Business & Money | Sunday 21 June, 2015 10:21 am |

EMC announced the results of The Information Generation: Transforming The Future that explores the impact of a growing global community of digital citizens.
Whether we’re working, keeping fit, learning, playing, purchasing online or watching TV, we are making new digital demands of the businesses with which we deal. These individuals are always connected and engaged online, and have the world’s information at their fingertips. They also view the world very differently. Based on input from 3,600 Director-to-C-Suite business leaders across 18 countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the study reveals new expectations of these individuals and identifies the fundamental business attributes critical for organizations to successfully compete and thrive in this new landscape.
Changing Business and Customer Expectations
The majority of respondents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia (99%) report that recent technological advances have impacted the way that their organization does business.
62% agree that the rapid adoption of mobile, social, cloud and big data technologies is changing customer behaviour and creating a new digital world, whereby organizations must adapt in order to stay competitive.
63% believe that customers want access to services faster
56% believe that customers want 24/7 access and connectivity
51% believe that customers want a personalized experience
43% believe that customers want access on an increasing number of multi-channel platforms

Fundamental Business Attributes For The Future
The study highlights that the demand for better use of data and insight is coming from both internal and external forces.
Internally, the demand is most likely to come from the IT department (47%), finance (37%), the IT department (47%), marketing (32%) and the C-suite/board level (28%), and externally from competitors (40%) and customers (36%)
Due to the new Information Generation-driven demands, businesses agree that transformation is critical. Business leaders have identified five “make-or-break” business attributes, all of which have information at their core. While business leaders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia agree the below are high priority, they admitted that very few have thoroughly embodied them.
6% demonstrate transparency and trust
6% innovate in agile ways
Only 5% can predictively spot new opportunities
4% operate in real-time
3% deliver personalized experience

Challenges
While 63% of respondents agree that having access to relevant information and insights would improve decision making, challenges remain:
33% admit they are drowning in information overload
31% of respondents state that the abundance of information helps them learn what they need to do, but leaves them unable to turn the ‘learning’ into actionable results
22%% said that the abundance in information has improved their ability to do their job

The study also highlighted key factors hindering the effective use of data:
40% believe that the current organization culture inhibits the ability to effectively use data and information
36% stated security concerns as being a primary cause
34% attributed resources and workload constraints as key factor
31% pointed to the lack of in house expertise as hindering the effective use of data

Data Driven Future
By 2020 more than 7 billion people on at least 30 billion devices will have created 44 zettabytes of data (or 44 trillion gigabytes), according to Gartner and IDC respectively. This is rapidly leading to a world in which nearly every element of life will be data-driven.
There are strong signals of a move toward a world in which nearly every element of life will be data-driven. Individuals and corporations will sell, donate and trade information on open exchanges. In this new world order, value will shift from products and services to the information they generate. According to the study, 68% of respondents believe that over the next five years digital technologies will have a direct impact on the way they do business with their customers and 36% believe that a forward thinking technology strategy must be customer focused.

Executive Quotes
Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President for Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East at EMC Corporation
“The combined forces of cloud, social, mobile and big data have led to the emergence of what we like to call the ‘Information Generation’. Whether they’re working, keeping fit, learning, playing, purchasing online or watching TV, these digital citizens are creating new demands for the businesses they deal with. The results of the Information Generation Study are clear evidence of the significant impact that combined forces of cloud, social, mobile and big data have created for businesses everywhere. Even in the region, the emergence of ‘digital citizens’ necessitates the need for enterprises to revisit their strategies and redefine themselves to meet this massive shift in expectations, adapt and succeed in the future.”
Rachel Maguire, Research Director at Institute for the Future
“Our mission is to provide practical foresight for a world undergoing rapid change – and to help turn insights into action. It’s critical that we systematically explore the longer-term implications of an age in which information is at the center of everything we do; continually re-conditioning us in ways we still have yet to imagine. The world’s most information-savvy organizations – if they ready themselves – will lead one of the most significant transformations in history.”
Methodology
The research was conducted by Institute for the Future and Vanson Bourne on behalf of EMC. Vanson Bourne surveyed business leaders across 18 countries including UAE and Saudi Arabia from mid-size to large enterprises in nine industries to determine top business imperatives required for success today and over the next decade. Institute for the Future led the creation of the study to identify and forecast the imperatives and shifts in the new digital world.