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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

COVID-19 accelerates building

intelligent workplaces

signing options such as “Sign with SingPass” by
GovTech, supported by Adobe.

APAC organizations will increase their adop-
tion of and spend on digital document pro-
cesses this year

Pre-pandemic, APAC organizations fell behind other
regions in digitizing their document processes and now
need to intensify their efforts as a result. This year,
46% of APAC organizations plan to increase their
adoption of digital document processes and will raise
their spend by 51% on average. This is especially nota-
With the future of work being now and being ble, given that it comes when a key business priority for
digital, businesses need to build an intelligent leaders across the board is reducing budgets. In this
workplace – one where employees can develop new environment, it is more important than ever before
and communicate content internally and with for businesses to equip their digital workplaces with
customers in a highly automated and responsive intelligent technology to become more resilient, agile,
way. This enables business growth, improves and scalable.
employee experience, and facilitates business The pandemic has exposed flaws in neglected
continuity.
back-office processes, forcing APAC business
While the trend of remote working continues, Forrester leaders to re-examine post-pandemic priorities
Consulting, together with Adobe, have researched on
the common challenges facing organizations and how In 2020, firms shifted their automation focus to back-
they can accelerate their transition towards becoming office processes, with decision-makers now looking at
intelligent digital workplaces. uncovering gaps in their operational processes and
how to address them: 60% of APAC leaders consider
Here are some of the report’s key insights within the document workflow automation indispensable in sup-
APAC region: porting business continuity and agility, as it helps to
connect and automate content creation and collabora-
APAC businesses were less prepared to sup- tion. Improving employee collaboration post-pandemic
port remote work than other regions but are is also a top priority in APAC, showing that businesses
rapidly accelerating their digital transformation understand the urgency and importance of building a
strong foundation for the future of work and enterprise
The use of digital collaboration and productivity tools collaboration. The most effective way to do so is by
was very much developing in APAC before the pan- adopting a platform approach that eliminates repetitive
demic. For instance, only 13% of APAC respondents and mundane tasks to create a people-centric, intelli-
considered e-signatures to be standard protocol in their gent, and digital workplace.
businesses initially, almost five times lower than in
North America. This is exacerbated by the mispercep- The in-depth survey yielded several recommendations,
tion that there is no regulatory support for electronic including reducing technology impediments, developing
approvals. This is quickly shifting, with most APAC an enterprise collaboration roadmap, and identifying
businesses now providing their employees with tech- key use cases that may delay business value. Feel free
nologies to facilitate or improve remote work. Organiza- to find out more about the report and key recommenda-
tions can consider making improvements to the cus- tions. ◊
tomer journey and offer more convenience and ease to
transact – for example, through digital forms and e- By Daniela La Marca

8 April 2021: Immersive Technologies in Marketing