IT players jockey for edge amid the disruptive forces reshaping economy

Against this backdrop, the country’s growth in IT for the coming year will be due to two main factors – the international trade war and the national elections.
Vatsun Thirapatarapong, managing director of Cisco Thailand and Indochina, said that three most popular technology trends in the Kingdom will be AI and machine learning, followed by cybersecurity and the multi-cloud.
In the following year, around 85 per cent of software created will have AI capabilities, with the banking and financial sectors using AI to support and improve their productivity, as well as services such as mobile payment, mobile banking and the invisible bank. AI and ML will be used to develop new products and services to support the demands of customers in the digital era.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity will able to protect businesses and their customers from threats that would otherwise cause huge damages. As result, cybersecurity will create satisfaction and confidence among customers.
As well, the multi-cloud will aid businesses as they invest in new technology and are able to apply new and advance technologies to support their operations more cost-effectively and affordably through higher productivity.
Vatsun noted that the overall IT market in Thailand is enjoying continuing growth. The two main factors now driving that market growth are the US-China trade war and the national elections.
As result, politics will play an important role in supporting the government’s IT policy, such as the Thailand 4.0 scheme and smart city projects, which could drive the IT market as a whole.
Cisco this year will focus its business on the financial, manufacturing, public and education sectors, in addition to expanding its marketing channels to support market demand.
The firm is eyeing cybersecurity, Big Data and analytics, and automation – digital technologies that will see crucial opportunities and growth in the near future.
The firm expects that by 2020 around 75 per cent of businesses will be digital or have their digital business transformation under way. Only around 30 per cent of these will be successful, in part due to the lack of specialised talent and technical expertise. Some 78 per cent of businesses have not yet established the capability to manage a transformation process across different parts of the organisation.
Meanwhile, digital transformation will have a major impact across five industries leading up to 2024 -– manufacturing, financial services, retail, service provision and healthcare.
“I think that businesses will adopt new technologies to support their businesses. For example, cybersecurity on the cloud will help to protect cyber threats. We also expect double-digit growth in areas of the cloud, and embrace full-stack cybersecurity. Meanwhile, we try to provide innovation platforms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), system analytics, collaboration and smart city platforms to support market demand,” Vatsun said.
Moreover, one study found that that despite the high confidence and awareness of technologies shaping business’s digital future, adoption rates are relatively low across the region.
Among the respondents in Asean, only 60 per cent have started to adopt the cloud, 59 per cent are adopting cybersecurity solutions, 55 per cent Big Data and analytics as well as 48 per cent automation, according to the study, Technology Perspective into Asia-Pacific’s Readiness for Digital Transformation.
Vatsun said that the firm expects this year to generate double-digit revenue growth.

Entertainment industry overhaul
Kla Tangsuwan, CEO of Wisesight, said that the technology trends now impacting the IT market are streaming technology, social media analytics, e-commerce and e-payments. Streaming technology, such as video streaming, will disrupt the entertainment industry since network, and infrastructure in the country has ensured cost affordability. This means customers will greatly increase their consumption of streaming content this year.
Moreover, e-commerce and e-payment platforms will impact businesses to a much greater extent, as businesses, such as the food business, are convinced that they will make it easy for them to engage with their customers.
Disruptive technologies are creating a variety of new jobs in the new digital era, such as professional influencers, game casters, e-sport athletes, and social media analysts. Those new job categories create new opportunities for business.
Wisesight this year will focus its business on providing social media surveys and data analytics platforms to support business, enabling businesses to participate in “social hearing” from their customers, said Kla.
Business will invest money to purchase software to better analyse data, so that they will be able to tap feedback from customers, enabling them to take the next step and develop new products and services to support market demand.
Yunyong Muneemongkoltorn, director of Epson (Thailand), said that the firm sees the IT market this year as driven by international and domestic economies, the US-China trade war, Brexit, the domestic election and post-election politics.
Epson will also focus its business on projectors and printers.
“I think that in this year the printer market will decline. Meanwhile, the growth of the projector market will jump, due to increasing demands from customers,” Yunyong said.
The firm will also expand its business in the direction of Scara Robots to support industrial and educational sectors and small and medium-sized enterprises. The firm also offers inkjet printers to support all segments of the market, starting from home devices to the large enterprise market.