Global survey reveals consumers and businesses recognize advantages of digital cohesion

Juniper Networks has revealed the results of extensive global market research into business and consumer attitudes towards the readiness for an era of Digital Cohesion, where predictive, automated, network-based mega-services adapt to user behavior, enabling better decision-making and enriching personal and business lives. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 27 - March 2, 2017.

The 16-country survey suggests business and consumer users see Digital Cohesion as an inevitable, positive societal development. Consumers anticipate it will bring certain advantages, ranging from improved community infrastructure with more responsive, effective emergency services to more efficient use of personal time, improved education and learning capabilities, lower living costs such as greater home energy efficiency and more informed decision-making. Business respondents say Digital Cohesion will deliver advantages including increased productivity, improved budget efficiency, new workforce management models and business service innovation. And with mobile devices serving as data collection points to drive mega-services, we believe telecommunication service providers will need to re-examine the way they architect their networks in order to support this era.

Security Concerns: Users to Make Careful Choice of Trusted Provider Brands

The survey also highlights that consumer and business respondents have concerns about security and compliance around mega-services. It also indicates these concerns will be significantly more influential than design and aesthetic preferences on user behavior and brand choices. These findings suggest that trust is non-negotiable for users and a thoughtful, proactive approach to security provisioning within these mega-services is paramount.

Highlights include:

Consumer Response Data

Living Smarter & Greener

• Sixty per cent (Seventy three percent India) of consumer respondents expect their surroundings to become ‘smarter’ over the next five years, as services and apps become more integrated and automated.
• Fifty-eight percent (Seventy one percent India) cite ‘time saving’ as a key benefit of smarter services in their daily lives; 43 per cent (55 per cent India) believe smart services will deliver more useful information leading to better decision making; 27 per cent (34 per cent India) believe it will reduce the cost of living.
• In a world where Digital Cohesion leads to mega-services, 61 percent (58 per cent India) of consumers surveyed expect to see improved energy consumption as a result of these services, while 51 per cent (52 per cent India) expect to see better support/response from emergency services.
• Seventy-five per cent (Seventy seven per cent India) of consumer respondents say they rely on mobile connections to live safer, smarter and more efficient lives.

Trust Matters

• Fifty-three per cent (Sixty three per cent India) of consumer respondents specify security as the most important factor when selecting a new smart device.
• Seventy-seven percent (Eighty two per cent India) of consumer respondents specify trust as “important” for an integrated, connected service-related device. Seventy-six per cent (Ninety per cent India) also say brand is an important factor when choosing a ‘smart’ service provider.
• By comparison, only 20 per cent (43 per cent India) of consumer respondents consider design as a very important factor in smart services.

Business Response Data

Driving Business Advantage

• Ninety percent (Fifty per cent India) of business respondents expect business services innovation to result from Digital Cohesion; 91 per cent (92 per cent India) also expect it to enable flexible new workforce management capabilities.
• When considering the biggest commercial benefits resulting from Digital Cohesion, 60 per cent (79 per cent India) of business respondents cite increased automation and control capabilities and 58 per cent (68 per cent India) cite increased productivity.
• Fifty-one percent (Seventy one percent India) of business respondents also expect Digital Cohesion to deliver improved customer experience within their organizations.

Trust is Critical

• Sixty-six percent (Eighty two per cent India) of business respondents see security/compliance as the biggest risk factor in Digital Cohesion, yet only 25 percent (51 per cent India) say they are “completely ready” to trust the security in the underlying networks and devices.
• When thinking about dealing with the consequences of more smart devices being introduced into an organization’s network infrastructure, 85 per cent (91 percent India) of business respondents expect to manage the influx pragmatically rather than restricting devices as a way to counteract security concerns.