Businesses in Ireland Unprepared for Rise of E-commerce according to Equinix survey

Equinix, Inc., the global Interconnection and data centre company, have announced the results of a survey which found organisations in Ireland were unprepared for the central role e-commerce would play in doing business in 2020. The survey of 103 IT decision-makers in Ireland, showed that towards the end of last year, just 37% of enterprises were planning to increase investment in their e-commerce capabilities over the following 12-month period.

Equinix’s Tech Trends Survey was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses in Ireland and across the world to move their operations online. And the results showed that the overwhelming majority of medium to large-sized enterprises did not view investment in e-commerce capabilities as an imminent priority. The survey also found less than one-third (31%) of IT leaders in Ireland believed blockchain—which can make digital payments faster and more secure—would be essential to their organisation within the next three years.

These reported plans came despite the fact that global trends showed a move towards a more digitised way of doing business. Last year’s third annual Global Interconnection Index (GXI) forecast interconnection bandwidth requirements between enterprises and financial services providers would grow by 56% CAGR by 2022—reflecting a significant increase in the number of companies directly connecting to financial services partners, including digital payment providers.

Digitisation comes in many forms, and the survey did show digital transformation was on the agenda for many—enterprises in Ireland are looking at other ways in which they can digitise their businesses. More than two-thirds (68%) of organisations surveyed reported that improving their customer and user experience online was a top priority.

Highlights/Key Facts of Equinix survey

• In order to compete in an increasingly digital world—further spurred by COVID-19—businesses in Ireland must ramp up their e-commerce capabilities. Digital payments require real-time collaboration across various mobile networks, operators, financial institutions, card networks, retailers and fraud protection services—all of which need to be connected and seamlessly interacting to make processes as smooth as possible for the end customer.
• Digital wallet transactions—such as those happening via blockchain—require direct and secure interconnection that will enable companies to be as close as possible to their partners and dispersed digital wallet users.
• Equinix enables businesses to directly connect to issuing and acquiring banks, payments systems and converging services—bringing them to the centre of a comprehensive digital payment ecosystem. Companies can leverage Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™) to privately interconnect clouds, networks and services, bypassing the public internet to gain instant and secure access to business-critical partners including brokers, digital wallets and market data providers. In doing so, they can lower costs, latency, time-to-market and downtime, while increasing security.
• Equinix protects and connects the critical digital assets of global financial services firms in the world’s top financial centres, helping enterprises to seamlessly enter, and thrive in, the digital payments space via its worldwide portfolio of over 210 data centres across more than 50 markets.

Maurice Mortell, Managing Director for Ireland, Equinix commented:

“COVID-19 has shown us that digital transformation is now so central to the global economy, enterprises can fail if they don’t, or are unable to, digitally evolve. Of course, none of us foresaw how 2020 would unfold, but the world was moving towards a more digital way of doing business long before COVID-19. And while no one anticipates a pandemic, unexpected events can and do happen. Organisations must therefore continually look at trends and respond to them quickly and appropriately. Ensuring an organisation has the right digital infrastructure in place is one of the best ways business leaders can protect it against the unexpected.”

Adrian Mountstephens, Senior Manager, Payment and Banking Ecosystems, Equinix added:

“Whether you are a local butcher or a global bank, if your customers cannot transact with you online, then you have a serious revenue issue at the moment. Digital transformation is not just a buzz word, it is a real necessity, and COVID-19 has highlighted that. There isn’t a business in the world that in the last few months, hasn’t wondered how digital can help it to stay afloat or even thrive amidst the uncertainty. When traditional bricks and mortar channels are no longer open or accessible, it is the only way a business can ensure its products are in front of customers. 

“The current situation is going to inspire an entirely new way of thinking and doing business, and blockchain will play a major role in this. It will be leveraged by enterprises from across the spectrum to facilitate normal commercial activities such as payments or proof-of-ownership. But to maximise the real value of this shift, enterprises will need to take advantage of highly interconnected cloud-based ecosystems—such as those supported by Platform Equinix—to deliver blockchain at their digital edge, where their partners and customers are actually located.”

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