Massively altering humanity and the global economy already, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments and businesses alike to adapt to what has become the new normal. As societies try to decipher what the future may hold, there is no doubt that digitisation will be an imperative to business continuity. With social distancing habits here to stay, and the lifting and reinstating of lockdowns as the virus peaks and troughs; businesses will be forced to quickly respond to changing consumer behaviour. They will also be expected to meet new safety and hygiene requirements to do business. Research already shows that digital adoption amongst both consumers and businesses has catapulted a few years into the future – while e-commerce and delivery is at the forefront of this change, flexible regulations and relaxed norms by governments are also allowing digital classrooms and telemedicine to follow suit.

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Why does going digital make sense in the post-coronavirus future?

The way we do business has drastically changed in the last few months

and only those that adapt will thrive

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‍Enhancing employee collaboration during the outbreak

‍Remote work has arrived and is here to stay. The post Covid workplace is unlikely to be the same again. Technology can both improve or hamper the way we collaborate at work and change management at a more holistic level will be the need of the hour. Digital transformation that lends to doing better business will have to consider companywide ameliorations in collaborative tools, processes that not only support the digital delivery of services and products but also keep inter and intra function communication transparent thereby improving employee morale. It will also be important for companies to budget for hiring of new digital talent and companywide digital upskilling.
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An enterprise universal search portal to allow global marketing teams to effectively search, filter and update product and research information.

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Reallocation of resources and infrastructure

Businesses will need to make executive decisions to help accelerate the movement and allocation of resources where they are most needed. Companies can choose to move their budgets to selectively digitize functions and update technology stacks to help adapt supply chains, logistics, procurement and delivery to the Covid business environment.
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An online social enterprise collaboration web portal that enables employees to post timely status messages against goals, projects or escalations.

Reimagining the business in a contact free economy

Companies will need to adopt a forward thinking mindset as they return to business. With digital adoption on the rise, businesses need to enhance their online journeys to replicate the “in-store” experience to the extent possible. For the automotive industry, virtual dealerships could be one way of doing this. Similarly, they need to rethink their store and offline models for a contact free buying experience e.g. the cashier model can be replaced with a cashless experience, use of data and analytics for on-shelf availability information and subsequent replenishment. (Bajaj & VDP)

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An in-store iPad App with gesture recognition and multilingual speech recognition capability, to enable dealerships to engage customers and provide them with pertinent product information.

Improve business processes for agility in decision making

Consider digitization and necessary enhancements in the supply chain to ensure seamless flow of information and data through procurement, warehousing, merchandising, and point of sales. Invest in robust cyber security to back the digitization. Retailers can adopt an omni-channel approach for sales where staff can switch between online and offline customer support at any point of the journey thereby improving customer experience and enabling sales teams to influence sales across the board.An integrated leads management solution to improve sales efficiency of the call centre representatives.

Respond to changing customer behaviour and expectations

In the post-Covid era the customer not only orders online but cares about “how” the delivery happens. A large number of customers now in the digital net are unlikely to go back to their old ways and companies will need to optimise their digital channels to support larger online traffic. It will also be important to revisit customer journeys to consider new implications from their point of view. For example; businesses will need to improve communication with the customer across various touch points in the journey to reassure them of the safety measures taken.For companies who haven’t already adopted digitized solutions, it is not too late to take control. Perhaps this is the silver lining for businesses in the age of COVID-19, jumpstarting digital transformation can be positive, for your employees, partners and customers.

Summary

Going digital does not have to be overwhelming. It is not something to check off a list, but instead a mind-set that becomes part of the organization’s culture and experience.