How the current situation impact the digital revolution in businesses

Digital Transformation and digital revolution

The digital transformation of our society, which was supposed to take place many years ago, was rather not the announced revolution but a slowly creeping machine that failed to reach the desired destination. The lack of specialists, ideas, procedures, money, and the constant postponement of the need to make changes for other, better times was a destructive mechanism for many micro and small entrepreneurs.

It took only 94 days from the first reported case of COVID-19 to 2.1 million sick people worldwide. Ninety-three percent of countries have reported cases, resulting in rapid global social isolation. This meant that many companies, to keep their businesses afloat, had to transform at an express pace and learn to live in a new and unfamiliar environment. The same was true for state institutions and SOEs.

Nevertheless, the situation we found ourselves in can still serve as an inflammatory material for us to move forward and bring our companies into the digital world. People forced to maintain social distance and work from home are making technology more important than ever. As data shows, ZOOM – one of the most popular business video calling apps – has grown from 10 million to 200 million participants in teleconference meetings (every day) in just 3 months. As you can see, we cannot stay in close physical contact, but we still need to be able to communicate with each other both privately and professionally.

Trends and reports of the digital revolution

Mary Meeker, who compiles the Internet Trends Report each year, points out that the world around us will never be the same again. Social shock, and its constant recurrence, are causing irreversible change.

Viruses and microbes will forever be considered periodic catastrophic agents, and only creative thinking can help us stave off disaster.

Rapid change drives growth in both directions:

• scientists/engineers/field experts get more seats at the tables;
• sustainable work-life is coming back into favor; digital transformation is accelerating;
• on-demand services are on the rise; the role of government in stabilizing/stimulating the economy (and jobs) is changing, which is only possible with modern technology;
• 2020 will be a year of change for healthcare as well;

The pace of digital transformation

• Local restaurants are delivering food directly to cars or homes,
• stores are selling their products online, and those grocery stores are opening up to home delivery,
• big brands are increasing their online sales efforts, while offline ones are fading away,
• instructors are teaching virtual and classes,
• students are moving to virtual instruction,
• families are enjoying digital entertainment,
• companies are increasing spending on cloud-based IT solutions,
• medicine is undergoing a huge shift towards telemedicine,
• and startups are creating innovative solutions to help fight the global epidemic.

The above-mentioned trends clearly indicate that in order for our company to further develop, we should bet on solutions such as:

• cloud technologies that allow teams to work from almost anywhere,
• production of necessities (it is worth remembering what is the hierarchy of needs, the so-called Maslow’s pyramid),
• increasing presence on the Internet, social media,
• e-commerce (World Trade Organization mentions 32% decrease of trade turnover in the world) and ease in finding products sought by consumers,
• effective ways to distribute products to consumers in times of limited contact (Click-and-Collect – see our Polish Collectomate),
• investments in products that increase digital efficiency of enterprises, including Industry 4.0 and integration of critical data within key processes,
• continuing and further developing remote working by employees;

Summary

It seems that the digital economy will come out of the current situation even stronger than before. This is one of the few prospects that offers hope in the face of all the negative news we’ve heard in the near term.

The world is not ending. Only our lives and businesses will simply be different.