The world after COVID will not be the same as before. In adjusting to the new abnormal we are learning new skills and habits that we won’t want to “unlearn”.

A few early adopters have been honing the underlying technology and developing the skills to make best use of it. Many of us have seen what they’ve been doing and thinking that maybe, one day, it will make sense to switch. Then suddenly, everything changes and the time to make the switch is now.

Here are six of the big changes coming in business as the pandemic sweeps in new ways of digitally connected working that we already knew made sense, but which we now have no choice but to adopt.

1.   Remote digital teamwork becomes the normal

Yet remote working has always seemed a second-best choice in organizations where most work is centered on the office, while working from home is often seen as ‘slacking off’. It’s only now that almost everyone is forced to work from home that the tables have turned. Suddenly, working from home is the mainstream choice and we are all learning the etiquette of video team calls, how to keep our work in sync with other members of a distributed team, and how to balance work deadlines with domestic demands.

2.   Conferences go virtual

This is somewhat different than the shift to remote working, where the tools and the techniques are already mature because there are have been many early adopters, including some very large and well-resourced enterprises. Virtual events are at a much earlier stage, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make huge progress over the next few months. Once there have been several significant successes that show how to replicate much of the experience of a physical event without a large part of the cost and hassle, what appetite will there be for a wholesale return to the old model?

3.   Education goes on-demand

Although this is a change that will likely take longer than some others. Demand for change will become overwhelming. Already, schools and colleges that have closed for the pandemic are turning to online classes so that they can continue teaching. When they finally reopen, they may discover that online interaction has become fundamental to their continued existence.

4.   The rise of local sourcing and 3D printing

Many producers abruptly shut down. This new awareness of supply chain risk will lead businesses to seek ways of achieving much more agile modeling of demand and supply, of managing more agile sourcing, and taking advantage of more agile production — which is where 3D printing can play a bigger role.

5.   IT projects go agile

Deploy ready-to-run, rapid application development toolkits or low-code/no-code tools that can deliver working solutions fast, and agile development methodologies to quickly work up new applications for deployment on public cloud or serverless infrastructure. This is the time for the development team to learn some new skills, adopt some new tools, or reorganize into more of an agile team structure that’s better suited to delivering new or changed functionality in a more unpredictable business environment.

6.   You must connect to customer success

What SaaS* providers discovered very early on was that their continuous digital connection to customers meant that they could stay engaged with them, monitor how they were using the products or services, and then make iterative improvements to deliver better outcomes. Through digital connection, real-time analysis and dynamic teamwork, it’s focused on understanding what the customer wants to achieve:

• Engage — Know what success means for your customers.
• Monitor — Measure whether they’re experiencing success.
• Improve — Find ways your business, product or service can help them be even more successful.

*Software as a Service, also known as SaaS, is a cloud-based service where instead of downloading software your desktop PC or business network to run and update, you instead access an application via an internet browser. The software application could be anything from office software to unified communications among a wide range of other business apps that are available. 

These trends may have become mainstream overnight, but they were always standing on the sidelines. The business cases, demanding immediate action. The world has changed in a few short weeks and, however much we may yearn for a return to what we knew as normality, all of these fringe ways of working have now become the new mainstream.

In case of the questions, please, do not hesitate to contact us:

Carmen Cojocaru Partner [email protected] +40 727 333 336

Eduard Pavel Partner [email protected] +40 727 333 345