The economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic has not behaved the same in all cities nor all industries. Some have done better, than others.
However, there is a common denominator: the pandemic is forcing all companies, of all sizes, to accelerate their technologic adoption tools to adapt their business to the critical situation.
Even the smallest businesses, between 1 and 20 employees, cannot be left behind.
At the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC), we believe in planning with perspective.
Something this unusual quarantine has shown us is that businesses who are adapting more quickly to survive the crisis are the ones who already had a digital transformation plan. In other words, those who anticipated it are making a lot of money.
Business behavior is not normal. Revenues are affected and creating operational efficiencies becomes a priority.
The backbone of the digital transformation is how to implement technology-based operations tailored for sales and customer service needs.
Examples
- Banks monitor and support remotely with cloud systems.
- Online technology stores added to their catalog supermarket products.
- Supermarkets themselves focus their efforts these days on taking online orders from mobile apps.
Having integrated systems allows many companies to integrate logistic processes in the plant through mobile devices, which helps to improve stock control in real-time, reducing the process to prepare an order by 25 percent.
Digitization allows businesses to continue with a new approach and cost reductions when employees use their infrastructure from home.
The technology focuses on generating revenue and savings, as well as reducing IT risks, which are also savings. The fact that people work from home with virtual private networks is saving companies related expenses such as rent, water and electricity consumption, all of which will decrease dramatically because people are not in an office per se.
Regardless of the type or size of a company, technologies tailored to each business, even with on-demand capabilities so that they pay only when they require more capacity.
The future is not what it used to be
One year ago, the world was a different place. Our perspectives, professional and personal, were different. The pandemic changed everything.
The normality we knew would not return. What we are experiencing is not a parenthesis that will close in a certain time to return to an environment similar to what we experienced in the past.
When we finish the confinement, we will experience another world; we will work in another environment; our companies will have changed.
#YouAreNotAlone
Every company needs to identify present and future changes in its environment. In the short term, they need to focus on surviving and resisting. In the medium-term, they need to make a complete reengineering of their organization and their procedures.
In this changing world, the challenge is to adapt, in all areas.
Those who adopt will succeed in the future.
At the IHCC, we anticipate and are already working to show micro businesses the easy way to restructuring. Our commitment is to support them with continuing education so they have the knowledge to adapt to the changes the new reality will impose.