Playing Catch Up To A Digitalised Workplace

Today, every company – no matter the scale – are shouting out their revolutionary plans for the next digitalised office. So exactly how important it is for companies to adapt quickly in this rapidly changing landscape?

- Daisuke Hori

Reports from the World Bank recognised digital economy as one of the key elements in driving Malaysia’s future economic growth. In 2014, the digital economy contributed RM188.3 billion to the nation’s GDP, and it is expected to approach 20 percent by 2020. Apart from that, Cisco has also predicted that outside of Malaysia, 40 percent of 500 businesses will not survive this massive transition over coming years if they do not take the necessary steps to prepare themselves and adapt accordingly.

Nonetheless, with all this said, a lot still needs to be done for both big companies and SMEs. Much of the digital economy continues to be dominated by large firms, despite programs to encourage adoption and innovation for SMEs. Growth in basic digital adoption has been rapid but only 62 percent of business establishments are connected to the Internet, with only 46 percent having fixed broadband (often of low quality). Even more shocking is that just 18 percent have a web presence of some kind which is particularly alarming given how everything is going digital. If the nation does not embrace this change, the productivity of the country will be compromised and become a hindrance to the nation’s overall GDP growth in future.