Navigating the COVID-19 crisis: Necessity is the mother of transformation

By Andrew Munnik, Managing Executive: Sales & Marketing.

Johannesburg, 11 Jun 2020
Andrew Munnik
Andrew Munnik

We often think of change as necessary in the modern world of today; it is what makes us develop and advance the interests of humankind. As creatures of habit, though, change is often difficult. We try to avoid it because change brings uncertainty and we do not like uncertainty, right? Welcome to our world in the year 2020.

Life on earth as we know it has changed beyond recognition. In response to travel bans, school closures and recommendations to keep our distance from others – many of us are adapting to new remote working environments, managing home-schooling and trying to adjust to this ‘new normal’ that’s been forced on us.

In between our efforts to cope with the immense disruption of the way we socialise and conduct our business activities, it became evident that there is in fact a silver lining to this ominous cloud. Businesses worldwide suffered in unprecedented ways and yet those who survive this pandemic will do so stronger and better than ever before. Agility and resilience became the secret ingredients to innovation, and digital transformation became possible in days, not years. While most CIOs would prefer a more orderly transition, digital transformation on a greater scale must now be considered in terms of weeks and months, rather than years.

Through these times, business leaders realised the positive aspects of a remote workforce. Productivity increased while certain elements of digital transformation were being implemented in record speed, not because we wanted to, but because we had to.

Necessity has become the mother of transformation

The old saying goes: ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and this is truer than ever. The meaning is simple – if you are looking for a solution to a problem or trying to find a way to do something important, you’ll figure it out. While companies around the world are forced to navigate their way through these uncharted waters, our ability to maintain some form of ‘business as usual’ is essential if we’re to come out the other side and emerge stronger than before.

As it turns out, necessity is also the mother of transformation. The outbreak has firmly brought transformation to the top of the business agenda, demonstrating that in today’s world, digital is a necessity and a matter of survival, not just nice to have. More importantly, being forced by circumstances to implement change quickly, we proved to ourselves that a long-winded digital transformation strategy is not necessarily required.

What does all this transformation mean for the ‘new normal’?

In a bid to flatten the curve, the ability to work remotely has become essential for most employees globally, with many countries like South Africa having been under forced lockdown. However, beyond this crisis, indicators suggest the work from home concept is set to become an even more prominent part of many businesses. In fact, a recent study by Gartner revealed that 74% of CFOs expect to move at least 5% of their previously on-site employees to permanent remote roles post COVID-19 after witnessing the associated benefits.

Additionally, businesses are beginning to observe that having most staff working remotely has benefits. Productivity increased, online meetings are more efficient and the possibility to introduce diversity in the workforce became easier. Those employees who have previously avoided a typical office-based environment, such as those less physically able, or carers with young children, can now be integrated into a modern workforce using intuitive collaboration tools. From a recruiting standpoint, this possibility widens the talent pool available to businesses and presents career opportunities to diverse groups, bringing about a positive change for many.

Redesigning IT infrastructure to accommodate a remote workforce

In order to support their workforce, business leaders have been forced to rethink how their employees operate and how IT infrastructure can be redesigned to accommodate new ways of working. Over the past few months, we have seen an acceleration in businesses adopting hybrid infrastructure solutions to sustain business continuity in these difficult times.

In South Africa, we have seen a spike in online retail and in many cases the business processes to make this possible were managed by staff who were forced to do so working from home. Logicalis South Africa assisted some clients to move their frontline call centre operations to operate remotely in as little time as one weekend. To meet customer expectations and ensure optimal experiences online, retailers are increasingly moving to hybrid cloud environments to cope with the sudden spike in online demand.

Furthermore, the increasing number of organisations enabling remote working policies has led to a greater awareness of, and need for, robust security and IT redundancy solutions.

Adopting a human-centric business model

While technological resilience can help organisations survive the crisis, beyond the technology there is a human element we must not neglect, as social beings working in isolation has shown us that mental health awareness and the steps to address well-being should now form part of every employer’s tool kit. Employers must do what they can to empower their staff to work safely from their homes and feel connected as a team. At the end of the day, the happiness and productivity of a dispersed workforce is what will keep a business thriving.

It may be hard to envisage right now, but there is light at the end of this gloomy tunnel – the world will be a better place when we emerge from this crisis. Technology will advance quicker, workforces will become diverse and both businesses and people will be more resilient. A brighter future is being built and it’s clear that ICT is crucial in this battle.

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