Pandemic Legacy: Remote Work and Digital Transformation
Published June 3, 2021 WRITTEN BY MICHAEL SOLOMON Michael G. Solomon, PhD, CISSP, PMP, CISM, PenTest+, is a security, privacy, blockchain, and data science author, consultant, educator and speaker who specializes in leading organizations toward achieving and maintaining compliant and secure IT environments. The COVID-19 pandemic drove many companies to rapidly expand their support for remote work. This change was not simply to appease a changing workforce; it was simply to survive. When most of the workforce was suddenly told to stay home, many organizations had to either adapt or cease to exist. The increased reliance on transforming previously manual or hybrid procedures to purely digital ones required updated (or completely new) applications, supporting software and infrastructure. Digital transformation was no longer an aspirational goal — it became a survival necessity. Let’s look at some fundamental changes the pandemic forced on companies and consumers, and how those changes affect all aspects of doing business today, including software development organizations developing secure application security in a decentralized world. Digital transformation plans were accelerated Prior to 2020, face-to-face interactions were not only the norm, but also the preferred way to communicate and carry out business. While a growing number of younger workers and consumers who preferred digital interaction were encouraging digital communication to gain popularity, total adoption was a long way off. Digital transformation (DT) is the common term used to represent the process of replacing manual business processes or services with digital processes. The push for DT was underway in 2020, but only as it aligned with long-term strategy. A few existing companies and many startups relied on digital processes, but most companies approached DT conservatively. After all, the requirement to produce revenue today trumped the desire to innovate for the future. Once the pandemic hit, companies of all types suddenly had to carry on unhindered without face-to-face interactions. Some companies were built on the concept of offices full of workers. Others depended on the ability to serve a steady flow of physical customers. Regardless of the business model, the disruption of face-to-face interaction required solutions where technology could provide the connection. One of the first shifts was to simulate the business meeting, customer interactions or even the classroom. Zoom went from a video conferencing tool to a generic term for an online meeting. The term can even be used as a verb, as in “I’ll Zoom you.” COVID-19 shifted DT from a long-term strategic goal to a survival requirement. Although all companies could not simply “go digital,” many could. Restaurants, airlines, hotels and a long list of other service-oriented companies had to undergo radical transformations. Other types of companies, such as insurance companies, software development organizations and banks, could continue operations, but had to find a different way. Reliance on face-to-face interactions had to defer to digital transactions. Customer service was required to rise to the occasion and provide an acceptable level of service using remote workers and digital connections. Some companies, like Amazon, were up to the challenge. After all, they were already relying on a decentralized model for much of their business process. They encountered challenges at their warehouses that relied on many human workers, but the rest of their organization had already embraced digitization and automation. Other organizations were not as fortunate and had to accelerate their digital […]
