SINGAPORE, Sept 22^nd, 2017: The latest forecast from the IDC Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Education Sector IT Forecast, 2015-2020 reveals that technology spending will increase from US$9.8 billion in 2015 to US$11.8 billion by 2020, with a modest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.86% from 2015 to 2020.

"Developments in artificial intelligence and mobility solutions through the growth of Big Data and analytics (BDA) technologies will likely boost personalization in education eservices. Also, innovative deployments of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are expected to increase overall campus strategic operational effectiveness," says Shreyashi Pal, Market Analyst, IDC Government and Education Insights Asia Pacific. "Central education organizations will leverage the cloud to further all-of-organization agendas in cost savings and operational efficiencies through increased cloud-related IT consolidation and shared services initiatives," adds Jaideep Thyagarajan, Senior Market Analyst, IDC Australia.

Other highlights include:

• In the APEJ education sector, the PRC remains the biggest absolute spender followed by Australia, India, Korea. Indonesia has the highest CAGR at 8%, followed by PRC (7%), Thailand (5%), Philippines (4%) and South Korea (4 %).

• Hardware spending remains a critical IT investment component (e.g. IT infrastructure projects) for the education sector in Australia, India, South Korea and PRC. Desktop and portable PCs are the major areas of hardware spending in the education sector.

• Software is the next spending focus domain, followed by IT applications. Interestingly, the leading drivers of IT investments in education are related to bringing about better operational outcomes through cost reduction and IT consolidation initiatives.

• Based on education sub-verticals, the APEJ Higher Education market represents the largest IT spending in Asia Pacific region, particularly in the PRC, Australia, India and Korea; with Indonesia showcasing the highest five-year CAGR growth (8%)

• In 2017, in absolute IT spend numbers, the PRC, Australia, India, and South Korea show larger hardware, software, and IT services combined spend as compared with other countries in the APEJ region

• Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand are the top 3 countries with the highest education IT spend per capita. This highlights the transformative impetus to stay ahead of an increasingly competitive industry through exploiting state-of-the-art digital technologies

"The strategic use of IT in increasingly personalized curricula, blended learning environments, collaborative ecosystems, as well as Smart Campus initiatives for operational excellence are expected to lead to new technological sourcing, and management and accountability models to cater to the diverse needs of individual learners, teaching staff and campus administrative teams," concludes Gerald Wang, Head of IDC Government and Education Insights Asia Pacific. This, however is not a straightforward endeavor.