With the current “Double Swans” situation, Digital transformation is taking another dimension across the world. The current situation across the globe has warranted fastrack of digital transformation and service delivery across industry domains namely in the following areas
1 cyber security and access
2 data traffic and traffic mix
3 digital commerce
4 digital customer service
5 AI driven advanced data analytics and insights
It is not about only rewriting the rules of working, and how organisations have started operating overnight. But processes, working mode (including meetings) that were also on a typical organisational matrix structure are being revisited, with different types of interactions and new code rewritten beyond traditional authority matrixes.
This situation also puts huge pressure on Cybersecurity teams, whereby shortage of PCs/Tablets not only had to be managed and the supply to the employees not working remotely had to be managed along with the right tools, but also employees in certain organisations using their own laptops and infrastructure exposing Corporate infrastructure to potential threats and whereby new security guidelines are reinforced.
Networks around the world, which we tend to forget about being the backbone of the economies and our households, are under pressure in terms of traffic. Video conferencing, gaming and other applications are changing the traffic mix and also the way customers are engaging with the digital channels. Some of players had agreed to review their bandwidth hungry requirements to deliver their services but it could question again the net neutrality debate and who is paying what for these fundamental backbones.
Digital Channels from e-commerce, website, customer service, social media are stressed out and put into a reality test of “ready to scale up”. We have started seeing organisations urging their customers to use their digital customer service over their traditional call centers as they were not able to cope with the increasing number of calls. Also with the confinement, curfew and what ever shape of social distancing, following the continent, customer engagement through social media and online channels is been reinvented. Online orders are increasing amongst different industries while last mile delivery becomes a challenge and opportunity given the current health and safety guidelines. The question is what is the long-term impact in terms of transactions mix? Which ones the customers would be delighted about and just repeatedly do them online? We see some big players reopening their retail branches across the globe…
It’s also a generation shock where some players already digital native in e-commerce, food, health, video conferencing, gaming are now outperforming the markets and whereas players in travel, advertising, retail and even mobility been severely hit. It opens up questions on how some of these players will reinvent themselves in this crisis context but also what is cyclical or structural or both.
Scepticism about data analytics and AI and what it could enable was challenged where in many countries data and the analytics power enabled key players to support government and authorities to monitor population movements, traffic mobility patterns and respect of movement restrictions following country legislations and decisions.
In summary, Digital transformation would not only be accelerated but it would not in the same shape as it was planned or thought. The industry shifts that we are living across the sectors would rewrite the code but also help us derive the right learnings for the next wave.
This article is also available at https://medium.com/@amine.tazi