Embracing the "New Normal" and the Digital Transformation Imperative

As you all likely know by now, the “New Normal” refers to how businesses and their consumers will operate post-COVID. While some aspects of the overall impact brought on by the virus will be fleeting, others will persist, and many will become permanent.

The new normal will provide both challenges and opportunities for organizations to seize, as we’ve seen in different industries. 

Regarding the challenges, the pandemic is unlike any other crisis that business and technology leaders have faced before. COVID has had and will continue to have an unprecedented impact on our businesses, the economy, and our society as a whole. I don't want to even start to analyze the mental health implications of being locked at home for months - particularly for those who lost their jobs. With a baby on the way, I am truly grateful to have a company with low exposure and a proper Mindfulness / Meditation practice.

Neither here nor there, we will prevail as a nation, but in its wake, the pandemic will lead to a significant change in how organizations operate. The financial impact leads the procession, but companies are wrought with concerns as to how they are going to get through this crisis.

That all being said, in many instances, the proper use of technology (coupled with a proper IT strategy) can not only support companies in surviving the pandemic but may enable the development of new channels of business and ways to engage with the customer.

The pace of change brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated several key technology and organizational trends, while clearly putting the brakes on many other initiatives. Remote worker enablement has been huge, and the immense growth of platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx and others is no surprise. In many cases, video-conferencing and collaboration platforms have been the duck-tape that has held many firms together.

That being said, we believe business and technology leaders must first develop an understanding of what the new normal will look like and how it will impact their respective industry. Organizations will ultimately need to take a step back to properly analyze their new workflow, governance approach, financials, supply-chain, processes, their technology stack and ultimately their culture - in an effort to not only survive the pandemic, but to adapt and leverage the crisis as a catalyst for disruptive innovation, added organizational effectiveness and efficiency. This will be particularly crucial for the most vulnerable industries as described above. That being said, agility and speed of change isn't driven just on the IT side – there also needs to be a razor-sharp impetus from the business to embrace digital transformation as a change mechanism.

Per our research and historical subject-matter expertise in navigating difficult situations with our clients, we believe there are (6) main considerations or principles in adapting to the new normal:

1.) Remote Work-Force Enablement - As was mentioned, we've obviously seen a race between Zoom, Teams and other video conferencing/collaboration platforms for client-acquisition, offering 90-day free trials and other promotions to increase client acquisition, but has the organization taken the time to see how a Unified Communications solution truly integrates with their business end-to-end? What does your technology stack look like and how does this new video-conferencing tool integrate into the rest of your Application Stack? What are the security implications? Not all solutions are created equal, and making the right decision can yield huge soft-cost savings, workflow optimization, increases in productivity, and additional effective analytics to track and measure success (not to mention the cost reduction when compared to on-premise phone systems and/or analog voice). What integrations are you taking advantage of to truly start digitally transforming your organization?

2.) Utilizing Analytics & Monitoring Productivity - Depending on the existing technology stack, companies should look to leverage the data available to them today to track performance and productivity. Encouraging top performers during times like these is key, and data can also be leveraged to identify issues that may need to be addressed. In any case, properly dissecting and analyzing data that the company is already producing can empower productive business decisions.

Employee monitoring solutions were common for certain types of organizations long before the pandemic forced businesses across the world to adopt work from home (WFH) solutions overnight. With the recent adoption of green, untested WFH solutions, employers are concerned with productivity and it is expected that many other companies will look to employ these types of tools. Many are frowned upon for their intrusive nature and questionable ethical violation of privacy, but there are some new platforms that can simply monitor employee productivity on applications only. It creates a methodology for business leaders to monitor productivity (with transparency), in an effort to support the employee properly and improve performance.

3.) Generating New Delivery Models & Services - Companies that have depended on the physical presence of their target audience are now forced to find new ways to engage their customers and create revenue online.

For example, we're seeing Millenials leading the charge in regard to digital engagement with companies online. "On-Demand" media (e.g. NetFlix), food (e.g. GrubHub), travel (e.g. Uber), and 'Anything' (e.g. Amazon) is the norm, and the market will only increase in size as the years go on. In many instances (as you might have noticed in our first graphic), these companies actually thrived during the pandemic due to consumers being locked in their homes with nowhere to go and nothing to do but order/consume.

CloudKitchens and UberEats are taking advantage of restaurants needing to create new, congruent markets and/or reduce operating expenses by sharing space. I've also seen food trucks in Williamsburg, Brooklyn doing very well by offering delivery options and keeping expenses low.

What does this mean for your organization? How can you make a shift to a digital experience instead of a physical one? These are questions that need to be answered if they haven't been already.

4.) More Self-Service Options - We at Disruptive have been preaching this (and implementing solutions surrounding this) for years now, but the pandemic will force companies to evaluate additional self-service options and host omnichannel interaction with their customers. Millennials are and will continue to be the key drivers of the digital age (making up a hefty percentage of e-commerce and subscription revenue), and they prefer self-service options, chat, and text over speaking to people on the phone. When you can identify the user that's calling without needing them to say their name,

We'd also reference the use of AI and machine-learning under this principle, as companies that use chat-bots and/or virtual agents are not only paying < 10% of what they'd pay on a call center agents, they're creating a better customer experience (which is huge) and are reducing lead times to resolution/ordering.

5.) Current State Audit - Depending on the last time you evaluated your IT Operating Expense, conducting a thorough, high-speed IT/Telecom audit can not only be a great source of much-needed cost reduction (we typically see anywhere from 20 - 50%) from identified errors, inefficiencies, mis-billings, contract variances, and out-dated rates, but it can be the basis for your 'Current State' - often a necessary step in evaluating a path to your 'Future State'. If you want to digitally transform your business, getting a thorough understanding of the current state, and simultaneously creating spend reduction you can either put to the bottom line or use as working capital for other strategic initiatives is a great place to start. In most of our engagements, we typically like to know where we are ('Current State'), describe where we'd like to go based on business goals, context, IT implications and ultimately IT/Digital Strategy ('Future State') and then identify how we get there ('IT/Digital Transformation Road Map').

6.) Greater Organizational Decentralization & Renewed Emphasis on Security - In an increasingly distributed cloud architecture, the need for safely enabling and monitoring new endpoints is paramount if users are accessing any sensitive data, intranet, etc. Moreover, reviewing security architecture and governance, in general, is also a necessity during this time. Cybersecurity consultancy Naval Dome has reported a 400% increase in attempted hacks since February 2020, and IT needs to be locking everything down, making sure cloud applications are secure and compliant, and ensuring end-users are staying vigilant. You may have firewalls protecting your edge, but what are you using to monitor if/when something penetrates your firewall? How long is it before you realize someone is siphoning your data? We see breaches all the time, and it is preventable.

Of course, all of the considerations and principles described above need to be underpinned by a proper IT/Digital Transformation Strategy - which needs to be derived from conversations with business leaders in the company, documented by IT leaders and their advisors and clearly communicated with all team members involved. George Westerman, distinguished Research Scientist with the MIT Center for Digital Business and MIT Sloan School of Management (as well as the author of two award-winning books on IT management) described digital transformation as “using technology to radically improve the performance and reach of an organization.” He elegantly explained that when a proper digital transformation strategy is in place, it's like, “a caterpillar turning into a butterfly,” but when done wrong, “all you have is a really fast caterpillar.” Most importantly (to my point), he affirms that digital transformation is driven by the leaders at the top of the organization.

Do you know what your IT/Digital Transformation Strategy looks like? If not, we'd recommend you inquire within your organization and if it is not documented, please do reach out to one of our advisors or feel free to connect with me directly.