Year end quote from Avaali Solutions
Founder, Director of Avaali Solutions Pvt Ltd, Ms. Srividya Kannan’s interview published in indiainfoline on the future of the IT Industry.
In many ways 2020 was almost like a ‘reset’ of whatever was considered table stakes. This unique leap year took center stage for maximum use of the words ‘unprecedented’, ‘uncertain’ and ‘unpredictable’. Oxford Dictionaries expanded its word of the year to encompass “Several words of an unprecedented year” since it was too hard to isolate a single word. These include coronavirus, mute, unmute, quarantine, remote, lockdown, self-isolate, face-mask etc.
The tech industry rearranged itself to suit the new requirements of business. Digital took center stage as enterprises scrambled to cut costs, engage with customers and deliver results in the new world order with lockdowns and remote work summoned almost overnight. Enterprises increased their investments in automation, data and analytics with a focus on delivering business outcomes. With accentuated vulnerability due to remote working, enterprises increased focus on cybersecurity and protection of their data and assets. With hybrid working models likely to be here to stay, enterprises put together plans for helping their employees best cope and deliver results in this new world order. From trainings to performance and change management, enterprises put together plans to deliver better productivity and help employees adapt to the new workplace culture.
With most people now acclimatized with ‘virtual’, 2021 will see a shift towards more permanent digital stakeholder engagement and experiences. Contactless everything will see increased focus right from manufacturing to sales and delivery. Customer engagement in most industries from Banking, Healthcare, Retail to Education will focus on deeper digital experiences including augmented technologies from AR and VR. AI will get more pervasive, encompassing the huge data ecosystem as well as unstructured content to drive insights and predictions in addition to automation. Enterprises will focus on building new capabilities via digital including faster time to market, customer outreach as well as building new customer segments. This will necessitate building stronger digital trust to protect internal as well as external stakeholder privacy, data security, transparency and stronger focus on social responsibility. Good talent supply will be a huge area of focus as well as concern for everyone.