Narayan AmmachchiMore than a quarter of top corporate firms in Latin America will put digital transformation at the center of their strategies in 2017, according to a survey from technology research firm IDC.
Digital transformation may be the buzzword in the North American corporate world, but Latin American companies are only just beginning their digital journey. According to IDC, only 26% of CIOs in the region have embarked on a digital path.
With a majority of regional economies in doldrums, business leaders are increasingly counting on digital technologies to remain competitive. They have figured out that digital transformation presents them with tools to redefine their sales and customer support as well as the production processes.
IDC expects digital initiatives to drive US$4.5 billion in new IT investment in the region by the end of this year, growing at a CAG rate of close to 50% over the five-year period (2014-2019).
In 2015, per capita expenditure on IT in the region was US$220 million, while the global spending averaged at US$460 million.
Due to economic deceleration, many companies will likely focus on lower transactional costs for now, but they ‘will also realize their very survival is beyond just operational efficiency and dependent on their ability to address their customers with new digitally rich experiences,” the report added.
Services providers across the region will pour a lot of money into expanding their cloud datacenters and network infrastructure, because many respondents in the IDC survey have said that mobility and cloud are their priority going forward.
The research firm estimates that the investment in new generation e-commerce platforms within B2C will grow 20% in 2016, and mobile commerce will grow at 40% between 2016 and 2019.
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