Microsoft, Forrester: Tomorrow’s CIOs must prepare their organizations for Cloud, Mobility, Enterprise Social and Big Data

Over 100 CIOs hear how mobile, cloud, enterprise social and big data will drive at least 80% of IT industry growth by 2020 at Microsoft’s Breakfast With Visionaries event

KUALA LUMPUR, 6 December 2012 – At Microsoft’s Breakfast with Visionaries event, over 100 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) heard from Forrester and Microsoft how mobile, cloud, enterprise social and big data will dominate the next decade and drive at least 80% of their industry’s growth by the year 2020.

Dane Anderson, Vice President, Research Director and Region Manager for industry analyst Forrester Research highlighted how the role of the CIO was evolving in the face of these industry “megatrends”, saying, “The role of the CIO is changing fast – from being a facilitator of technology deployments to becoming a technology solution specialist. Organizations now look for CIOs who move beyond concentrating on IT as a force for operational automation, integration and control to seeing how technology can serve as a business amplifier and source of innovation. In fact, 80% of CIOs acknowledge that they should actually be spending two-thirds of their time with the business.”

Danny Ong, Chief Marketing and Operations Officer, Microsoft Malaysia.

Anderson also pointed out that Malaysian CIOs and their counterparts in emerging markets needed to especially take heed noting, “There are times when global tech trends affect many regions and countries in the same way at the same time, such as the tech recession of 2008 and 2009; but 2013 will not be one of those times. Instead, there will be wide diversity in tech market performance by country.” To illustrate this point, Anderson highlighted how emerging markets will account for almost one-third of global IT spending and drive 53% of IT spending growth in 2012. Cloud, mobility, big data analytics and enterprise social will prove to be key categories of enterprise IT spend.

CIOs also heard from Microsoft Malaysia’s Chief Marketing and Operations Officer Danny Ong, who demonstrated the company’s unique approach in helping them navigate and leverage the four IT industry megatrends. “Microsoft’s solutions span the breadth and depth of consumers and businesses to help transform Malaysian businesses and lives together. For the past 20 years we’ve been in Malaysia, we have provided integrated solutions across software and cloud solutions, which are also interoperable and conform to industry openness standards by design. For CIOs, this is good news because it means that they can work with us as a trusted partner and advisor to help them get the most out of their IT investments, contribute to business bottom lines, improve efficiencies and maximize resources,” he said.

Dane Anderson, Vice President, Research Director and Region Manager, Forrester Research.

Danny added, “For organizations using Microsoft solutions, this means having familiar apps and platforms that your people want to use, the flexibility to use what’s right for your business, and ultimately having our commitment to enterprise capability to help you succeed.”

Speaking as a panelist at the event, Andy Tan, Senior General Manager, Information Technology Department for Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund concurred, “Without a doubt, Malaysian organizations are already starting to see the impact of these four megatrends from the highest levels of management to employees at the frontlines. Working with Microsoft as a partner has been an especially helpful and rewarding experience to help us capitalize and optimize the opportunities that these megatrends bring.”

Andy Tan, Senior General Manager, Information Technology Department for Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund.

Industry analysts are in agreement that the four megatrends will certainly drive consumer-driven experiences and a new computing paradigm, which will, in turn, accelerate the magnitude of change today and provide enterprises with new opportunities:

• Cloud computing will lower barriers to entry for market players to access computing power, require more flexible development models, more efficient application delivery and drive greater speed to market
• Mobility will drive a need for changing, flexible work styles as well as mew and different types of devices, with a growing expectation for always-on connectivity and anywhere access to apps and data
• Enterprise social will see a cultural shift in how people interact, with online customer engagement now becoming a business differentiator, as well as discovering new ways to connect and share
• Big data will see massive data growth and the availability of third-party data, which leads to globalization of markets as well as more segmented customer audiences