Post Pandemic, Shift To Remote Collaboration Will Be an Enduring ChangeThe two main disruptions have been about change in technology and handling of talent
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The business targets for 2021 will be look very different from any other year and IT teams will need to ensure robust support system as many companies will continue with work-from-home policy.
According to Manoj Madhavan, CIO of Blue Dart and K.N.C. Nair, Group CIO, Muthoot Group, companies need to take stock of things quickly and get the business going.
"According to research, 78 per cent of CIOs believe that a shift to remote collaboration will be an enduring change. Also 70 per cent felt automation will be that enduring change," said Somick Goswami, partner at PwC, citing a report.
The two key disruptions that have happened due to pandemic are a huge disruption in technology and the way we used to look at talent or handle talent in companies.
Blue Dart, a company which is in logistics, got impacted during the pandemic both in good ways and bad ways as logistics was the need of the hour as people worked from home. "People started working from home, so everything needed to be delivered," said Madhavan.
Digital transformation
Digital transformation is the latest disrupter. It has led to technology no longer just providing a sustained competitive advantage, but also playing a supporting role to people with the right skills. Expertise is needed now more than ever to manage and implement all of the new technologies.
The pandemic came out of the blue challenging digital teams. Four years back, a similar crisis came during the demonetization. "Before that 95 or more percentage of our loans were given in cash. Demonetization was an eye-opener," said Nair.
Digital channel was open for customers whether it is Web or app, and slowly customers adapted digital channels that tremendously helped them, and during the pandemic none of their brands could be open most of the time but still, they could maintain their businesses and transactions, added Nair.
"The e-market or the e-commerce market kind of really opened up whether it was food services medicine or the normal. The online shopping that people did exploded in a particular period just after that first initial lockdown periods of starting from somewhere around mid-March to mid-April," remarked Madhvan.
