Investments in Digital Engineering to Account for 37% of the ER&D Market by 2023 Says Zinnov

  • The Global Corporate Engineering and R&D spend is in excess of USD 1.2 Tn in 2018
  • Z1000 organizations account for USD 812 Bn of the global R&D Spend
  • Digital Engineering spend is estimated at USD 293 Bn and accounts for 24% of overall Global Corporate Engineering Spend
    • North America accounts for 58% of the Digital Engineering spend
    • APAC accounts for 22% of the Digital Engineering spend. China accounts for one-third of the APAC Digital Engineering spend, driven by investments from BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent)

SANTA CLARA, California and BANGALORE, December 18, 2018 : Zinnov, a leading management and strategy consulting firm, today released its global rankings of Services Providers in the ER&D segment for 2018. The study titled, ‘Zinnov Zones 2018 – ER&D Services,’ is an analysis of the Global Engineering R&D landscape, emerging players and verticals, and assessment of Service Providers in this space. According to the study, the total Corporate Engineering and R&D spend by organizations worldwide is pegged at USD 1.2 Tn in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6+% to cross USD 1.7 Tn by 2023. Digital Engineering is expected to drive growth in Corporate ER&D spending over the next 5 years and to define the new core of companies across industries.

There is an increased focus on Digital Engineering in verticals such as automotive, aerospace, medical devices, and industrial to drive operational efficiencies and enhance customer experience. This is also enabling alternative revenue streams for enterprises. This continued focus on Digital Engineering across verticals will boost related spend at a CAGR of 17% through the next 5 years and Digital Engineering spend will grow from a current USD 293 Bn in 2018 to touch USD 642 Bn by 2023.

Zinnov also shared that, Digital Engineering is also being seen as a means to “Renew the old” and “Build the new” by R&D spenders. However, transformation through Digital Engineering is not easy as there are challenges associated with legacy complexities, change management, cannibalization concerns, etc. These challenges, however, are translating to sizeable opportunities for the ER&D Service Provider community. R&D spenders are leveraging ER&D Service Providers to manage the old by means of large product and GIC carve-out programs, renew the oldthrough modernization, and build the new to enhance their products/services portfolio.

Speaking about the findings, Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, said, “Even though Traditional Enterprises have been increasing Digital Spend, only Tech Mafias have been successful with Digital Innovation, until now. Traditional enterprises need to use a multi-pronged strategy to combat the disruption and transform simultaneously. They need to embrace iterative product innovation, extreme agility, continuous learning collaboration -internal and external and also create highly collaborative environments. This will help drive transformation in a definitive way.”  

On Service Providers building Digital Engineering capabilities, Pari added, “Service Providers need to invest along multiple dimensions such as infrastructure, ecosystem connects, IP, talent, etc., to build Digital Engineering capabilities to drive competitive differentiation. Those Service Providers who focus on embedding digital technologies with digital outcomes and build deep capabilities to drive transformational change will succeed.”