Changes in IT Industry Due to Pandemic
While the impact of COVID-19 is still to unfold, it’s clear that the outbreak has sparked numerous fundamental changes in the IT industry. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many organizations all over the world, including ApexTech, to close the doors of their physical offices, causing hundreds of thousands of employees to adapt to new actuality – work from home.
Apart from the global problems like the fall in the economy and opportunity losses for companies that have international dealers, preserving the social community and workplace collaboration challenge arose. Most businesses were not prepared for the change. They didn’t have a clear understanding of the requirements for remote work, its limitations, and its advantages.
Financial effects of the lockdown
IT sector saw a cut of 2-5% due to a delay in decision making in the previous 6-7 months while businesses were assessing the impact of the coronavirus. The companies reduced their IT budgets and held back digital initiatives because of the uncertain economic situation and recession.
However, the technology industry is the one that has experienced a tiny slow down if compared to other sectors. Moreover, it’s projected to have a tremendous market boom by 2025 as the sudden demand for remote working and collaboration software solutions increased drastically. The video conferencing apps are massively adopted not only by working parents but also by children. The economy will also thrive because people realized the paramount importance of the internet & technology as a way to connect with doctors from the safety of their homes.
The accelerated pace of digitalization several years ahead
The pandemic has rearranged incentives so that consumers are seeking more smart gadgets, apps, and systems. More of daily life now takes place online as consumers adopted mobile banking, video calls, remote education, eCommerce, telehealth. Web replaced in-person interactions during disruptions, and online channels became the major mean of communication. Businesses have rapidly reacted to public preferences.
Just take a look at the rates of digital channel adoption before and during the pandemic outbreak.
The same accelerated speed can be seen in the emergence of a variety of digital products and services. Companies started to create digitally enhanced offerings or refocused their existing products.
Here are three technologies that have been increasingly incorporated during COVID-19:
- Moves to the cloud. Organizations accelerated their plans to move additional workloads to the cloud computing platforms to gain the flexibility needed to handle eventuality.
- Telehealth. Virtual doctor visits and other forms of remote-tracking software helped alleviate the crowds at hospitals and bring more care to more people.
- Automation technology tends to require only minimal maintenance and human intervention in most cases. Plus, computers can’t be affected by global pandemics.
Key consideration: Improve tech-enabled functionality
Cybersecurity is of vital importance
To respond to pandemic-related changes, IT teams had to connect thousands of endpoints and personal devices of each employee. Due to the speed of the adjustments, security wasn’t a top priority for organizations. The primary goal was to provide network access to workers.
Cybersecurity concerns are as old as the Internet. But given remote work and the necessity for employees to connect with their personal laptops, computers, smartphones to get the job done, companies should introduce practices that would allow staying safe.
Today, high-tech firms face too many security threats than ever before: the increasing number of networks and end-user devices produce additional vulnerabilities. The existing security infrastructures require constant improvements. A lot of companies heavily employed AI and ML technologies to prevent and combat sophisticated cyber attacks.
Key considerations: Define a robust security policy for VPNs. Determine the critical functions that must remain onsite and which can be remote. Develop customized protocols based on the security threats the company has experienced.
Remote culture for IT staff
The shift from a physical workspace to a home-virtual office was a big challenge both for employees and even for seasoned managers. Nevertheless, some companies reported accelerations in the digitalization of their internal processes like back-office and production, indicating multiple times faster move to a remote work model than they thought it would take.
Despite the fast implementation of workable solutions, effective remote work policy adoption remains a substantial issue. Many remote workers lack communication with colleagues and feel isolated. They do struggle with mental health, which is a real issue as it affects performance.
Key considerations: Prioritizing the wellbeing of staff by creating a positive remote culture and adopting an effective work policy will make an impact.
Learn from home
Work from home has challenged companies with onboarding, training, and reskilling employees processes as people couldn’t visit land-based places. Instead, it provided the opportunities to reestablish a learning culture. Numerous organizations and online platforms launched online webinars, live conferences, and online testing which brought a bit of ordinariness back.
Now students can get certified to get the job, while employees can obtain certification to keep the job. Onboarding, staff training, technical skill improvement carried out on behalf of IT companies present one more opportunity for the industry.
Key considerations: Initiate company-wide training for employees.
The infinite future of IT
The tech industry has overcome past crises and found original ways to become stronger each time. IT companies have paved the way for various business strategies other sectors are now adopting to deal with the pandemic impacts, including remote work and management through disruptions. This global pandemic might well spark innovation and creativity.