What is the first thing that comes to your mind, probably when you are in a crowd, whenever you hear people talk about 2020? Lockdowns? COVID19? etc. Well, I am sure lots of things will come to mind, and unsurprisingly, everyone in all walks of life has gained something from this special year. COVID19, the virulent and contagious infection, brought the whole world to its knees and continues to affect all our lives (Post Pandemic). This situation now lends itself to the general saying that, “innovation comes as a result of necessity.” The result of this change was overwhelming, nobody believes it, but it works! Within the days and weeks following the first country specific lockdown, business activities across the world switched to new ways of working and even though some workers were laid off, the rest shifted to working from home; Businesses continued to operate even though predictions expected a complete “crash” like that of 1939. So, what have we learned so far? After all, George Santayana once said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” How would the impact of events in 2020 reflect the future of businesses and will technology innovation skyrocket? Here are a few pointers to consider: 1. Business Continuity Plans Are A Must! The first lesson is that every business must have at least one backup plan. Some businesses believed they could not survive without face-to-face interaction with their partners and prospective customers. And as if that wasn’t enough, those who intended to establish ways to work remotely found it difficult to choose the right technology to make it feasible. Most of these businesses now realize the importance of business continuity plans which are more superior to their regular backup plans; Although, backup and disaster recovery plans are also essential. So, what is a business continuity plan? This is a special plan designed to lower risk and recession. As this statement denotes, it is a plan meant for unforeseen or unpredictable events that may disrupt your company in real-time. These continuity plans contain guidelines and principles one must follow to survive the aftermath. The year 2020 has given us so much insight into what can happen and a glimpse of what can be expected. Therefore, rational businessmen and women must give technological trends some consideration, as well as having a well thought out business continuity plan to survive situations such as COVID 19. 2. Working Remotely, Especially From Home The first 6 months away from traditional business activity reshaped who we are and our true capabilities. And as time goes by, video conferences, voice calls, and more technological means of communication start becoming our normal routine. According to a reliable source, “zoom’s most recent figures suggest the platform has over 300 million daily meeting participants, compared to just 10 million in December 2019.” Microsoft Team’s also recorded about 116 million (and counting), daily users. It is very clear that this working model has fast become an acceptable and normal thing to do! Before the year 2020, it was almost impossible for selected employees to work full-time from home, not to mention the whole company workforce. Technology has assisted companies with focused technological tools that have provided platforms for messaging, voice calls, video conferences to perform daily business activities. 3. Cyber Security Is A Must The year 2020 continued to raise incidents of data breaches, with most businesses changing their working model, making them more susceptible to threat actors because of the change in business working practices. Recent reports and trends show over 2,299,682 cyber security incidents were accounted for in Q1 2020 as compared to 854,782 incidents detected in Q4 2019. Most of these incidents centered on companies trying to set up models for home working without the security of the office network components. Therefore, to ensure corporate and client data was not at risk while working from home, cybersecurity packages were introduced particularly for remote workers. These packages compromised features encapsulating services that ensured the company’s data and devices remained secure, as well as providing employees with User Awareness Training (UAT) to educate them from threat actor attacks. 4. Communication Is Vital Now regardless of the physical distance, a team can always be in touch on platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Many businesses who failed to embrace these platforms at the time have now implemented them as a platform to allow effective communication. Without been biased, the conclusion is that many companies will continue to use this form of communication in the future, in carrying out their daily business activity from anywhere in the world. 5. Investment In Future Technology Will Reflect Business Growth These recent events demonstrated that businesses need to be flexible and adaptable for its very survival. According to a reliable report, more than 97966 businesses permanently shut down, while in June (2020), it was reported that another 23% of small businesses have temporarily closed with he figure rising to 43% in August. Digital Technology has advanced beyond any known predictions and exponentially increased to even exceed the parameters of Moore’s Law. Was could have taken decades for the business community to adapt to has been achieved in months. More time and effort has been devoted in the areas of remote working, cloud migrations, online communication and services, consistent upgrades to data security, and more. One thing is certain, our traditional ways of doing business have changed for good and arguably for better. For those businesses that survive the aftermath of the COVID19 Pandemic, most have learned quickly and already invested in modern platforms, which enable them to continue doing business. What about your business? The more businesses adopt to remote working processes, the more need there will be for technological advancements. And this will, ultimately, and without doubt, allow greater adoption of future cloud strategies.
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