Surely nothing good could come out of this dreadful situation that we find ourselves in right? Well, think again. As the coronavirus strengthens its grip on the world, the way services are provided is undergoing a drastic shift too. No longer are people going around to buy just about everything in local shops. According to Sumeet Jindal, the coronavirus may just be indirectly helping the digital economy as many businesses shift their operations to the online medium.As companies begin to limit their offline business, even the most digitally averse and sceptical customers are forced to make the shift to online mediums and embrace the digital form for any assistance. This could help in giving a boost to the digital economy in the long run and help the nation shift to a new medium of acquiring services. Some of the ways in which the COVID-19 will give a boost to the digital economy are.
Online collaboration
As most of the employees are limited to their homes, there is an urgent need for improved online collaboration between corporations and employees. Having most of their workforce stuck in their homes, companies have found new and improved ways to make it work for them. With the culture of work from home increasing, digital reach increases too. Not to mention, the horde of tools and applications that have popped up for the sole purpose of providing services related to these situations such as meetings apps like Google meet. Such is the effect of the constant lockdowns that some companies are even thinking of making work from home culture a permanent thing and keep only essential employees in the offices.
Dark Factories
One of the worst affected sector during the COVID-19 out brake was the manufacturing sector. With factories being shut or working on reduced capacities and workers getting laid off companies suffered huge losses. This has put the global supply chain under great pressure and Sumeet Jindal reasons that when faced with such harsh circumstances they have no options but to transform into more efficient work centres called Dark Factories. This concept essentially tries to make most of the factories automated with minimal human presences which right now certainly seems like a far cry. But with the frailty of our daily lives exposed, most companies will look into this prospect as an alternative for the future with some groundwork already being laid in the form of 5G development.
Information security
Ever since COVID-19 began and people were forced into their home, there's been a spate of security breaches around the world mainly due to poor security infrastructure and the increase in traffic flow. The data from various organisations have been stolen and even some high profile accounts of celebrities have been hacked. The recent examples of Zoom and Twitter have highlighted the poor information security that is available to users and companies have taken note of it. With more people getting online and making their data available, there have been concerns for privacy and security which is being taken increasingly seriously by the people. To overcome such problems, organisations have started investing more in securing all their electronic assets.
Business strategy
According to Sumeet Jindal from Postman News, the COVID-19 and the stringent lockdowns that accompanied it has drastically altered the consumer behaviour and buying throughout the market and continues to make an impact even now. With people forced into their homes, buying and selling, which selling, which was earlier one of the daily tasks in everyone's life became something of a taboo. Customers suffered due to their lack of buying capacity and sellers suffered losses over their products not being sold. This has dampened the previous business model which included Brick and mortar stores and paved the way for online channels. Not skipping a beat, the online mediums have jumped on the COVID-19 bandwagon and increased their products to include everything from luxury items to items and medical devices. Those people who prefer to see and feel a product before making a buy were forced to use online channels to fulfil their basic needs. Getting familiarised with online sellers, they may feel better about buying online once the crisis reverts. Not only customers but even small sellers who used to sell their products in retail are finding ways of getting by, by tying up with online portals who provided them with a means to reach the customer.
Digital Healthcare
COVID-19 provides a silver lining to the digital healthcare system which has been languishing in the dark for years, with lack of infrastructure and funding. Online tech companies and the government have pitched in to launch several digital healthcare apps and services such as the Aarogya Setu App, Practo and offering digital doctor advise over the phone. Factors such as increased internet penetration have help companies increase their user base and provide people with online consultations, test results and such. And it is not only people in metros who are taking advantage of this, but those in tier 1 and tier 2 cities too, are increasing.
What’s Next?
We hardly possess the means to see into the future but being optimistic has never hurt anybody. The chances are once the outbreak stems down, we might come out and see a whole different world. The global trade dynamics and workforce collaborations will have changed. The automation and cloud services would be the hot stuff and the way we buy or sell stuff would be completely different. Certainly, there will be problems too. As most digital services are provided in either Hindi or English, the language barrier plays a spoiler in digital transformation.However, Sumeet Jindal, founder of Postman News believes that looking on the negative sides of things will only make us pessimistic so it is better to look ahead to the future which seems bright and beautiful and prepare ourselves for the day when this crisis can get over. Finally, let us hope that we don't ever have to deal with this kind of crisis ever again, even if it does have some positive side to it.