How to Adapt and Operate Digitally Post-Pandemic
Blog: The Tibco Blog
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In 2020, we have seen an unprecedented amount of change in business operations. The push for digital transformation that was accompanied by an unexpected global pandemic has changed technology boundaries. Over the last six months, organizations that had not prioritized digital transformation pre-pandemic have been forced to switch paths. It has come with higher costs, gaps in global operation, and proliferation in customer complaints.
According to recent surveys, 70% of companies said that their companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one. Only 21% of companies think they have achieved a complete digital transformation, and an overwhelming 56% of businesses are still transforming, but their investment and scope of transformation remain small.
According to a recent Statista report, “Digital transformation market revenue worldwide from 2017-2023”, the spending on the technologies and services that enable digital transformation worldwide is expected to amount to 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars. However, data from organizations tell a different story, 38% of organizations say they are stalled during the scaling phase, 12% say they are stalled at pilot phase, 12% have scaled but stalled before achieving full impact, and 12% have not achieved digital transformation. The skill gap between traditional and digital teams is becoming one of the biggest challenges.
The survey respondents admitted that despite the benefits of digital technologies, challenges with the training of current employees on new technology, buy-in from executives, and defining policies and procedures for governance leading to complexity with legacy technology were causing roadblocks. These challenges presented themselves far before anyone could have imagined a global pandemic. And this has led to many complaints and service disruptions during the pandemic.
Studies are finding that consumers faced digital service problems during the work-from-home push. The COVID pandemic was the first time the idea of digital-first was used on a massive scale, and flaws were experienced. Further, survey data show that people will continue to use digital services in the same capacity even after the directive to work from home expires.
Where Should Businesses Focus in the Post-pandemic World?
Here are three steps you can take that will help ensure smoother business operations:
1. End-to-End experience will lead
A recent survey by xMatters predicted that over 75% of the IT professionals believe that their organizations are well equipped to deal with the rising consumption of digital services and have products and services to deal with it. However, consumers and employees under the new normal say there has been a gap between technical team overview and the consumer. More than half (54%) of consumers experienced errors in applications and digital services after the work-from-home directive. Operational resilience to support existing infrastructure requirements and bringing new flexible technology should be the main priority in the post-pandemic world.
2. Building resilient solutions for present and future
Maintaining business continuity became a challenge with a sudden hit on the stop button, so moving forward, making your organization fault-tolerant should be a priority. It’s estimated that 90% of consumers will be using digital services or applications to perform their jobs. Combine that with the fact that the CDC estimates a second wave of COVID-19 in the future, business leaders need to prepare themselves to be able to overcome the challenges of disruption like trade wars, environmental effects, and human-made, and natural disasters. The pandemic situation can be an opportunity for leaders to move towards resilient solutions and to build operational efficiency for the present and future.
3. Infrastructure privacy and security
Work from home brought new privacy concerns and threats for consumers and employees, from setting-up private Wi-Fi to video conferencing. The number of access points with the usage of several devices has made organizations more vulnerable. They have had to deal with multiple unprecedented security threats. Despite being protected by several internal configurations, the threat from poor network configuration and outdated security software still remains for many organizations. A recent example is a phishing email appearing to be from WHO that affected many users and crippled organizations whose employees use personal devices to access the business network. It’s imperative that organizations make security one of their top priorities post-pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the rate of digitization, and organizations have started upskilling their workforce to meet the new technology demands. According to the IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2020 Predictions (Doc # US45569118, October 2019):
• By 2023, information and communication technology (ICT) spending on digital transformation will grow by 50%, up from 36% today, and will focus on data intelligence and analytics.
• By 2023, 50% of organizations that are currently neglecting market-driven operations will lose market share to new digital market entries and competitors that have invested in digital transformation.
• By 2024, AI-powered enterprises that align their operational changes with market reactions will respond 50% faster than their peers.
Organizations need to be wary about the unforeseen situations created by the pandemic and potentially any natural or man-made disaster, which can greatly affect productivity. Organizations need to take the above steps by strengthening relationships between executive leadership and employees to help them build a transformative culture. Organizations will need to define future cultural goals derived by new digital metrics and traditional individual metrics. This new goal setting will encourage employees to commit to reskilling and upskilling, again ensuring the future of an organization.
COVID was the first time the idea of digital-first was used on a massive scale, and flaws were experienced. Survey data show that people will continue to use digital services in the same capacity even after work-from-home expires.
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To get your organization moving towards operational efficiency and resilience post-pandemic, contact us.
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