Sitting here, bolted in my house, entering one teleconference after the other and wondering what we will encounter outside our door when all this subsides.
Information technology workers are fortunate enough not to be the first ones to be hit professionally from the immediate repercussions of the quarantine measures. Most of us are used to work remotely. We are trained for intensive teleconferencing g and virtual co-working spaces. Technology (broadband connectivity, cloud, powerful laptops) is abundant. Delivering work is not a problem for us. Not surprisingly, most of our delivery metrics already report increase of productivity.
But does this mean that IT companies should just sit and wait the assignments to roll in their door? We should remember that IT is usually just the enabler for value creation. And guess what: The world is changing rapidly on this occasion. Every leading IT organocation needs to respond with agility and prepare to address new trends and opportunities.
Inspired from several relevant articles found on the web these days (referenced at the end), I am listing below the top 5 of the emerging (or strengthening) worldwide trends that will shape the new challenges to the IT industry as we enter the new era of our normality and for the long term.
- Social Distancing - The “online” takes off exponentially:
Instead of asking, “Is there a reason to do this online?” we’ll be asking, “Is there any good reason to do this in person?”.
Obviously, the COVID-19 outbreak can act as the catalyst for sweeping away many of the artificial barriers for moving more of our lives online. Commerce, education, health, work and citizen participation will increasingly be delivered online. Lots to be done there for enabling businesses and consumers with the right platforms, tools, security and digitalization processes.
Additionally, and maybe more importantly, when this pandemic is over, human beings will respond with sense of relief and a search for communal pleasure. The entertainment industry could transform itself when this is over, and most probably it will have to do this along the “online” way.
- Increased surveillance, control and isolation
Ok let’s address the elephant in the room: As per Y. N. Harari “In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices: The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity”. Given the terror of the pandemic we now accept measures that no libertarian society would even consider. This is normal in emergencies, but we must also be aware that the short-term emergency measures may become a fixture of life.
I won’t attempt to enter the debate here. I want to stress however that technology is the means to support all alternatives. No matter which is the new point of equilibrium that will be reached, it will be through large scale application of the most advanced technologies available. No matter how libertarian or oppressive is the one who will specify the requirement, it’s the most cutting-edge side of Cloud, IoT, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Distributed Leger technologies that will implement it. And rest assured, there are solutions that can safeguard privacy while protecting also the public health.
- Importance of Social Security and public initiatives for supporting health:
Healthcare has historically been perceived by many as shared responsibility. Yet, many governmental policies around the world have not fully and practically embraced this perception. The COVID-19 outbreak could unite us into drastically changing this “reluctance” and push our politics for making substantial new investments in public goods—for health, especially—and public services.
COVID-19 may be the crucial accelerator for overturning many of the non-technical obstacles for adopting the horizontal Healthcare initiatives that technology was capable to enable for many, many years now.
- Credit Financing and Financial aid.
Countries around the world are taking unprecedented action to stem financial collapse due to COVID-19. Governments are acting as insurers of last resort, providing liquidity to both individuals and corporations in dire straits.
We may be changing our course toward greater national solidarity and functionality. Even if this hope proves to be too romantic, on top of any governmental policies, consumer product production corporations that have been stacking cash may want to use this for spurring demand.
Needless to elaborate, I believe, that platforms & modern AI driven tools will be required for efficiently distributing resources.
- Resilient Supply Chains
Pressure for cost reduction has forced the globe to outsource most production activities to Asia (and China the greatest part). This pandemic forced us to realize that we ‘ve put a significant single point of failure on our supply chains. It will create pressure on corporations to weigh the efficiency and costs/benefits of a globalized supply chain system against the robustness of a domestic-based supply chain. Additional production centers are expected (e.g. Mexico for US) and even some local Industries may spur once again supported either by governmental initiatives.
No matter which measures supporting protectionism of internal production will be imposed, Localized production will have to stay efficient in terms of cost and supply. Since this will not rely on economies of scale, the only way for achieving completeness and efficiency is through the “smart” Industry 4.0 technologies, already available. Additionally transportation and logistics houses will be challenged to operate more effectively further adopting digitalization tools. Finally, automation of last mile delivery will be intensified increasing the adoption of unmanned vehicles and robotics.
History has shown that when this crisis does end, demand will pent up and will spur economic activity; most (not all) businesses will recover, and employment will rise. There is light at the end of this tunnel!
We already sense however that the scenery at the other side will be quite different than the one we were experiencing just when we entered the tunnel. The COVID-19 crisis will be remembered as a catalyst for accelerating digitalization. Information Technology is positioned as the key enabler in the new era and will be playing a major role - to my opinion much grander than before.
As, supposedly, Winston Churchill stated during WWII, we should "Never let a good crisis go to waste."
Author: Gerasimos Michalitsis.