The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event and became a challenge in sustaining business continuity

News24xx.com - The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event in the world timeline. With the global community working together to deal with the crisis, the need for social distancing has emerged as a major challenge in sustaining business continuity. 

The outbreak has also potentially accelerated organizations on their journey towards digital transformation to offset uncertainty in a dynamic business environment. According to a forecast by IDC, the coming months will see an upswing in the adoption of collaborative applications, security solutions and Artificial Intelligence (AI) among organizations. 

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As our home and workplace, today share the same physical and mental space, the sudden switch to working remotely has brought about a rapid alteration in human behaviour dynamics. With companies, ranging from top IT firms to start-ups, accelerating their adoption of digital solutions to ensure business continuity – from smart tracking apps to virtual collaboration tools – even non-technical professionals are expected to adapt to working on digital systems and platforms. 

This unprecedented and radical revamping of the work sphere has articulated a clear need for businesses to focus on investments in research, as well as ramp up technological integration of internal capabilities to help build better business resilience. In this respect, the Indian IT industry has been playing an instrumental role in helping industries accelerate the pace of digital transformation.

Adoption of technologies within businesses and communities, in turn, helps countries to be better prepared to handle such global crises. In Israel, for instance, engineers are attempting to alleviate elderly loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic by developing a “smart intercom” that enables the elderly to virtually connect with their families. All it takes is the push of a button to connect on video chat, without having to deal with any setting configurations.

In different sectors, such as education, healthcare, financial technology, and media and entertainment, are experiencing accelerated growth prospects, owing to unexpected opportunities made possible by transformative and emerging technologies.

For instance, FinTech companies are connecting with businesses in new ways, be it helping local pharmacies to shift their businesses online or enabling people to rent office furniture for working from home. Similarly, in the HealthTech sector, there has been a rise in the use of chatbot helpers, digital epidemiology tools, electronic health record guidance tools, telemedicine and conversational applications in assisting patients. 

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The startup ecosystem in India is enabling innovations in screening, tracking, testing and deterring the spread of the virus. Bengaluru-based startup Wesense.ai, for example, is addressing the need for touch-free attendance, and health, hygiene, protective gear and social distancing compliance in offices, warehouses and hospitals through their product HealthSense.

Content and format innovation in the media sector continues to provide tremendous reach and creative avenues for businesses and individual consumers and creators. The massive spike in user-generated content and the scale offered by new channels and apps such as TikTok, which has seen a whopping 611 million downloads in India, is reshaping the media and entertainment industries.

The growing impact of digital transformation can also be seen in governments, public sector agencies and institutions that are involved in tackling societal challenges. Governments are organizing hackathons to encourage tech experts, start-ups, and IT companies to develop digital solutions to fight the pandemic. The Aarogya Setu app is an example of the Indian government leveraging technology to address a key aspect of the public health crisis, i.e. contact tracing.

While the current environment offers opportunity to rethink and innovate, there is definitely a need to accelerate this transformation beyond metros and take it to remote areas and markets. For instance, the education sector is witnessing an increased usage of collaborative audio/video tools by teachers to hold classes online. However, millions of students in India lack access to proper ICT infrastructure and are unable to benefit from e-learning as a result. There is a need to re-evaluate current investments and work models across sectors to assess what is working and where the legacy systems need a reset.

Similarly, it is critical to extend the benefits of technology to the worst-hit sectors in the country such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These industries need accelerated access to digital infrastructure to help them better connect with customers, partners and employees.