For those who survived the initial shock of the COVID-19 crisis, the question is: Now what? Since there is no going back to business as usual, it is time for companies to turn the page and concentrate on planning for mid- to long-term priorities.
To achieve this, the C-suite led by the CIO should agree on an integrated and targeted investment strategy to turn the business model from survival to revival mode.
Building resilience with cloud technologies
Cloud was an urgent business imperative even before the pandemic. Our research shows that interest in the cloud increased significantly in the second and third quarters of 2020.
Many businesses experienced first-hand the vital role that cloud plays in a company’s digitisation agenda. Those businesses that already had a ‘cloud-first’ approach were able to innovate faster, create new revenue streams, and derive more insights from data.
80% of business executives are now looking to cloud as a means of mitigating business uncertainty and lowering risk. A further 87% view cloud as a critical component of their strategy for achieving their corporate sustainability goals.
Microsoft announced that they had seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months and this pace is not likely to ease up.
Digital transformation as the solution for business revival and growth may not be new, but the urgency is. CIOs need to accelerate their company’s technology strategy to respond to customer demands and safeguard their future. The focus should be on building a foundation for resilience and agility.
Steps to take:
- Set a joint cloud plan to integrate a variety of cloud solutions and align them to industry imperatives and new market realities.
- Re-evaluate ecosystem partnerships, like hyper-scalers, to help boost the company’s digital transformation and achieve next levels of resilience.
- Agree on adjustments to cloud governance, operating model, value case, and application development in the cloud.
- Work with the C-Suite to optimise cloud investments through greater resource efficiency, lower operational costs, and maximum value realisation.
Designing a collaborative working environment for resilience
Short-term cloud solutions that were put in place for remote working, continued more smoothly than anyone expected.
Some businesses even reported increased productivity and believe that when the crisis is behind us, there will be a permanent change in the ways that work gets done and Facebook for instance will keep 50% of its workforce at home permanently.
While remote working has largely been successful from a productivity standpoint, it can limit creativity and collaboration. Longer-term productivity requires redefining elements of the employee experience, including incorporating more virtual workrooms and collaboration tools and adding more video conferencing and messaging tools.
Our research indicates that only 28% of organisations report they are preparing their workforce for collaborative, interactive, and explainable AI-based systems, and according to our survey, 71% of executives acknowledged that their employees are more digitally mature than their organisations.
This accelerating trend raises the pressure on CIOs to react and incorporate new technology-driven capabilities and skills to catch up with employee expectations for increased digitisation. This is where technology can help – machine learning, augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) can advance employee engagement to make the next-generation work-from-home model effective and enjoyable.
Steps to take:
- Work with the CHRO to define a personal enablement program that can improve employee engagement, experience, and service delivery by using bots, AI, document transfer, and more.
- Augment key business processes with hyper-automation to enhance the employee experience and free people to work on more creative tasks.
- Maximise the use of the cloud to leverage ready-to-use data, AI, and other advanced collaboration tools such as augmented virtual reality working sessions to spark insights and innovation.
- Shift from implementing a specific digital solution to designing more integrated ways of working, such as travel assistants that advise on COVID-19 restrictions.
Adapting to new ways in which customers engage your business
In today’s new business environment, companies must find ways to engage customers beyond e-commerce and social media.
Specifically, this means exploring the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies. VR satisfies two immediate needs: (1) Virtual showrooms provide convenience for the customer to shop safely from the isolation of their homes; and (2) The virtual environment delivers a meaningful experience, giving the customer ‘the feeling’ of being in the physical store and interacting with physical products.
Part of the urgency for this shift comes from the permanent changes expected in consumer shopping habits.
With 24% of consumers saying they will increase their use of digital channels after the COVID-19 crisis, winning in the new business environment requires a seamless omnichannel experience with purpose—and that means a substantial increase in smart technology investments.
Steps to take:
- Reinforce remote business priorities, including business-to-consumer (B2C) digital interactions through omnichannel integration and more personalised products and services; as well as business-to-business (B2B) relationships using Internet of Things (IoT) manufacturing for remote maintenance and digital twins.
- Continuously redirect IT investments to drive new revenue streams in line with new products, services, and customer needs.
- Evaluate changes to the customer journey and experience based on new behaviours and a new business environment.
Navigating the post-crisis era
Navigating the post-crisis eraNavigating the post-crisis era requires business leaders to be predictive and proactive in their decision making to support business revival. This requires going back to the fundamentals of digital transformation this time with speed.
Organisations should put technology innovation at the core of their business revival strategy, and the CIO should generate the momentum and champion and lead tech-enabled business transformation going forward.
Willie Schoeman | Managing Director | Technology | Accenture Africa | mail me |
