So far in 2020, COVID-19 has affected people in a way that nobody could have expected. All of us are now more or less familiar with the virus and the countless ways it has negatively affected the lives of many. Enterprises were struggling in the beginning of this year as conversations went from looking for breakthroughs and advantages to merely surviving. However, now a few months later in 2020, companies are proving to be adaptable and digital transformation has been the focus maybe more than ever (Deloitte, 2020).
But why are digital transformation plans seeing such acceleration now? Digital transformation has been a focus of many enterprises over the past few years. The pandemic forced companies to look at themselves more critical than ever. The common revelation here is how underutilized digital technologies really are (Deloitte, 2020). In a study Fitzpatrick et al. (2020), the pandemic has highlighted the ‘’systemic weaknesses’’ in the digital strategy of companies. Instead of seeing technology as support, technology is recognized as an actual driver of value. This is also in line with a survey conducted by Deloitte (2020), where many organizations seem to just ‘’do’’ digital things and launch digital projects, but few are making fundamental changes to their ‘’business model, operating model or company DNA’’.
There are many examples of companies in 2020 who modernized their legacy-systems or found new ways to create value as a result of the accelerated digital transformation. For many enterprises, a common transformation has been to create a platform within the company to facilitate working from home (Whitehead, 2020). In Indonesia, banks are moving teller services online as a result of the lockdown (Vollmer, 2020). After the lockdown in India, online has become the most important distribution channel, which was not that case before. This has lead to many companies moving to multichannel distribution models (Vollmer, 2020).
It is not possible to say that COVID-19 has been a ‘’blessing in disguise’’ for digital transformation, because the pandemic has had too much negative impact on our lives. What can be said though is that the pandemic has pushed companies to find solutions to all the new, unforeseen problems they encountered this year which has led to an acceleration of digital transformation within many enterprises. It will be interesting to follow how important digital transformation becomes in the following years with 2020 as a possible, ‘’actual’’ starting point.
[References]
Deloitte. (2020). Acceleration with control. https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/enterprise-technology-and-performance/articles/digital-transformation-after-covid-19-acceleration-with-control.html
Fitzpatrick, M., Gill, I., Libarikian, A., Smaje, K., & Zemmel, R. The digital-led recovery from COVID-19: Five questions for CEOs. McKinsey Digital.
Vollmer, S. (2020). How COVID-19 is accelerating digital transformation. FM-magazine. https://www.fm-magazine.com/news/2020/jun/coronavirus-accelerating-digital-transformation.html
Whitehead, A. (2020). Interview with Creative & Managing Director at Devotion. https://digitalagencynetwork.com/digital-transformation-after-covid-19-explained-by-andrew-whitehead-from-devotion/
