Since we are in the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to talk about how business managers can manage their business everywhere. I can confirm that the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 has forced every individual and business to adapt to the new normal. Live of billions of people have been directly affected by this pandemic, particularly businesses, who are struggling to get back to operation as the quarantines and lockdown have caused significant disruption to the business landscape. Despite everything, the technology industry has been tasked with keeping the businesses afloat as the global market has been hit hard by the crisis's waves. The dependence of technology infrastructure has risen significantly during social distancing and lockdowns. For example, cloud computing has been a 'savior' and has received much praise during the pandemic. More focus will be on using cloud-based software, smartphones, and RFID to help the employees work from home and managers managing the business from anywhere at any time.
Many businesses have experienced decreased income as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, they have to create that will enable them to have their businesses running during the pandemic. When governments around the world ordered businesses to close down most of the operations that required people to be on-site or in office, in line with the strategies to contain the spread of the coronavirus, most of these businesses were unprepared. The IT infrastructure in place was put under unexpected, unprecedented, and stress as no-going-to-work measures were effected. The employees were sent home with critical business data and project files residing mostly in on-site servers. Most employees were not able to work from home because of inaccessibility to required data and files. This forced them to shift business processes, software, and data to the cloud to create a virtual office to facilitate collaboration through the cloud.
Notwithstanding, the importance of cloud computing has not been so evident, like today, during this pandemic. Fundamentally, the world is today, running the most significant remote work environment in the history of technology.
So, why are companies shifting to the cloud?
Although many CEOs and business owners never anticipated that they would be forced to have all their employees working from home, it is happening. The cost of losing even a single day of productivity creates uncertainty and fears for them. The need to have employees working at the same capacity as they usually do is an invaluable desire for any business. The remote capacity provided by the cloud seems to be more vital than ever, even if the businesses are unsure of what the future will hold. Cloud data centers are helping businesses support work from home activities. Collaboration and work can continue seamlessly, as usual, thanks to processing power, storage, and memory capacity that guarantee a response to data access.
Employees can now log in to company data using virtual desktops from anywhere, using any device, and continuing from where they left. There is a seamless transition as employees and managers will be using the same programs and applications they are used to while in office. Capacity and security issues are resolved by this cloud computing ability that is usually presented by bringing your own device (BYOD) policies. Having employees work from home enables them to work in a manner that suits them. This will, in turn, increase their productivity and throughput. In the time of the pandemic, employees will still offer the same performance to the business, ensuring that it stays afloat. People are very particular about how and when they prefer to work, and this season of the pandemic has given them a platform to work on their terms and have greater control.
Cloud computing also supports cognitive automation that comes in handy for managers during this pandemic period. As Shah S. mention in his article 'The benefits of cloud computing made clear by COVID', managers’ responsibilities have become even tougher today because they cannot supervise what employees are doing directly. Additionally, there is no direct interaction with business processes as before. However, careful planning and strategies are required to ensure seamless collaboration among the workforce and ensure that they are regularly updated. Cognitive automation allows managers to focus more on people management and what machines cannot or will not do in the future. Employees need to be continuously reminded of the business goals, new tasks, how annual projections are changing, and how the future may look for the business. They also need to be reminded of how vital customer service and satisfaction are to the company. Through collaboration and cognitive automation, managers can continually track employee performance and get reports on different project statuses and challenges they are facing and get them resolved.
Besides, the cloud ensures availability. Importantly, clouds have been designed for high availability and versatile distribution. Even when many people access data contemporarily from different locations, the cloud data center can keep up. Cloud providers have designed their data centers to support shifting workloads from one data center to another if one has received many requests at a go. This enables users to have uninterrupted services. Also, by working from home, internal IT maintenances are eliminated, and businesses can focus the energy to more valuable efforts and employee time. This is a significant cost saving and advantage, especially during a pandemic like today.
Smartphones facilitate more excellent communication. Having a workforce with diverse ideas drives innovation that will enhance business operations. Smartphones will help business managers have employees working in different departments to have a space for working together irrespective of their location.
Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to the Rescue
Since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, many companies resorted to having their employees working from home. Any business desires to remain in business as usual, productive, functional, and efficient; and still serve customers. Cloud ERP has been a correct transformative solution for many businesses during the pandemic as it enables them to understand financial results and key business metrics faster. Additionally, cloud ERP solutions allow the business to scale up or down based on current business needs. It facilitates execution and delivery with a 100% remote workforce.
Obviously, after the pandemic, businesses will need to reexamine their processes from shipping, warehouse management, production, purchasing, sales, marketing, and beyond to make sure they are in a position to grab growth opportunities and to be ahead of continually changing and unpredictable environment.
How we can move forward
This pandemic will come to pass, but how business is done will be transformed forever. We have been offered an exceptional opportunity to consider how technology and especially cloud solutions could facilitate business operations in the large-scale remote work environment. Also, the way they may continue to offer innovation in the workplace in the future that will prepare businesses to be ready in case another pandemic hits. By the end of this pandemic, it is projected that more almost 45% of workers in developed countries will be working from home. However, the big rhetorical question is, will the workers who have adapted working from home go back to the office? How will employers address this? The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to think about the future and what might come their way. This will ensure that they prepare themselves adequately to deal with uncertainties as they come their way.
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