With most of America confined to their homes, it should come as no surprise the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the world from our interactions with other humans and the way we work. As a result, many organizations have been required to rapidly change their systems and technology stacks to support the shelter-in-place requirement mandated by many states. Although organizations are juggling the short-term initiatives, it’s critical to begin planning for long-term strategic initiatives such as the inevitable change in the work “norm,” re-prioritization of technology projects, and promote future growth through continued innovation.
A change in work “norm”
We are currently experiencing the world’s largest work from home experiment that will shape how organizations approach a digital workplace strategy. Planning for remote-work and digital workplace should not be viewed as a short-term initiative, but rather should be factored into their long-term IT strategic plans. Organizations should expect and plan to enable employees to continue to work remotely post-pandemic. The cloud will continue to be critical for many organizations in supporting infrastructure to provide employees with continuous digital access to necessary resources. Long-term strategic IT planning should continue to include initiatives around remote work access, collaboration, and leveraging technologies to help automate tasks.
Re-prioritization of Technology projects
As organizations continue to operate remotely, we see a shift in CIO priorities and technology budgets. Overall, department budgets, such as IT, have declined as a result of struggling businesses. However, an updated study performed by CMO by Adobe found that 7 in 10 organizations expect to increase their financial investments in security technologies. This should come as no surprise as organizations are no longer able to confine data access to the office. In our blog, “Securing the Remote Working Environment”, we discuss the different technologies organizations can leverage to secure their data and do it at scale in remote working environments. While overall IT budgets are decreasing, organizations can take proactive steps to optimize costs, such as partnering with a managed service provider. In our “IT Cost Savings in a Pandemic and Beyond” blog, we discuss how organizations can reduce IT spending and focus on core business operational tasks by outsourcing in-house IT to a managed service provider.
Promote Future Growth through Innovation
Innovation should never stop, especially during times of uncertainty. As a result of COVID-19 Gartner stated, “dramatic changes in customer demand are putting organizations under huge stress: Sharp declines in demand present serious financial challenges to many businesses, while those facing demand surges and resource shortage risk disappointing and disengaging customers.” Organizations should explore and develop digital product strategies. This is an opportune time to continue to explore new business models and customer channels to increase the resiliency of the business and prepare for future growth.
As a planet, we will get through this pandemic, but expect the post-pandemic world to operate differently. With Wellforce, organizations can take the appropriate steps to start planning and innovating to tackle what is next in IT to better support their business. We create strategic plans and initiatives to help your business prepare to overcome short-term and long-term technology challenges.
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