The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Asia Pacific will gain an extra US$387 billion by 2021 and grow by another 1 per cent annually if the region’s manufacturing sector embraces digital transformation, according to the study “Unlocking the Economic Impact of Digital Transformation in Asia Pacific”.

The report, released on Friday, was jointly conducted by Microsoft and IDC Asia/Pacific based on a survey of 615 business leaders from the manufacturing sector across 15 markets in the region, including Viet Nam.

“Embracing digital transformation is a critical imperative for manufacturers,” said Lucky Gani, marketing and operation lead for Microsoft Vietnam.

“Those organisations which had already embarked on their digital transformation journeys gained improvements in the range of 13 per cent to 17 per cent last year. They will see at least 40 per cent improvement in three years, with customer advocacy registering the highest improvement rate.”

The study finds that manufacturing organisations realise the importance of data today.

In fact, 44 per cent of respondents pointed out that tracking how data is being used as a capital asset is a key performance indicator (KPIs) in measuring digital transformation.

Manufacturing organisations are planning to invest in cloud and big data analytics, followed by artificial intelligence, cognition and robotics, and Internet of Things solutions this year.

“Digital transformation should be viewed as a team sport, not an independent business operation. Manufacturing organizations need to address culture and skills challenges through developing a digital culture and addressing organisational shifts required for a change to happen,” added Lucky Gani.

“First and foremost, organisations need to address the skills gap within the industry. In fact, respondents highlighted that they expect 85 per cent of jobs within the sector to be transformed in the next three years.”

The study recommends organisations to adopt a three-step data strategy to become a digital transformation leader: collection of data, optimisation of existing products and services through data, and creating new business model with data. — VNS