% of SMBs in Asia Pacific are accelerating the digitalisation of their businesses as a result of COVID-19. The results of the study show that cloud is the top technology investment priority for SMBs in Asia Pacific, followed by security and purchase or upgrade of IT infrastructure software.
However, SMBs are also facing challenges on this front. According to the respondents, shortage of digital skills and access to talent is the top hurdle for SMBs in their digital transformation efforts. This is followed by the lack of necessary technologies to enable digital transformation. Despite the challenges, 16% of SMBs in the region are now in the advanced digital maturity stages. Slightly more than half of SMBs have embraced digitalisation to become Digital Observers. Only 31% of SMBs are still reactive to market changes and have made hardly any efforts to transform digitally.
Within the region, SMBs in Singapore, Japan, and New Zealand continue to lead the Digital Observer group, with no changes in their ranking compared to 2019. However, mainland China, Taiwan, and Thailand surpassed Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, respectively. There has been notable progress made by SMBs in Indonesia and Vietnam.
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