Assessing the progress of collaboration in delivering digital solutions as we rise to the challenge

"How do you reach your customers during times of uncertainty?" – a question many businesses have been grappling with. Amidst the closure of non-essential services against a backdrop of instability for some countries, businesses are either honing their customer engagement platforms, or fast discovering that they need to go digital. Right now, it seems like the only way to commerce is online. The alternative is to face oblivion.

Necessity is the mother of invention, was coined by the Greek philosopher, Plato. If there's a necessity so urgently needed today, it's fast-tracking digital transformation. It's a reality not just impacting how we work, but how things work, and how we live. Even in a Zoom and Microsoft Teams world, we'll be questioning how we can get better connected when we're apart, and how we can go about business as usual in these unusual times.

In Asia, many businesses and government organizations have already enacted some form of digitalization. Some markets like Singapore, for example, have moved into the second phase of digital transformation. As a result, we are seeing greater reliance on applications as demand grows for greater business agility and more differentiated customer experiences.

Apps aren't a marketing fad for the mobile generation

Indeed, in F5's State of Application Services (SOAS) 2020 survey, we found that 98 percent of organizations today depend on applications to run or support their business. For the sixth annual survey, we spoke to almost 2,600 respondents worldwide—more than 1,300 of which came from Asia Pacific (APAC) —about the challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation, and it revealed that business applications aren't just hype anymore.

For 60 percent of organizations in APAC, applications are essential to business; without applications, they are unable to operate. In fact, 38 percent of respondents in this region shared that applications support their business and provide competitive advantage. More crucially, report findings reveal that innovation drivers within the business require more collaboration between two fundamentally different groups: DevOps and IT.

One group understands the needs and habits of customers, while the other knows the fundamental requirements of IT infrastructure and maintenance, as well as the nuances and cadence of technology developments.

As we've witnessed, almost every industry is being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's no longer enough for businesses to say they have a web presence. In a multi-channel, multi-cloud, panic-stricken world, companies have to be fast in reaching people through innovation, digital tools, and improvised go-to-market strategies.

Applications determine fate of businesses for the foreseeable future

Online, businesses aren't categorized as essential or not. Homebound for extended periods, consumers aren't simply looking to the likes of Foodpanda and Grab to get their essential needs taken care of but are turning to "retail therapy" and other forms of entertainment as a mental and emotional salve.

 In today’s state, digital transformation itself needs to be disrupted and collaboration will be key to driving quicker progress.

 While 35 percent of organizations in APAC (against the global number at 63 percent) report that IT operations and infrastructure teams continue to be the vanguard for the deployment of app services—on premise or in the cloud—the SOAS 2020 report found that collaboration remains key to helping organizations maximize team knowledge and capabilities.

There's no greater test to the readiness and ability for businesses to run and support their operations through these deployments than now. Ideas and information spread more easily when employees communicate and collaborate across functional and departmental lines. This can have a positive impact on companies working towards discovering greater business value in digital transformation.

 Nowhere is this clearer than in recent weeks, when even those at the threshold of disruption, like online grocer RedMart, have had to walk a tightrope due to the surge in demand for groceries and household essentials. It closed for two days to tweak its product offerings and update its systems to make sure its customers could get their shopping done online, and more importantly get a delivery slot.

 I can't imagine this happening without close collaboration between DevOps and IT. The world has changed, and we need to rise to the challenge and accelerate this collaboration. 

It has to.