Disasters Are Inevitable; Failure Is Not
Imagine always worrying about when the next disaster will strike and how it will affect you. It’s difficult to live a life filled with anxiety—it can be tiring, unproductive, and lead to missed opportunities. Yet, it doesn’t help to assume that disasters only happen in movies or to somebody else. If you fall within this camp, chances are you’re in for a rude awakening.
Let’s look at the world we live in today. Barely acclimating to a post-pandemic reality and the chaos COVID-19 caused, we’re already facing a new disaster. The Russo-Ukrainian War and the ensuing trade and energy supply disruptions are creating food and fuel supply shortages and inflationary pressures. Despite the more regional nature of this conflict, the entire world is uneasy. Country economies have become so intricately interconnected that, regardless of where disruptive events occur, almost everyone is impacted.
The faster the world changes—not the least due to technological advancements—the more uncertain the future becomes. Business models that shifted overnight during the pandemic lockdowns are bound to continue evolving. And there’s abundant evidence that remote and hybrid work will continue to dominate, while digital methods of employee collaboration and customer contact will be the norm.
Your competitors are adapting, and so should you. Brace yourself for a bumpy ride, but leave nothing to chance. It’s time to future-proof your organization to ensure business continuity in the face of continued uncertainty.
If you’re a small or mid-sized business, you are most likely nimbler than your larger competitors. You may not have their abundant resources, but you can be prepared to weather a new storm. As Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, pointed out in a recent conversation, “The ‘hallmark’ of small businesses is to be nimble and pivot more quickly and easily.” However, he cautioned, “It’s important to know what to pivot to. A key thing I tell all our members is to stay connected to the world and be confident in your decisions. Once you’ve decided where something is going and what you need to do, go do it and stop second-guessing yourself.”
Strong Connections Power the Organization of the Future
Think about what keeps you going at times of adversity—without a doubt, it’s the ability to stay connected. On a business level, maintaining operations and client contact under any circumstance is a matter of survival. And, if you’re a business leader or part of the IT team, you know that both your customers and internal teams now have high expectations of the technology that enables their essential connections—whether a critical virtual meeting or resolution of a remote support ticket.
When the pandemic hit, we had to make some urgent decisions about where and how to work. We’re now past that state of urgency and confusion. However, finding the best operational model for each organization is a work in progress. As businesses evaluate future work practices, they must weigh the considerable benefits of remote and hybrid work, including increased employee satisfaction and productivity, against some of the challenges. Jamie Domenici, CMO of GoTo advises, “If you’re going to stay old school and tell employees they must come back to the office, it’s not going to work, and you’re not going to adapt to your customer needs.” She also observes, “How you connect with your employees and customers is a point of differentiation. Small businesses can move fast and can quickly prioritize strategies that can become a huge differentiator in the future.”
Remaining agile and powering strong connections—both internally and externally—is critical as work models and market conditions continue to evolve and new challenges arise. Digital technologies proved highly effective throughout the pandemic and will enable flexible connections in future dynamic external and internal environments. Cloud communications, in particular, are best suited to empower highly distributed workforces and enable business continuity, regardless of circumstances.
Digital Transformation the Right Way
Building a solid digital foundation for the future is no trivial matter. It takes planning and careful consideration.
You must choose the right tools for your organization today and in the future. You must also consider consolidating existing and future technologies to reduce costs and complexity and optimize your IT resources. Frost & Sullivan data show that more than 28% of surveyed organizations have already completed a process of consolidating their IT tools, 45% have consolidation initiatives in progress, and another 22% are planning to do so in 2022.
Jamie Domenici has three key recommendations for businesses in the process of digital transformation:
- Find technology that’s easy to use. Don’t make it challenging for customers to do business with you.
- Don’t deploy too many disparate tools. More tools mean more admin portals, more systems to learn, and more chances for a security breach, among other challenges.
- Work with one vendor when you can. This approach can save you time and money while driving vendor accountability.
Domenici points out that simplification of IT must be a priority for SMBs on a digital transformation journey: “The key tenets of a successful digital strategy are simplicity, flexibility, security, and reliability. If you’re using technology that is simple, flexible, reliable, and secure, you’re doing it right.”
Key Takeaways
Uncertainty is the new normal, but it can be managed. De-risk your business by adopting flexible work models and leveraging the right digital technologies. Managing an increasingly rich arsenal of digital tools can be challenging, but there are ways to reduce complexity. A consolidated set of cloud communications, collaboration, and remote support tools from a single trusted provider can help you future-proof your business and adapt with purpose.
To receive deeper insights on how to position for long-term success, listen to a panel of experts sharing their perspectives in a webinar titled “The IT Leader’s Guide to Navigating Through an Age of Uncertainty.”
