Throughout time, pandemic diseases have generated change. COVID-19 is no different, as social distancing, staying home and isolation continue to change the fundamentals of social interaction and challenge the very essence of our society.
When he stated “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity”, Albert Einstein was clearly focused on the intrinsic connection between challenges and opportunities. Once public health concerns of COVID-19 have been resolved, the challenge of business health will become an opportunity and primary driver of change and investment.
COVID-19 has been a reality check for the incessant discussion in recent years on the digital world and the impact of digitalization on business, industry and even our personal lives. Faced with the demand for social distancing, companies, organizations and individuals have shifted to online video conferencing, using applications such as Skype and Zoom to maintain connectivity. This simple example of digitalization is about connecting between people, information and machines
In industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a hands-on realization that collaborative technologies and digitalization can be engaged to effectively transform the way business is done. In his blog entitled “Why the corona-crisis will accelerate corporate digital transformations”, Gartner VP & Fellow Mark Raskino notes that “Necessity is the mother of invention and when lives are on the line, that’s when we are really prepared to ‘move fast and break things’”. Stating that the pandemic “…has highlighted the potential of digital to multiply our productivity with automation, intelligence, and connectivity”, IDC believes that the COVID-19 is going to force European organizations to develop their digital strategies with “bottom-line obsession”, irrespective of the expected economic downturn and financial pressures resultant from the pandemic.
Today, industries are at the start of a journey to take advantage of the efficiencies provided by new interactive technologies and find new ways of doing business that will increase their resilience to future pandemic events. Just as it can connect and bring people closer together, even when they are physically apart, they are seeking to utilize digitalization to keep workers safe in the workspace and support new working realities.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, our customers have been telling us that our platform, which they purchased and use to drive business improvement, is now a key tool in dealing with the many new realities of our pandemic world. It supports them in the management of change - by enabling the rapid roll-out of new procedures across plants and sites and reducing the number of workers onsite - and facilitating social distancing and remote supervision.
Read more about how digitalization and our platform are an essential foundation for industrial workforce safety and productivity in the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.