THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON BUSINESS DIGITALIZATION
Authors:   State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”, Shylnikova Zoya , Matushkina Mariia ,   State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”
Published: April 2022

In the context of the difficult epidemiological situation and the transition of many companies to remote work, the level of digitalization of enterprises is particularly relevant. There is an understanding among entrepreneurs that digital technologies today are the key to the viability and success of a business. However, not all business representatives were able to quickly rebuild their business processes to a remote format of work: those who did not have time to do this today suffer losses. The purpose of the article is to study the features of the digital economy during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify its impact on Business Development Prospects. In the course of the study, methods of comparison, systematization and logical generalization were used (during the study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic development indicators of business entities). Before the pandemic, the discussion around digitalization mainly focused on the concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. The pandemic has led to the fact that even those companies and industries that were previously relatively backward in this regard were involved in digitalization. During the pandemic, the transfer of employees to remote work using ICT has become unprecedented, and the duration of the pandemic has launched a long-term process of introducing new types of ICT goods and services. New directions have emerged, and technologies that were previously in their infancy have begun to gain momentum and develop their potential in an accelerated mode. In the context of the new coronavirus pandemic, companies are forced to demonstrate a fairly high ability to adapt to new realities, one of the forms of which is the transformation of existing business models. Restrictions in the travel industry, the closure of many offline points of sale, and the transfer of millions of employees around the world to remote work – all this entails serious economic consequences. Therefore, the ability to survive and maintain growth potential in a crisis is determined by the ability of companies to transform their businesses. It is safe to say that only those organizations that respond quickly and accurately to the current global challenge, including through transformation, will be able not only to maintain their position, but also to significantly strengthen it in individual positions. It is noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected private ICT companies, contributing to their growth, but also accelerated the digitalization of the public sector in many countries. It is proposed to accelerate the digitalization of business in the context of a pandemic: to increase the level of knowledge and skills in the digital environment of personnel and managers of organizations; to strengthen state support in the form of allocating budget funds for business digitalization; to increase the level of information security at enterprises of various sizes and forms of ownership.