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Omnicom Grows 4.6% in 1H24, as it Becomes More Platform-Based

Douglas Hayward — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Omnicom did well to record 4.6% growth in 1H24, driven by strong growth in media services. The company is moving towards a platform-based structure aiming to support its creative and media agencies with a backbone of common services.

Industry Alliances and Tech Innovations: Highlights From Shoptalk Europe 2024

Sofia Poggi, Ornella Urso, Cristiano Quattrini, Filippo Battaini — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective provides IDC Retail Insights' key takeaways from Shoptalk Europe 2024, held in Barcelona, which gathered over 10,000 retail professionals to explore the future of retail. The event emphasized the critical role of technology in transforming the retail landscape to meet shifting market conditions and dynamics in the industry. Key themes included AI, GenAI, unified commerce, and the importance of industry partnerships in satisfying the channel-agnostic needs of current and future consumers. The insights from Shoptalk Europe 2024 underscore the necessity of investing in updating data management capabilities, digitalizing stores, and adopting composable commerce platforms to have the flexibility to seamlessly combine and integrate channels and applications as new requirements emerge. The diverse range of technologies showcased — from RFID to AI-driven personalization, GenAI, and retail media — highlighted the industry's commitment to innovation.

"The future of retail relies on the strategic integration of AI and GenAI into workflows and the formation of strong industry partnerships. Retailers must advance their data collection and management capabilities to fully leverage AI, streamline operations, and revolutionize customer engagement, thus delivering substantial business value. Effective data collection, unification, interpretation, and governance are crucial for fostering beneficial data-sharing practices and unlocking new revenue streams. European retailers must eliminate data silos and establish robust data foundations as data has become the critical competitive advantage for embracing technological advancements, outpacing competitors, and delivering increased value to customers," said Sofia Poggi, senior research analyst, IDC Retail Insights.

Evolution of Connected Infotainment System with In-Vehicle App Store and OTA, 2024

Sandeep Mukunda — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation covers in detail some of the ongoing efforts, transition, and collaboration between OEMs and tech vendors. The new age connected in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems are embedded with standalone cellular connectivity, for supporting web-based user apps for navigation, online gaming, and streaming media content and security features, with over the air (OTA) update capability and AI-powered voice-based assistant to control the vehicle features. These advanced IVI features are mostly prevalent in electric vehicles and few existing premium gasoline and hybrid vehicles. The data usage for supporting cloud-based user applications infotainment system is anticipated to grow significantly, with newer generation of gas-powered vehicles and electric vehicles supporting App Store and reducing dependency on phone integration platforms such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A few OEMs with advanced connected IVI systems are providing variable subscription-based pricing packages for supporting infotainment connectivity. With maturity of the technology and expanding 5G coverage across other regions, a growing number of OEMs are anticipated of unveiling subscription pricing package. By 2030, with commercialization of these technologies, advanced IVI systems will also be available on mass manufactured models across several Auto OEM brands.

Top trends in connected IVI systems covered in this Market Presentation are:

Changing customer expectation from IVI features with EVs for navigation, charging, and entertainment
Transformation in connected infotainment system architecture and software for hosting inbuilt App Store
Auto OEMs developing in-house IVI OS and collaborating with tech vendors and other OEMs in open IVI groups
Auto OEMs phasing out phone projection technology in newer vehicles and the outlook of phone projection technology beyond 2030
Generative AI transforming voice-based IVI alerts and control with copilot for drivers

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Media Consultation, Integration, and Business Operations Cloud Service Providers 2024 Vendor Assessment

Alex Holtz — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an assessment of key vendors that have native cloud products and services in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry. Media customers are at an inflexion point driven by key technology and market trends, new cloud-based products and services offerings, and general discussions about the overall health of the M&E industry. The focus of this IDC MarketScape "is on the ability of a technology vendor to deliver on a TCO model that achieves the media company's financial and profitability objectives within a specified time frame. While 2024 confidence levels are lower for the overall industry, there is optimism about new opportunities yet to be developed and/or discovered.

Over-the-top (OTT) distribution, free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) cloud channel playout, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) business models are popular with the adoption of cloud services for M&E. Technology vendors are addressing these challenges with new offerings of native cloud solutions for parts or all the business cycle including production, distribution, and monetization. Shared risk, strategic partnership, and alignment of both engineering principles and road maps are the keys to success. In 2024, we expect new GenAI initiatives to help drive everything from achieving financial performance objectives to workflow efficiencies and improved monetization of assets. Data from all three business cycle pillars will help drive performance improvements versus plan where integration into business operations will aggregate, analyze, and act on them through automated processes to make course corrections and/or present dashboard metrics for intelligent decisioning.

Alex Holtz, research director, Worldwide Media and Entertainment Digital Strategies at IDC, remarked, "It is no longer about should customers adopt cloud services but rather how fast can they deploy solutions to drive more business as competition heats up and consumer adoption of streaming and interactive services continues to grow, placing increased demands on content creation, production, and distribution all with the metadata necessary for discovery and automated suggestions to facilitate the user experience. FAST-based OTT business models will dominate monetization strategies; live interactive sports programming will accelerate cord-cutting and drive viewership to OTT and technologies including AI/ML, data analytics, and security; and open standards–based APIs will drive industry growth for the foreseeable future. Vendors that account for these trends and address more of the business cycle and price products and services as SaaS and/or managed services to deliver excellent value and lowered total cost of ownership for the customer will succeed."

Japan Telecommunications Services Forecast, 2024–2028

Takahiro Mizukami — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This research report provides market forecasts and outlook for the Japan telecommunications services market from 2024 to 2028. In 2023, the Japan telecommunications services market saw sales growth in the enterprise WAN services market as employees returned to the office following the transition to Category 5 status of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many companies increased the connection speed to their bases, including guaranteed bandwidth lines. Thus, while the demand for closed networks remains strong, managed internet VPNs are also maintaining a high growth rate, driven by the penetration of frameworks, such as zero trust and SASE. Additionally, in the mobile communications service market, IoT demand is expanding further. Going forward, increases in the volume of data transmitted and growing efforts by companies to utilize data will create the demand for communication services, leading to continued growth in the market.

"In the enterprise WAN service market, there is strong demand for closed networks from companies that want stable communication quality, while companies that are moving toward zero trust are actively moving toward using the internet. Telecommunications carriers and systems integrators should expand their services fast so they can use enterprise demand for integrated network and security services as a growth driver for their enterprise business. In addition, in the IoT field, in preparation for the intensifying competition brought about by the maturation of 5G networks, companies should organize their strengths and capabilities and reposition themselves in the market," says Mizukami Takahiro, senior market analyst, Infrastructure and Devices, IDC Japan.

This is the English translation of the Japanese document IDC #JPJ50702624.

IDC's Worldwide Digital Transformation Use Case Taxonomy, 2024: Life Sciences

Nimita Limaye, Michael Townsend — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study discusses how digital transformation accurately characterizes the life science industry's ongoing efforts to transform itself as it seeks to find new paths to innovation, optimize operational efficiency and effectiveness, and regain long-term sustainability. As in other industries, the digital transformation journey begins with a common definition of the mission, strategic priorities, and programs so that individual projects or use cases can better align with a life science company's overall goals and objectives.

"Digital transformation continues to transform patient and HCP engagement and fuel innovation in the life science industry. With the increasing adoption of newer technologies such as federated learning platforms, prescription digital therapeutics, and the metaverse, including AR, VR, and MR, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the digital taxonomy for life sciences and to be cognizant of the use cases where these disruptive technologies are being applied," says Dr. Nimita Limaye, research VP, Life Science R&D Strategy and Technology, IDC Health Insights.

"Digital transformation in the life science industry is moving forward rapidly. Emerging technologies like generative AI are accelerating productivity for commercial teams by maximizing message impact and relevance while reducing duplicate or confusing interactions with HCPs. In life science supply chains, IoT networks and platforms are enabling tracking and monitoring of sensitive and rare biologic drugs, allowing rapid deployment to patients in critical need around the globe. From the manufacturing floor to doctors' offices, digital technology is improving quality, efficiency, and patient experience," says Michael Townsend, research director, Life Sciences Commercial Strategies, IDC Health Insights.

Mission Critical: Securing Omni-Channel Retail from Supply Chain to Cyberspace and Everything in Between

Margot Juros — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses the NRF Protect 2024 conference held in June, which highlighted escalating retail security threats from growing loss and fraud threats to supply chain vulnerabilities to more sophisticated cyberattacks and emphasized the need for integrated cyber and physical security strategies in the battle against retail crime. Key takeaways for retailers facing heightened levels of fraud, loss, and cybersecurity threats include breaking down security silos, leveraging integrated data and AI for fraud and loss prevention, the renewed importance of RFID, and more proactive measures against cyberthreats. Retailers are advised to adopt next-gen technology solutions and collaborative approaches to combat these evolving threats effectively and ensure business success.

"In an era of escalating and more sophisticated retail threats, new approaches and next-gen technology defenses are becoming imperative to beat back the retail crime of today as well as the evolving threats of tomorrow," said Margot Juros, research director, Worldwide Retail Technology Strategies at IDC.

At AHIP 2024, Financial Vendors Show Concern, Creativity in Member Benefits Utilization

Jeff Rivkin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note summarizes the forums around integrating benefits and being more responsive to member need at the AHIP 2024 conference held in Las Vegas, June 11–13. These presentations show how vendors with creative ideas can make the healthcare payments ecosystem better and the member engagement experience more fulfilling.

The CIO and Leading Technology Roles in EMEA: Developing Into Business Leaders

Martina Longo — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the evolving nature of the technology C-suite across EMEA organizations, from the evolution of the role of the CIO to the emergence of new roles such as the Chief AI Officer. It also provides guidance on how technology decision-making evolves when multiple technology leaders are present, and the importance of empowering the technology C-suite as an integral part of the business.

"With technology now a strategic enabler of business strategy and operations as well as multiple leaders present at once, organizations must provide structure and coordination around the technology C-suite to avoid the creation of new organizational silos and unleash true innovation," said Martina Longo, research manager, IDC European Digital Business Strategies.

Worldwide Augmented, Extended, Mixed, and Virtual Reality Headset Forecast Update, 2024–2028: CY 3Q24

Ramon T. Llamas — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents a five-year forecast for the worldwide augmented, extended, mixed, and virtual reality headset market.

"IDC's new taxonomy provides greater specificity and clarity when analyzing and comparing different products," says Ramon T. Llamas, research director, IDC's Augmented and Virtual Reality team. "VR headsets, made immensely popular by Meta, will eventually give way to multifaceted MR headsets. ER headsets — which we had previously included under AR headsets — will enjoy immense popularity, particularly among consumers that want to simply view and interact with 2D content. Meanwhile, shipments of AR headsets will remain low throughout the forecast period and will mostly fall into the realm of commercial users who need access to digital content and view the real world at the same time."