Random thoughts about the post pandemic digital-IT world

It is no doubt that the pandemic situation we find our world in is not only an unforeseen crisis, but also something that will change our world as we know it. There will be no doubt a bit of an aftermath, while it will question businesses digital preparedness in handling these situations.

Unsurprisingly, it could also make most industries & its leaders’ question and revisit their vulnerabilities in its current shape & form, while creating an unparalleled hunger to be digitally ready and survive (read succeed) such crises when it surfaces in the future. I won’t be surprised either if business leaders wish to survive and remain competitive at the same time on future occasions.

While the business world ponders on what it needs to be done to be better prepared, the CIO/CDO & their organisations could experience a mix of both applause & in many cases blame for the current state of secure tech adoption. This could mean both increased pressure & higher expectations for the future, and that epidemics and pandemic related analyses should be part of the risk assessments for a while to come.

To be precise, I do not say that all the areas visited below are purely a result of COVID-19, but it does form the basis for accelerating several digital and IT initiatives for the future.

The necessity of a secure digital workplace & its tools

This COVID-19 lockdown period has been an acid test for “working from home” across the world. For that matter in the pre-COVID19 world, it was already a preached mantra that most organisations must manage to “SaaS-ify” and provide a secure digital workplace that is based on an any-where, any-time and any-device principle.

The post-COVID19 world could further this cause, push for true mobility, digital workplace experience, increased security and device independence at the workplace called home. Without doubt, this also could mean that partners such as Microsoft, Google take centre stage for the near future.

Agility and scalability as a lasting solution

While this crisis has been a rude awakening for many organisations across the world, there are organisations that have really been able to turn around business models, launch new products in a matter of days to gain new revenue streams. For example, while airlines and hotels have taken a beating, the food and generally delivery business has boomed significantly.

In the pre-COVID19 world, the need for agility and being able to launch products at will has always been an ideal goal that every business aims for. Every organisation wishes to get there, but very few have truly managed to achieve this state of perfection — not undermining how complex this transformation is though.

I expect the post-COVID19 world could accelerate this trend, and really push for investment, need for cloud strategies, further adoption of the cloud, modernisation of application portfolios, agile teams, DevSecOps principles & push for decisions based on data analytics and management.

Security gains even more of a centre stage

While the average user is starting to fathom how deeply rooted we are in the digital world, IT departments, CISOs & digital leaders have always feared their organisations security postures, and with good reason. While it has been a central focus area, there probably should have been to be a lot more action on the ground in my view.

Further adoption of the cloud, new development practices, modern SaaS tools, targeted cyber-attacks, increased possibilities for human errors are all signs for a more complicated role for the CISO and his organisation. This also means that niche security players that plug gaps in these areas could be more relevant to the post-COVID-19 world.

On a side note, my appreciation for terms like security-by-design, integrated privacy and zero-trust grows & I hope that these terms are made more actionable and implementable through various standards.

The search for new operating models

The name of the game off late has been to become a digital enterprise. Many leaders blame the CIOs/CDO organisation for being the “bottleneck” to digitalisation whereas some business leaders have taken things into their hands. In all, organisations in the pre-COVID19 world realised the need for being a digital enterprise.

Post-COVID19, the business world will realise the need for accelerating their digital journeys. This could mean new operating models, new organisational models, new business-IT relationships, new and agile organisational frameworks.

Easy to scale could potentially become the new mantra for organisations & technology alike. This would give rise to further adoption of the cloud based tech in order to be agile and scalable, aiding the preparedness touched upon earlier.

Enhanced focus on right-sourcing and acquisitions

The 2008 recession furthered an unprecedented trend for outsourcing across the IT & Business Processes (BPO) world. Such much so, that most large global organisations are now even fourth-generation outsourcers.

In all honesty, the use of large-scale outsourcing has not really been top priority for many companies in recent times (there are exceptions of course), “right-sourcing” seems to resonate well in general. After all, it is only right that one must build critical digital capabilities in-house and sourcing competence as necessary.

The world of tech acquisitions seems to have kicked-off with the likes of Slack (by Salesforce) and Nordcloud (by IBM) towards the end of 2020, something which I believe will continue and drive further consolidation in the cloud marketspace as an example.

Control over existing contracts & vendor management

There has been a significant rise in trying to identify what the contract says and related to their critical projects, how this the COVID-19 situation would affect the vendors deliveries, how should we suspend deliveries, how & why should the force majeure clause be used, how do our partnerships get affected etc. etc.

I believe that the need for better organised control and vendor management, ensuring good governance, consolidating vendors and all the joy that follows, should become an area for innovation in the post-COVID19 world. It will be natural for IT; digital & business leaders start looking for securing their supply chains through putting in place good routines.

To conclude on other random things,

I consciously do not state cost reduction as a separate point above, believing that it is expected to be an underlying theme to the post COVID-19 world of business. Defensive employment strategies and projects that drive cost reductions could naturally become top priority for organisations in the coming times, especially for those adversely affected by the pandemic. The post-COVID19 world could aggressively drive the need to have further cost cutting and ensuring scalable, secure and risk mitigated services from external partners.

New initiatives could be expected to be launched covering the above needs. All in all, I expect that it could be an interesting time to be in the digital world as the to the post-COVID19 smog becomes clearer for digital leaders.

The article reflects my attempt at a “could be-should be” view for the post Covid-19 tech world and is not associated with any organisation or group.