It is undeniable that COVID-19 has forever changed the working world. Earlier in the year digitisation in the workplace was a nice idea, but something that few businesses were taking seriously. As a trusted digital partner for various businesses, we have always believed that with the right technology and digital processes that South African businesses will be more competitive, resilient, and capable of not only surviving, but thriving, despite any external challenges.
Businesses that survive, and those that emerge, from the COVID-19 pandemic should now, more than ever, strive to be a digital first business; equipped with technology that can bolster collaboration, information sharing, and customer engagement.
Over the last few years we have refocused our efforts by shifting from a telco to providing businesses with end-to-end technology solutions. Our expertise in this area is bolstered by our five subsidiaries, the latest of which is IoT.nxt. Together with IoT.nxt we have developed a range of solutions during the pandemic, particularly those that enable remote work and learning.
Accelerate digital adoption is the silver lining of this global crisis
The incorporation of remote working is here to stay. Digitisation may have been a conversation previously, but it’s now a business imperative with 91% of EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) organisations having specific digital transformation execution plans in progress. Superior customer experience, improvement in business agility and tangible returns on technology investments are what will differentiate successful businesses in the digital age.
In pursuit of these objectives, companies are encountering challenges: infrastructure lock-in limiting their ability to adapt digitally from one environment to another; complex compliance and security requirements reducing their speed to market and sometimes impacting the end-customer experience; the tremendous tool sprawl that increases operational complexity and cost. To enable digitisation, next-level cooperation, collaboration and agility is necessary. Mission critical now is engaging meaningfully with the most capable partners in your value chain to ensure business continuity.
Is your tech geared up for 5G connectivity as we step into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)? Does your production line now require specific manufacturing enabled by robotics and supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Does your organisation demand data be collected at every process point? Does your business cloud enable big data analytics to support streamlined, just-in-time iterations?Your company is going to require a different method of management to remain relevant. Your value chain will demand greater efficiency to enable movement at speed. You will be reliant on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to achieve a deep integration of people, process and possessions as always-on devices generate extensive data.
Insight-driven business management, driven by big data and uncovered by analytics, will create pockets of value across industries of influence. Businesses who think cloud-first, will embrace scale and act at speed. Partnering with a hyper-skilled service providers able to solve computing and storage conundrums with tailored solutions, will accelerate stabilisation and organic growth with the inherent benefit of impressive savings.
If we stand a fighting chance, we must plug into the power of technology for critical business, societal change, and governmental needs.
This pandemic is no longer primarily a healthcare issue but also an economic one. To move forward, seeking the best strategic business partner is first and foremost can be vital, especially if your business has limited experience in a specific area, such as technology.
As businesses re-open, many are scrambling to digitise while simultaneously trying to comply with the new regulations. Because both of these are new, it can be incredibly challenging for businesses to manage. This is why Vodacom Business is committed to assisting South Africa’s businesses as they reopen and get back to work.
To achieve this we recently announced near real-time monitoring, alerting, and reporting solutions to assist with the current pandemic. These are provided through our People and Spaces Monitoring and Thermal Screening solutions.
The collection of this data over time can provide valuable insights into managing operations, ensuring client satisfaction, promoting products and services, or even benchmark specific stores to replicate their success.
With a blend of hardware and software that allows organisations and consumers to use existing equipment, such as android based phones or existing cameras while providing a suite of tested affordable hardware if new infrastructure is required. Our products were designed to not only address the various issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic but will add value long after the pandemic is over through the exponential power of our IoT.nxt platform.
While these technologies are relatively new, especially when implemented at scale, we believe that in the next few years, variants of them will become more and more commonplace. Driven by technologies like Cloud, AI, and Internet of Things, the likes of Smart Cities and Smart Spaces will become normal. What COVID-19 has done is accelerate this process and forever altered the normal way of working.
Leveraging technology can help you achieve more.
In adapting to this new normal, Vodacom Business has committed to accelerating digital adoption in support of companies’ business unusual. Despite predictions, no-one knows for sure what the new normal will be like, but we do know that technology can help us recover and evolve, providing better employment options that are able to survive disruption, and significantly improve on infrastructure and service delivery. It is clear that there has never been a better time to be a technology company as businesses begin to take the need for technology more seriously than ever before.
Contact Vodacom Business today to find out how they can help your business.
