BANAS, Mark Steven L.

Topic Number: 2
Title: Emerging and Converging Information Communication Technologies
Individual Topic: Emerging Software Technologies

IDC predicts that by 2020, creating digitally-enhanced products, services and

experiences will be a big focus for a quarter of the top 1,000 companies in the Philippines.
The research firm foresees digital transformation (DX) to reach macroeconomic scale in the
next two to three years, which will mark the dawn of 'DX Economy'. As a result, this will change
the way businesses operate, thus reshaping the global economy.
"The rise of DX definitely has an incredible effect on the market. It opens massive opportunities
for businesses as it helps strengthen relationships with end users, flattens organizational
structures, and redefines traditional industries," said Jubert Alberto, Business Operations Head
of IDC Philippines, in a press release.
The research firm listed down the trends for the Philippines' information and communications
technology (ICT) industry in 2017 and beyond.

1. Leveling up the DX
Local companies will level up their DX journey to a macroeconomic scale in the next
three years.
"Year 2020 will see Filipino companies level up their DX journey to a macroeconomic
scale, as their ability to offer digitally transformed offerings and experiences becomes an
important measure of competitiveness and success in the market," said Karen Rondon,
Research Manager for Enterprise Computing - Networking, IDC Asia/Pacific.
In line, companies are challenged to continually improve their productivity and effectiveness
while lowering costs to keep pace with the quick-changing market dynamics.

2. Forming a dedicated DX team

A quarter of Philippine organizations will have a dedicated DX/innovation teams by 2018.
"These specialized 'PH DX teams' will be in charge of formulating plans both for internal and
external applications of digital technology. These include identifying and using new technologies
to improve operations, creating digital marketing strategies, developing their IT capabilities, and
other related initiatives," said Jan Edward Taeca, Market Analyst of Imaging, Printing,
Document Solutions (IPDS) in IDC Philippines.

3. Government to better push technology adoption

The Philippine government will have a more strategic ICT push to enable technology
adoption among organizations by 2021, especially with the establishment of the Department of
Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

4. Prioritizing cybersecurity
Almost a third of the top 1,000 companies in the Philippines (30 percent) will put cybersecurity a
tier-1 business priority by 2018.
"In the coming years, enterprises will realize that rather than reacting to global security trends,
the best-run businesses try to anticipate them. Thus, they will make cybersecurity a core part of
their overall business strategy, taking into account the existing security industry trends and
evolving criminal tactics and couple those factors with the organization's risk tolerance, security
programme maturity, a holistic security strategy and, most importantly, business targets," said
Jan Edward Taeca, Market Analyst for Imaging, Printing, Document Solutions (IPDS) of IDC
Philippines.

5. Growth in information-based products

The revenue growth from information-based products will double that of the rest of the
product/service portfolio for 25 percent of the top 1,000 Philippine companies by 2020.
"In the Philippines, companies in the telecommunications, retail, and banking industries, among
others, have unlocked new opportunities in creating revenue through analyzing and making
sense of the aggregated customer information. Some organizations that have explored these
options benefited in the form of penetrating new markets and generating new revenue streams
as the information may vary from customer data to consumer buying patterns,"
said Nicolo Santos, Market Analyst for Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions (IPDS) of IDC
Philippines.
"This opportunity requires a constant effort for organizations to address data privacy and
security issues, and government regulations that surround the collection, storage, use, and sale
of consumer data," added Santos.

6. Testing AR and VR
Forty percent of the customer-facing top 1,000 companies in the country will experiment
with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) by 2019 to boost their marketing efforts.
"Consumer brands will be compelled to think out of the box and reinvent their marketing
approaches - incorporating more AR/VR elements and placing emphasis on gamification - in a
bid to gain the patronage and loyalty of consumers, especially young and tech-savvy
millennials," said Sean Agapito, Market Analyst for Client Devices of IDC Philippines.

7. Transforming 'sari-sari' stores to payment centers

Almost a third of sari-sari or neighborhood stores in the country (30 percent) will become
a new channel for one-stop payments and remittance by 2020.
IDC foresees sari-sari stores to offer payment services for utility, e-loading, and travel tickets. In
line, organizations planning to expand its services to untapped markets in the rural areas will
have a viable channel, through sari-sari stores, instead of building their own brick-and-mortar
stores.

8. Policy changes to disrupt ICT and BPO markets

The policy changes from President Rodrigo Duterte, and U.S. President Donald Trump
will disrupt the ICT and business process outsourcing (BPO) markets by 2020, if the industry
does not take critical steps to safeguard these.
IDC explained that BPO industry is one of the great contributors to the total ICT spending in the
country. However, Alberto said: "In the longer-term view, however, this may change due to the
shift in pivot and policy changes from the Duterte and Trump administrations. This may lead to
an impression of the country's volatility and together with issues on manpower and availability of
skillsets, it may result in the industry stagnating in the near future due to lack of new
investments and expansionary plans from incumbents. Far-reaching measures to address key
issues are of paramount importance this year."

Source: https://www.computerworld.ph/tech/emerging-technology/idcs-predictions-for-
philippines-ict-industry-in-2017/?page=3
LIM, Eau Benetton N.
Topic Number: 2
Title: Emerging and Converging Information Communication Technologies
Individual Topic: The Rise of Robotics

The Future has Lots of Robots, Few Jobs for Humans.

THE ROBOTS HAVENT just landed in the workplace. Theyre expanding skills, moving up the
corporate ladder, showing awesome productivity and retention rates, and increasingly shoving
aside their human counterparts. As intelligent machines begin their march on labor and become
more sophisticated and specialized than first-generation cousins like Roomba or Siri, they have
an outspoken champion in their corner: author and entrepreneur Martin Ford. In his new book,
Rise of the Robots, he argues that AI and robotics will soon overhaul our economy.

Theres some logic to the thesis, of course, and other economists such as Andrew (The Second
Machine Age) McAfee have sided generally with Fords outlook. Oxford University researchers
have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated within the next two decades.
And if even half that number is closer to the mark, workers are in for a rude awakening.

In Fords vision, a full-on worker revolt is on the horizon, followed by a radically new economic
state whereby humans will live more productive and entrepreneurial lives, subsisting on
guaranteed incomes generated by our amazing machines.

Critics say your vision of a jobless future isnt founded in good research or logic. What
makes you so convinced this phenomenon is real?

I see the advances happening in technology and its becoming evident that computers,
machines, robots, and algorithms are going to be able to do most of the routine, repetitive types
of jobs. Thats the essence of what machine learning is all about. What types of jobs are on
some level fundamentally predictable? A lot of different skill levels fall into that category. Its not
just about lower-skilled jobs either. People with college degrees, even professional degrees,
people like lawyers are doing things that ultimately are predictable. A lot of those jobs are going
to be susceptible over time.

Right now theres still a lot of debate over it. There are economists who think its totally wrong,
that problems really stem from things like globalization or the fact that weve wiped out unions or
havent raised the minimum wage. Those are all important, but I tend to believe that technology
is a bigger issue, especially as we look to the future.

Information technology is totally different. Its a broad-based general purpose technology. There
isnt a new place for all these workers to move.

You can imagine lots of new industriesnanotechnology and synthetic biologybut they wont
employ many people. Theyll use lots of technology, rely on big computing centers, and be
heavily automated.