How Disruption Has Changed Its Mandate
The term “disruption” usually means a change or disturbance to a current or settled way of doing something. Although technology is not always the cause of disruption, it is generally involved in some way. Over the last few years, there have been many technology related disruptive models that have changed the way business is conducted such as Airbnb, Uber, etc. and have taught us that things can change in an instant.
The sudden onset of COVID-19 brought about a raft of different types of disruptions and new challenges for Senior Executives and business organizations that required accelerated changes to business operation and delivery models.
On one hand, organizations had to think about business continuity during the shift to remote working. On the other hand, they’ve had to launch new digital customer engagement channels to meet demand and keep up within a competitive marketplace.
On top of this, the quick shift to digital transformation initiatives made organizational siloes between business and IT teams worse and shone a harsh light on the shortcomings of existing IT systems and business expectations.
As a response to COVID-19, IT teams were swiftly able to implement relevant, and in some cases band-aid type, technological solutions to enable their organization to continue working virtually using collaborative technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. and where possible, simplistic remote connectivity tools.
In many cases, the solutions were implemented without the proper due diligence from within the organization and decisions were made to enable functionality to allow businesses to continue operating with limited regard to any risks that exposed the organization.
On top of this, the quick shift to digital transformation initiatives made organizational siloes between business and IT teams worse and shone a harsh light on the shortcomings of existing IT systems and business expectations.
As a response to COVID-19, IT teams were swiftly able to implement relevant, and in some cases band-aid type, technological solutions to enable their organization to continue working virtually using collaborative technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. and where possible, simplistic remote connectivity tools.
In many cases, the solutions were implemented without the proper due diligence from within the organization and decisions were made to enable functionality to allow businesses to continue operating with limited regard to any risks that exposed the organization.
Additionally, processes to manage these changes in a repeatable and measurable method were not implemented appropriately. As a result of the hurried decision-making, there were many information security related incidents such as “Zoombombing”, data theft, unauthorized access and identity theft.
KEY OBSERVATIONS
Some of the key observations of the digitalization from the COVID-19 situation highlighted the following:
- There were many shortcomings of the current state of IT systems at most organizations.
- Employee and customer behaviors and expectations have changed, and more flexibility is required to meet their expectations.
- Many organizations did not have the overall capacity for additional workloads and relevant security requirements.
- Business functional requirements, especially in the IT dependent industries are not being considered due to inadequate IT and budgetary resources available.
- Digital channels are now at the forefront of most organizations delivery strategy and business leaders are now leading many initiatives within organizations and the IT teams are less involved in key decisions.
- There is a need for improved collaboration to ensure that the appropriate level of employee and customer experience is provided.
- The war for talent is only beginning and many organizations are struggling to attract and retain qualified and experienced resources.
In this five-part blog, we explore how IT’s mandate has been changed by COVID-19 and will elaborate on the following key topics:
COVID-19 and IT: Lessons learned
how businesses were required to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the key lessons learned from the trenches and war rooms of IT teams.
Digital Strategy Ownership
Business or IT – Sharing of responsibilities across the enterprise and how business teams are leading certain digital initiatives.
Importance of Collaboration
collaboration between IT and business teams and key benefits to enhanced collaboration.
Key technologies for the future
How new trends such as cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning may impact business in the future.
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