Put Active Citizen Engagement on 2012 Agenda, says IDC Government Insights

Kuala Lumpur – December 5, 2011 -- Citizens today are actively seeking engagements on social networks with brands, products and companies and they are looking to engage with government representatives in a similar fashion. However, many governments across Asia/Pacific are delaying online interaction with their citizens until protective policies for security guidelines are defined. More insights are revealed in an IDC Government Insights report, “Asia/Pacific Government Insights 2012 Top 10 Predictions (Doc # AP9694111T)”, which presents IDC Government Insights’ key predictions for the government sector across Asia/Pacific.

"While keeping all senses tuned to maintain awareness of security risks until regulations and policies are finalized is good, online citizen interaction will prove critical to meet the increasing demand by citizens to address their needs and concerns 24/7. Ignoring their calls for interaction may not be wise in a long-run", says Frank Levering, Research Manager, IDC Government Insights Asia/Pacific.

Across IDC Government Insights’ key predictions for the government sector across Asia/Pacific, some key themes stand out. IDC Government Insights expects IT security to be commoditized in 2012 and any discussion with government entities about ICT solutions needs to have an elaborate security component. Ironically, both vendors and government representatives are unlikely to be fully prepared or equipped to have that conversation.

Cloud infrastructure and platform decisions will also get well on the way among the mature countries. Developing nations, on the other hand, will look to cloud solutions to scale up their ICT offerings quickly.

Finally, Asia/Pacific has seen its fair share of natural disasters recently. Consequently, IDC Government Insights expects smart city initiatives to benefit from renewed government focus to limit the impact of disasters and manage the after-effects.

Drawing from the latest research and internal brainstorming sessions amongst IDC's Government Insights regional and country analysts, the following are the top 10 Predictions to assist government decision makers and their suppliers in 2012 for the Asia/Pacific region.
1. Information security will be a critical component in government purchases
2. Proactive interaction by governments with citizens through popular social media will change from novelty to necessity
3. Government spending and investments will not be significantly affected by economic struggles in the US and Europe
4. Mature governments will significantly invest in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to prepare for the Cloud era
5. Governments will closely monitor the cloud best practices among public sectors worldwide to define their own cloud deployment roadmap in their respective countries
6. Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will see strong mixed adoption between the public and private sector
7. Government apps will morph from one-way information-centric delivery mechanisms to two-way inseparable services and interaction tools for citizens
8. National broadband initiatives will evolve the education sector. Tablets will revolutionize how education is conducted
9. Bring Your Own Device trends will radically change the traditional function of IT and device management in governments
10. New funds will be allocated by governments to prepare city infrastructures for natural disasters and the influx of people from urban areas

For more information about this report, “Asia/Pacific Government Insights 2012 Top 10 Predictions (Doc # AP9694111T)”, please contact Juliana Lai at +603-2177-9255 or julianalai@idc.com.