Digital transformation for productivity and growth

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12 Sep 2020

Digital Transformation: The need of the hour
- admin
Who would have ever imagined the drastic change that is rapidly becoming the new normal while the world battles a pandemic of proportions never seen before in our history? The current situation brought in sharp focus, the limitations of many existing systems while simultaneously highlighting the need to re-imagine the role of information technology. An amalgamation of digital infrastructure and skills is required to sustain productivity and help growth. In an attempt to contain the virus, countries have established mobility restrictions and, in some cases, lockdowns, which have fundamentally disrupted the functioning of society and the economy. This disruption has transformed how communities, businesses, and individuals operate, communicate, and transfer knowledge.

This can be considered as the trigger of the fourth industrial revolution, which is being accelerated by the measures and solutions governments and organizations are adopting in their efforts to maintain business and operational continuity. Post-pandemic, organizations, businesses, and individuals that hope to take advantage of it will need to rethink their strategic approach to leverage technology and digitalization. They will have to reposition technology as a critical component for each sphere of specialization and learn the relevant digital skills to become creators and users of these tools.

Businesses and governments must digitize their operations and coordinate their activities to enable business continuity. Industries such as telecoms and media have been less affected by this pandemic than for instance aviation and tourism; which have been squeezed by anti-pandemic measures. Companies dependent on lesser impacted industries are better placed to continue with business as usual, particularly, if they take advantage of embedded digital channels and technology solutions only as part of customer service and other non-essential operations. Many may claim greater market share once the business climate improves in the post-COVID-19 world. The stress on digital practices has increased slowly over the past decade, but during this crisis, it has become rather mandatory than an added advantage to be more resilient.

The steep rise in virtual working platforms enables organizations to ensure that workforces can continue to be productive. This trend has the potential to reduce operating expenses and point toward the future of work. Various video calling and connectivity tools have seen a surge in the number of users. For example, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WebEx are being used widely than ever before in organizations; this helps to track and increase productivity by regular connections. Post-pandemic, organizations, and governments will be compelled to incorporate technology into their operations making it a new standard. This, in turn, would attract more business based on the rate of adoption of such technologies into its operations.

Technology is helping to ease global disruptions across many, if not all sectors of the economy. In the finance sector, digitalization has helped to ease with which the public and corporations conduct transactions; when the physical branches were not functional owing to restrictions being imposed. Mobile banking and wallet technologies have helped to reduce the need for physical cash transactions, thereby minimizing the spread of the coronavirus. In the health sector also, we have various services that deliver medicines 24*7, thus reducing the burden on overstretched health centers. E-commerce platforms have provided their services for consumers to buy essentials by leveraging their existing technology-enabled logistics systems and even managed to enable contactless delivery options to ensure public safety.

In education, more than a billion students worldwide are now sequestered at home as schools have closed, and roughly three in four students have experienced disruptions in their learning process due to the pandemic. Governments and school administrations have adopted e-learning technologies for home-bound students. Across many countries, the educational systems now facilitate access to materials and programs through cloud services, radio, television, and social media platforms. For the students, without access to these tools, community centers are being set up from which the tools to access these can be borrowed.

The development of digital skills is a significant part of building resilience to economic and social shocks like those presented by the COVID-19 outbreak. This is already being recognized in many parts of the world, where the acquisition of digital skills can serve as an investment against unemployment risks. This reality has begun to drive students, employees, and employers to focus on developing these skills, which are globally accessible on virtual learning platforms. Courses on digital skills equip the participants with demand-driven competencies to solve day-to-day problems. While not all forms of learning can occur online, the sharp increase in online learning shows the transformative potential of such platforms. Since the pandemic began, there is a huge surge in people who started learning online. This upsurge illustrates that e-learning offers cost savings, including travel and accommodation, over traditional learning. The transformation of global business and public administration systems is already accelerating because of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as smaller businesses and NGOs struggle to survive.

We harmonizers, at SOIL Institute of Management, consider it as our opportunity to be the first batch to undergo and witness this revolution of digital transformation. Where in our entire curriculum is shaped to level up with the industry needs by incorporating subjects on digital technology and how these technologies will help to leverage our understanding and application in our respective domains. From carrying out classes on a digital platform to making use of online learning management systems like canvas, Jamboard, to make learning interactive and seamless are just a few out of many initiatives taken for digital transformation. So, the best option for surviving this crisis and being prepared for any future crisis would be to adopt digital skills and ensuring an upskilled competitive workforce to adapt to post virus world.

Moving Towards a New Normal

Nilisha

PGPM – Human Resources, class of 2020-21

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