Eight digital trends in 2020

Even the smallest businesses now have access to powerful, easy-to-use tools to power their transformation, says Zoho

Eight emerging and evolving digital trends will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand operate more efficiently and contribute more significantly to GDP and the digital economy, according to Zoho Corp, an Indian developer of web-based business tools. Gibu Mathew, vice-president and general manager for Asia-Pacific, discusses the trends.

1. Digitised economy: Phenomena such as e-commerce, online media and ride-hailing apps are contributing to a rapidly growing digital economy in Thailand and across Southeast Asia.

In Thailand, IDC forecasts by 2022, at least 61% of Thailand’s GDP will be digitised.

Already we have seen how digitisation can improve official processes, such as visa applications, to improve efficiency and customer experience. Companies can now embrace digital channels to compete more effectively in the regional and global marketplace as the internet economy continues to expand.

2. Cloud and cloud native: Vertical integration of technology stacks (networks, storage, servers, data, and applications) has reduced the amount of hardware purchases companies need to make to develop their own applications. Instead, with the public cloud and related solutions, companies can quickly and easily set up digital businesses and run applications without the expense of all the components and technologies previously required.

This allows Thai SMEs to leapfrog larger or more digitally mature organisations. In order to realise this goal, more programmes such as Coding Thailand by Digital Economy Promotion Agency, are needed to nurture digital talent. The country must also continually work on improving its cloud readiness.

3. Sharing economy: This economic model, defined as a peer-to-peer process of acquiring and sharing access to goods and services, is bringing convenience to businesses and consumers. Now startups in Thailand have access to services such as co-working spaces, the gig economy and crowdsourcing to aid their growth. This shared value structure has an important influence on how startups are focusing their business efforts.

4. Citizen developers: Coders are the key to powering digital businesses of the future. For SMEs, developing 10 or 20 applications can be a significant challenge. However, with the emergence of low-code, no-code platforms, software development is becoming more democratised and is no longer the primary domain of specialists.

This means now any employee within the organisation has the freedom to develop applications to automate essential business processes. With less code writing required, companies have more power to create the applications they need to run their businesses more effectively.

5. Automation: In addition to a more democratised application development structure, Thai businesses should also look for ways to automate repetitive work to support its ageing workforce. Software applications such as Orchestly allow businesses to design digital business processes so that steps are fully automated.

6. Artificial intelligence: This powerful technology was previously thought to be only for larger organisations. However, AI has become more integrated into the latest software solutions.

Now even SMEs have access to the powerful benefits offered by AI. IDC estimates by 2024, one-third of screen-based apps in the country will be AI-enabled user interfaces and process automation.

7. Employee productivity: Companies are changing from the traditional, office-based hierarchical organisations of the recent past into more democratised team structures where innovation and insights can come from anywhere, and employees can work from anywhere.

As a result, software should be used to help companies map conversations as they would

‘‘ With the emergence of low-code, no-code platforms, software development is becoming more democratised and is no longer the primary domain of specialists.

happen naturally to ensure that business can continue with minimal interruptions. This means using technology to create special interest groups to facilitate collaboration, to update all employees efficiently about new developments, and to solicit assistance from other groups within the organisation.

Additionally, small tasks (such as obtaining signatures) can add significant extra time that can affect productivity over the long term. Software solutions are available to accomplish these goals.

8. Integrated SaaS applications: As the digital economy grows, so too do the amount of software solutions available from various vendors for every business function, known as software as a service (SaaS). This is making it more difficult for business owners to know which applications to adopt.

To combat this, companies should be looking for integrated applications to simplify their technology investments. Adopting integrated software in one platform offers huge value for SMEs seeking to build modern, digital enterprises.