Study finds the key drivers behind growing app economy in APJ

CA Technologies recently announced the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) results of a global Economist Intelligence Unit survey. Commissions to discover how the key players – governments, enterprises and start-ups – are navigating the application economy, the survey made some interesting findings.

According to App Nations: Start-Ups, States and Enterprises, significant collaboration exists between the public and private sectors across APJ, with more than 95 percent of government respondents, 90 percent of enterprises and 81 percent of start-ups stating that they have witnessed collaboration between the three groups.

What's more, more than 74 percent of APJ government respondents indicated that application start-ups are crucial or important in driving growth of the application economy, while 79 percent say the same for large enterprises.

Paul Falkenstein, vice president and managing director of CA Technologies Australia and New Zealand affirms that across the region they're seeing digital transformation become a critical issue for many governments.

"In the application economy, where every business is a software business, growing digital capabilities has become the key to staying competitive," says Falkenstein. "Governments, start-ups and even large enterprises are not only beginning to understand the necessity of this, but that partnerships, be it technology integration or B2B sales, can be a boon to their growth.

Despite this, the survey did find that all parties agreed there is still more to be done. A shortage of tech talent stemming from a lack of educational or training programs was pronounced as the most significant barrier to growth of the application economy, followed by a third of APJ government respondents pointing to a lack of public funding.

Some of the highlights from APJ respondents included:

• 85 percent of government respondents see the tech sector as important and often crucial driver of economic growth
• 71 percent of government respondents say the application economy has positively impacted job growth and the ability to provide better services to citizens
• 87 percent of enterprises and 64 percent of start-ups characterize their relationships with each other as slightly or very helpful
• 67 percent of enterprises and 57 percent of start-ups expect cyber security risks to increase over the next two years
• About 77 percent of Australians own a smartphone – second only to Korea's 88 percent