Digital Transformation Accelerated Due to Covid-19: — The Beginning of Technology’s Immortal Existence
By: Vedant Sanodiya
Tags: Business Development, Changing World, Covid 19, Coronavirus, Digital Transformation

The rapid development of global technology has revolutionized the way the world functions. During the past decade, much has been changed in the digital landscape which has a big impact on almost every industry. The 2000s have marked the beginning of a digital era that is never-ending. The biggest accelerator of the digital transformation is the Covid-19 pandemic that strokes without caution. Everyone has imagined a situation where people are not allowed to come out of their premises because of a deadly disease. The thought has always been in people’s minds as movies and dramas promoted the concept for a long time. Still, the world was not prepared to face the pandemic when it actually happened. Businesses that embraced digital changes in the organizational system won the race and reached an unpredicted height in a short period. However, other organizations faced a downturn due to their inability to leverage technology. While those businesses reported losses and other challenges related to the coronavirus effects, businesses that have implemented digital transformation have contrarily increased their profits.

One of the troublesome parts for companies was to connect with consumers remotely. Companies strived to remain agile and constantly adapted strategies to stay on the edge of the digital marketplace. Connecting with consumers faster more effectively and personally is essential to doing business in the modern world. Ultimately, the only solution that organizations had in hand was to undergo a digital transformation to achieve those goals. Even though when organizations struggled at the beginning, they somehow managed to secure a stable place in the digital world. Businesses are also rephrasing their strategy with technology for a better tomorrow. When the actual time came for transformation, thriving in the digital world was not as difficult as people imagined. It was partly sloppy, but somehow businesses managed to get through it well.

In just a few months, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. Companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and their internal operations by three to four years. And the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has accelerated by a shocking seven years. Nearly all respondents say that their companies have stood up at least temporary solutions to meet many of the new demands on them, and much more quickly than they had thought possible before the crisis. What’s more, respondents expect most of these changes to be long lasting and are already making the kinds of investments that all but ensure they will stick. In fact, when we see the data present, we can clearly see that funding for digital initiatives has increased more than anything else — more than increases in costs, the number of people in technology roles, and the number of customers. To stay competitive in this new business and economic environment requires new strategies and practices. Many findings by survey & research suggest that executives are taking note: most respondents recognize technology’s strategic importance as a critical component of the business, not just a source of cost efficiencies. Respondents from the companies that have executed successful responses to the crisis report a range of technology capabilities that others don’t — most notably, filling gaps for technology talent during the crisis, the use of more advanced technologies, and speed in experimenting and innovating.

The notion of a tipping point for technology adoption or digital disruption isn’t new, but many survey data suggest that the COVID-19 crisis is a tipping point of historic proportions — and that more changes will be required as the economic and human situation evolves. The results also show that some significant lessons can be drawn from the steps organizations have already taken. One is the importance of learning, both tactically, in the process of making specific changes to businesses (which technologies to execute, and how), and organizationally (how to manage change at a pace that far exceeds that of prior experiences). Both types of learning will be critical going forward since the pace of change is not likely to slow down. Not every business has the capability to embrace technology. This has gone wrong in many ways in recent months with companies barely managing to strive in the tycoon of digital transformation. The flip side of this digital transformation is that many other enterprises and smaller companies are a long way down the road in their transformational effort. Henceforth, it is always advisable to be precautious about technology and the disruption it could bring.