COVID-19: The “ACCELERATOR” of digital transformation

The appearance of Covid-19 represents a new precedent for humanity, leading us to rethink how we will face this situation and how we will move forward after the social and economic aftermath that will undoubtedly be left by the passage of this pandemic.

However, from a more “progressive” point of view, the current situation has put the pedal to the metal so that the dynamics of digital transformation (DT) are beginning to be adopted by countries and companies at times that we would never have imagined in other circumstances.

According to the last formal study measuring the level of maturity of digital transformation (TD) in companies in Colombia, conducted in 2018 by the Center for Research and Development in Information and Communication Technologies – CINTEL, Colombia was at that time with a maturity index of 62.88% (on a scale of 0 to 100, Reference source https://cintel.co/sectorial-studies) and given the dynamics of growth, by 2020 we should be close to 70%, however, the best way to check how congruent these indicators are with reality is the current situation.

Having said the above, I would like to approach this opinion article from the 3 characteristic fronts of TD:

Tecnology

Although today we know that technology and its acquisition is not the only guarantor to achieve TD digital transformation, it is vitally important to have the basic means to support these interactions. The arrival of Covid-19 revealed the technological shortcomings of companies and institutions in developing countries such as ours. The “Home Office” measure, for example, taken by some organizations, showed the lack of preparation we still have, however, this opened the door for us to get on this “bus” in a reactive way. On the other hand, governmental and healthcare institutions have also made great strides in digital terms, especially in areas such as Big Data, Business Intelligence and analytics. Dashboards like the one we see below, are available to citizens to know the behavior that this pandemic is having.

Processes

Without going into too much detail, the phrase “Stay at home” implies an enormous effort on the part of companies and organizations to make many of their processes more flexible and reinvent them in order to respond to an extremely high demand for online and home services, among other things. Undoubtedly, the banking sector is the most mature in this type of processes, however, these days we find many people who still “need” to do the paperwork in person, which leads us to the next front related to our culture.

Persons

There is no doubt that this is the most complex component in the picture (Technology, Processes, People), however, although it may sound like a cliché phrase, major catastrophes bring with them advances and developments especially in our way of living. In the last month we have seen how millions of people around the world have been adopting digital technologies and processes very quickly, for communication, teamwork, procurement of goods and services, leisure and so on. Companies, through their “bosses”, have also taken a big step forward in terms of trust, which either coerced by the situation, allowed issues such as HomeOffice, which in another scenario would not have been possible. Without planning and in a direct way, this contributes significantly to the advancement in the maturity of the digital culture.

The world has changed and the only thing that is clear to us is that, as in other moments in history, we will have to be resilient and face whatever comes with an “out of the box mentality”.