Digital Transformation 2022. The impact of a pandemic and the shift towards Digital & Tech enablement.

Feb 1st, 2020.

"Have you heard about the pandemic in China". Nope, but it's in China.... so what.........!

March 1st, 2020.

"Kevin, take your work home and work from there, you don't need to be in the office".

April 1st, 2020.

Over a million deaths worldwide. COVID-19 is in full sight and grips the nation.

The pandemic changed everything. The world, the people, the processes, the day-to-day basics, the businesses, the health of people, and the way we went about our roles in work.

Remote working. What???? No way. Security issues. How?

Communication. Difficult online! Isolation. 100% genuine and in full sight.

Some say it changed everything. I agree. Personally, I was given the chance to look up.

We all got a chance to take stock, look around and see what else is going on. I did. Granted, working from home for a short time was not easy, as was the following consultation with my former employers and then the formidable redundancy, against the backdrop of a career I thought I had, a relationship 89 miles away, and a new start in a city and town that did not know how I was or what I did..... and would they care.

COVID was here. TIME and TRUST ruled everything.

Move forward 8 months and we are still seeing the effects of the last 28 months or so.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused global ripples, disrupting supply chains and increasing energy prices. For businesses, the consequent rise in inflation and threat of recession has added further pressure after a difficult 28 months.

PEOPLE.

Many businesses were challenged, as were the employees of those businesses. Customers were hugely affected and keeping that TRUST and that LOYALTY was more challenging than ever.

The MEGA shift towards remote and online rather than in-person rocked the strongest TEAM dynamics. Many have chosen to continue this remote opportunity and will not return to work in the short or even long term. Opportunity and Balance painted a new picture for the C-Suite. Management had to adjust to the 'Great Resignation' that was unfolding.

But like any challenge, a solution had to be brought to the table. Digital Transformation was in full view. 2025 had become 2020 overnight and the digital acceleration of many businesses was a sight to behold. Those who were more digitally mature would flourish in the face of this disruption.

With new movements comes new opportunity to showcase and explore digital and tech enablement and services that were perhaps untapped or unrequired, during the old days of desktop work from the comfort of your office.

Digital & Remote Tech - Fully configured, secure, and ready for roll-out.

The 'As a Service' model was being rolled out for speed, accuracy, and commercial sense.

Supply Chain was in meltdown as the impact of the CHIP shortage was hitting the UK & worldwide shores.... no one could lay their hands on quick kit. These signs are now slowing a little. Partnerships were tested, but again, communication and conversation are always key to unlocking opportunities in tougher climates.

Digital Transformation runs across many facets of a business.

C-Suite and Leadership Teams now have to make sure that the employee and the customers are talking more than ever, understanding what suits them now and not what was suited 28 months ago. Those leaders who act and give that enablement across digital to the employee will WIN!

STATISTICS

Direct Digital Transformation investments accelerate to 16.5% 2022-24 becoming 55% of all ICT investments by the end of 2024.

Two years ago, 73% of companies did not have a digital roadmap. regardless of their approach to strategy, they didn't have a plan that says "How do I go from where I am today to where I want to be as a business in the future. Scary. Now that we see that 50% have a roadmap or what looks like a strategy or plan.

TRENDS & OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESSES IN 2022-25.

1. VR

Big news in the last 24 months. Spaces are being created in virtual environments. Events are hosted in virtual mode and in person. By 2023, 90% of worldwide organizations will prioritize investments in digital tools to augment physical spaces and assets with digital experience. We have clients who are moving into this space across different services. ????

Gartner Predicts 25% of People Will Spend At Least One Hour Per Day in the Metaverse by 2026

2. AUTOMATION

By 2025, 60% of organisations will capitalise on disruption with an enterprise-and ecosystem-wide approach to AUTOMATION, leveraging model-based enterprise concepts, and low/no-code platforms.

We are working on some nice projects across the automation service right now and the ROI, employee engagement, and UX are a sight to behold. A game-changer for multiple departments, hiring, and long-term commercials across departmental operations.

Better UX / CX

Better Employee Engagement

Intuitive Projects & Inclusion

ROI & Commerical Gains

Enhanced Productivity

Gartner Says Worldwide RPA Software Spending to Reach $2.9 Billion in 2022

3. CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE

Early cloud migrations employed a 'lift & shift' approach, rehosting on-premises workloads to cloud infrastructure with minimal application-level changes.

Cloud adoption can be done across many lines of business, it can be a mix of hybrid and on-prem, and it can run across several cloud providers and not one. It can also be used across multiple tech stacks in the business or the whole shooting match.

IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and the newer mode of XaaS - Everything as a Service are options in the traditional pillar of cloud services. But now we can look at storage, functions, security, UCaaS - Unified Communications as a Service, and video. This list will get longer.

The amount spent on shared cloud IT infrastructure will overtake spending on traditional IT gear for data centers in 2022 for the first time. Spending on cloud services is about to hit another key tipping point, business customers spent $18.3 billion on cloud computing ????and storage infrastructure in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, up 17.2% year over year.

Gartner predicts that over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms by 2025, up from 30% in 2021.

So there you have it. A few key trends that are FRONT & CENTRE right now in all discussions being had inside the TECH & DIGITAL landscape we are now in.

We have always been moving at pace, the pandemic only accelerated what was coming. Remote & Hybrid working is here to stay, as will the office environment be an option to lean into for some, we cannot get away from this.

Those businesses that adopt the hybrid model will WIN.

Another Gartner stat suggests that by 2023, 75% of organisations that exploit distributed enterprise benefits will see revenue growth 25% faster than competitors.

It is time to stop worrying about your staff being in their pyjamas and start enabling them to succeed in this newfound digital remote and opportunistic landscape for the here and now.

WE ARE NOT GOING BACK! TO INFINITY & BEYOND!

Kev