How Covid-19 is accelerating Digital Transformation among Business | Insights — aTeam India
COVID-19 — a catalyst of change — caught the world by an unpleasant surprise and disrupted businesses and society worldwide. It has forced people to contemplate life, their daily routines or even entertainment, while also challenging businesses to take hard decisions and rethink their strategies, in order to sustain continuity. The unprecedented crisis of Covid-19 pandemic has pushed us further into the digital world and left businesses no choice but to innovate and digitally transform, to put themselves into a better position.
In response to many aspects of life going on hold, people have turned to digital tools. While some organizations are finding it hard to fully adapt to the situation, some are charging full steam ahead on digital transformation. Though 70% of the businesses had started the digital initiative even before the Covid-19 crises but, up until now, it remained an elusive long-term goal. However, the drastic crises have accelerated pathway and businesses are now fast-tracking digital transformation to be ahead of their competition and to ensure they are prepared for what comes ahead in the future.
According to Harvard Business Review, $1.3 trillion was spent on digital transformation in 2018, out of which $900 billion went to waste. But momentarily, with hundreds of thousands of people working from home, everyone is heavily focused on learning the tools to make remote work possible. There’s a need for digital flexibility, the right processes and tools which allow all employees to carry out their tasks efficiently such as connectivity, security and collaborative solutions. With this, businesses are hinging and investing in digital platforms, boosting up the tech market and the belief that this transformation is necessary has had a success rate of 89%.
Here’s how the pandemic is accelerating Digital Transformation
This transformation is critical for all businesses and brands, now more than ever. There have been mass-shutdowns from many industries, therefore, businesses have to adapt to the new environment fast, in order to succeed. They have to transform digitally to ensure the safety of employees and to move all their operations remotely.
Let’s uncover how companies and industries are accelerating their digital transformation efforts during Covid-19 -
1) Telemedicine
Telehealth was already in process before the pandemic struck but the need for it has become more urgent. The demand for telehealth has now spiked dramatically in the last few months. With healthcare transitioning to digital platforms, millions of people can now seek medical attention or guidance, electronically while still following the social distancing rules. Telehealth adoption in the US, for instance, has grown around 3,000% and 39% of US physicians are using telemedicine and public health officials are pushing towards expanding it further.
Here’s how digital transformation in healthcare is shifting into a higher gear -
2) Offline Events going Online
The Corona virus outbreak has forced people to work from home, thus cancelling in-person conferences worldwide for safety reasons. In order to carry out business objectives efficiently, employees need to communicate, exchange ideas and build further relationships. Which has pushed them to switch to virtual events or meetings.
There has been a rise in webinars and live videos. And the platforms which combine video and networking are in demand because they bridge the gap between in-person meetings and virtual ones, allowing everyone to make the most of it.
Luckily, Google and Microsoft now provide free platforms i.e. Google Meet & Microsoft Teams, where you can schedule or start video meetings, which have made connecting with employees much easier.
3) Automation everywhere
The entire global supply chain has been disrupted due to Covid-19 situation. Most of the manufacturing companies had to either stop their production and close down or reduce their capacity. Which is where the concept of ‘Dark Factory’ came into play — Fully automated factory mode with no minimal to no humans on site. According to PWC report, 91% of industrial companies are investing in digitalized factories, with 6% defined as fully digitized. The trends are catching up in other nations and with a surge in automation, the numbers will spike.
In telehealth, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics integration in many hospitals to help the medical staff in serving patients. For instance, Boston Dynamics’ spot robots are being used in hospitals which are helping in taking some load off of doctors by performing tasks like delivering food and medications, measuring vital signs etc.
4) More concern for digital security
The security breaches have spiked amid Codid-19 Pandemic. According to Google report, a 350% increase in phishing websites has been registered, and this substantial increase in cybercriminals has been in the last three months. Sensitive data and information of the organizations, clients and customers, needs securing. For this, IT assets i.e. Servers, Laptops, Mobiles etc., are to be secured by deploying the right tools.
The emphasis on “Information Security” and securing IT assets focuses on not only the enterprise’s security, but enables Digital security per person, working from home.
5) Enabling work from home
Even though the concept of working from home was infamous among many companies, the pandemic has jolted their work routines and forced them in allowing their employees to work from home. Many large organizations such as Amazon, Google, Twitter etc., have encouraged their employees to work from home, for their own safety. They’re adopting new working policies for remote working.
Though many companies lacked the tech infrastructure to smoothly work remotely, the unexpected change in the scenario has them fast-track digital transformation and realize the benefits of it.
6) Revamp sales channel strategy
The lockdown has changed consumer buying behaviour and revealed new patterns, which might continue for a long-run. While some may switch back to their normal buying mode after the conditions get better, others may continue with the way they’ve adapted during the lockdown.
According to PYMNTS’ Report, 30.6% of consumers are more likely to make purchases online in 2020, than they were in 2019. The number of consumers using mobile phones to shop has increased from 49.6% to 72.1%.
The bricks-and-mortar companies who were resistant to the digital platforms are accelerating digital transformation, with 25% of retailers launching e-stores during the pandemic.
7) Rethinking traditional Education
Just as employees are getting used to efficiently working from home, students are adapting to the new way of learning — Virtual Education. In 2017, approximately 77% of the used virtual or online learning. However, as Covid-19 occurred worldwide, schools and universities closed down their campuses and turned to virtual learning options. Currently, 98% of education organizations plan to incorporate e-learning, most of them have already made a swift transition and switched the semester’s work to virtual.
Though top universities already had the tools to make this transition easily, many others are not ready to start online classes. Majority of education organizations were not prepared for full transformation but the pandemic has certainly boosted the process. With tremendous success in digital transformation and online educational model, the market is projected to be worth $325 Billion by 2025.
Final Thoughts
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In these times crises, businesses have no choice but to work on their strategies and digitally transform themselves. Remote work has become the new way of working and businesses have to cope with it. However, this transformation is complex and the rate of a successful conversion is very low. The key is to communicate with the entire workforce, bring them on board and use the right set of tools to make things work smoothly.
Digital Transformation has worked for many businesses because their leaders have believed this is the right step and the only way to move forward, given the circumstances. They’ve focused on changing their work culture, strategies and embraced the changes. Once all this is over, the dynamics, in the post-corona virus phase, will be different and we all need to stay prepared to emerge from the edge. Thus, deciding the process, knowing which tools to use and how to use them is crucial.
aTeamIndia — Your tech partner
According to research, most businesses which failed to successfully transform digitally lacked knowledge and the correct tools to work on. It’s a process which requires people — a team — and technology. An efficient team can build a solid digital strategy with the right tech guidance and technology and aTeamIndia can help you achieve that.
Digital Transformation relies upon technology and businesses need to apply it. We, aTeamIndia, can help you make the transition of tech-enabled digital transformation, with the web development services and assets which deliver proven results.
Originally published at www.ateamindia.com on June 26, 2020.
