Most Singapore Employees Using Unapproved Apps For Work

Operating in an IT environment that they feel is more complex today, Singapore businesses are finding it tough to accelerate their digital transformation and are anxious over the inability to fully extract benefits from data analytics due to the increased complexity. Some 98 percent of enterprises in the country have kicked off their digital transformation plans, but just 18 percent have reached maturity compared to 22 percent across Asia-Pacific. 

In addition, 93 percent believe the disparity and complex nature of their data and applications are causing them to miss out on the business benefits of analytics, according to a survey conducted by The Glass Elevator. Commissioned by Citrix, the study polled 1,754 respondents across seven Asia-Pacific markets including Singapore, China, India, Japan, and Indonesia.

Some 56 percent of Singapore respondents described their IT environments as more complex than two years ago, with 42 percent running more than 100 cloud and on-premise business applications. Some 86 percent already had adopted cloud technology. 

And to get their work done, 95 percent of employees were using applications not approved for the office, the survey revealed. 

Not surprisingly, 85 percent were concerned they would not be able to respond to a data breach in compliance with regulations, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Some 48 percent cited the disparate nature of their data--located across different systems and applications--as a barrier, while 37 percent pointed to time concerns and 34 percent said the lack of resources was a concern.

Citrix's Asean and Korea vice president Leanne Taylor said: "The study found a strong correlation between the increasing levels of complexity felt within organisations, and the delay of digital transformation maturity. The future has never looked more complex. IT leaders are being asked not only to deliver IT services, but also to improve business outcomes."

Taylor advised businesses to adopt tools that supported a "unified, contextual" digital workspace that was secured. 

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