Has COVID-19 Changed Your Company's Digital Strategy?

Has COVID-19 Changed Your Company's Digital Strategy?

Has COVID-19 Changed Your Company's Digital Strategy?

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic irruption, that paralyzed everything while spreading, companies have had to respond swiftly looking for digital solutions, automating processes and cloud solutions or making as many tasks as possible easier for their employees so that they can work remotely and be able to keep as much as possible the organization’s performance. 

Cristina Cueto

25/03/2021

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A year ago, the whole world was shaken by Covid-19, a new virus that spread very quickly and that turned our lives around and not only at personal levels, but also in terms of work, it was a turning point for all companies, which have been faced with the challenge of reviewing their strategies and targeting priorities.

The term "digital transformation" is not new, it has been a long time since the subject has been talked about and discussed, always looking to the future and with innovative ideas to implement, however, the steps taken globally were not that big, until Covid appeared in our lives. Suddenly, companies, large as well as SMEs, were faced with the challenge of putting into practice what they had been talking about for so long, and in just a matter of days, it accelerated the entire digitization process of companies. According to the Global Capital Confidence Barometer survey by EY, carried out between February and March 2020 in 46 countries, 70% of respondents have adapted digital transformation into their internal processes and 36% also claim to have accelerated their investment in automation. One of the most easily visible examples is teleworking increase, very unusual until recently in some countries.

According to data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), only 27% of the companies had experienced teleworking before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic. However, business digitization goes beyond teleworking.

Along this period, companies have had to respond swiftly to the situation, looking for digital solutions, automating processes and cloud solutions or making as many tasks as possible easier for their employees so that they could carry out their work remotely and thus be able to keep organization performance as much as possible.

Regarding Spain, its companies present, according to the DESI index (Digital Economy and Society Index), a good level in digital equipment, reaching a level above the European average, although still out of the Top 10 of the continent. However, it is expected that data will improve even more because, as a result of the pandemic, companies have experienced an acceleration of their digital transformation, reaching 69% of Spanish companies that have accelerated their digital transformation as a result of the COVID-19.

Digitization is also a task for small companies

In Spain, according to government data exposed in the Digital Spain Plan for 2025, the business fabric is made up mostly of SMEs, micro-SMEs and self-employed people, reaching 99% of the total. A more than relevant figure for the digitization process of the Spanish economy, since precisely small and medium-sized companies are the ones that have the longest way to go in terms of digital acceleration. It is true that these companies have a much lower economic capacity than the large ones, but thanks to this pandemic, many have seen the potential of the online world as a booster for their maintenance and growth.

In addition, a point in favor of these companies is that although it is difficult for them to have the capacity themselves, they can resort to outsourcing processes such as research, technological development or digital expansion, thus being able to focus on their business.

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The most digitalized companies, the least affected

Without a doubt, COVID-19 has worked as an indicator to analyze the degree of digitization of organizations. There are many cases where the pandemic has reaffirmed the digitization processes, having a positive impact when they have had to put into practice the work they did the previous years.

On the other hand, there are companies that have not been so lucky, companies that until now had left digital transformation for later, in the background. However, it is better late than never and if something positive can be drawn from this disastrous situation, it is that it has undoubtedly been a turning point for the market.

Advantages and benefits of digital transformation

Today no one is surprised when talking about the advantages of digital transformation for companies. It is a fact that having a good digitization plan positively revokes aspects such as profitability, customer relationship and customer experience or cost reduction, as well as increased revenue, but there is more.

The degree of digitization of a company is increasingly being taken into consideration in order to attract new talent. The companies with a firm bet in this field will be more attractive to the new generations, which are already native digitizers and hardly they will find motivation in a company incapable to evolve.