A GUIDE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE POST-COVID WORLD - September-2021
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A GUIDE TO DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION IN THE
POST-COVID WORLD
September-2021
CONTENTS Introduction 3 The Changed Journey of Digital Transformation 5 Salient Considerations for Digital Transformation 8 Digital Transformation in 2021 Represents a Roadmap to Recovery 11 Digital Transformation Protocols in the Post- COVID World 13
3|Page
Introduction unexpected lockdown pushed many
global organizations and their
Two years back, not many leaders into waters that were
businesses considered gearing up unfamiliar, if not totally uncharted.
competencies in crisis management, Hurried decisions to implement
enterprise agility, cost digital solutions for facilitating
management, workforce resiliency, remote workforce, shifting
innovation, or cash-flow customer engagement from
management. Today the game has physical to online, and reducing
changed. operational costs was the primary
motive for many.
Before the onset of the COVID-19
global Pandemic, most businesses However, the positive side which we
were moving steadily towards a saw during this pandemic was the
digital future. Since the term incredible dedication shown by
‘Corona virus’ dominated our enterprises to adopt technology
conversation, ‘Digital’ might have and tools to meet customer and
been the hottest topic of our employee's needs in a virtual
discussions. It took us a Pandemic to environment. Apart from that, the
understand that when we apply downside showed us how much
‘digital’ to its fullest potential, the underutilized technology tools are.
result is a data-driven, agile, Well, technology and its adoption
customer-centric, future-proof had limitations all along, but during
enterprise, that empowered people this Pandemic, it became more
and made leaders capable to lead visible. Therefore, the pre-COVID
teams through competitive digital transformation strategy must
markets. be reimagined.
Organizations that were paving the At EPC Group, we predict that
way towards digital transformation successful companies will shift their
with a focused strategy, need to mindset permanently and innovate
reimagine their approach. ways of working that will suit the
new normal. The technology
COVID-19 interrupted everyone’s
transformation that tool place
plan to adopt digital transformation.
acknowledging the COVID-19 will
The unprecedented threat and
last longer even after the pandemic.
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Here are some notable changes we make an advancement in the
identified and are going to stay future impacting society and
beyond Pandemic, people.
• The exponential shift in No wonder, COVID-19 pandemic has
consumer behavior is substantially accelerated the
supposed to stay forever demand for digital transformation.
leading to an accelerated shift
in digital consumer
engagement.
• Actionable intelligence
driving real-time visibility in
financial and operational data
will enhance its pace in the
coming years.
• Enterprises willing to move
ahead with proven
technology solutions will
retain the reconfigured
supply chain developed for
addressing the disrupted
global logistic demand.
• The digitalized processes
customized to meet the
• demands of the remote
workforce will stay and
enhance in the future to meet
the new normal.
• Many organizations will
continue remote or hybrid
working environments and
will come up with innovative
ways to use offices ensuring
the future of work is an
impending reality.
• The shift in highly critical skill
sets and jobs will continue to
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The Changed Journey of changes in the ways of their working
but will also change the culture and
Digital Transformation entire business DNA.
The unprecedented need to
A carefully strategized digital
transform business digitally has
transformation approach will
taught us that the journey to an
ensure the company is future-ready.
effective digital transformation will
It empowers the organizations to
not be easy or quick. Many
innovate quickly and bring new
organizations have experienced the
offerings, skills, and expertise to the
endless loop of doing things digitally
market rapidly, successively, and at
or launching customized digital
scale.
products and reaching nowhere. All
these things are illusions – far from Fearless Attitude to Go Digital
the reality of being digital. Pandemic
has made it painfully clear. The journey from adopting digital to
going digital is not of much hassle
In 2021, if you want to hop on the although it consists of few relatively
digital transformation bus, you need easy and some bold initiatives. Many
to have critical changes in times, bold initiatives are hard to
business/operating models and the take because the old business
process has to be gradual in focused model is the primary inhibitor in
stages of maturity. making the transition successful.
The early stage of maturity starts Therefore, digital transformation in
with companies relying on digital 2021 is going to be critical.
technologies to launch new Nevertheless, it is going to
initiatives and leverage digital tools accompany those having a fearless
to enhance capabilities. However, attitude and capable to take risks for
they do so by focusing on the exploiting and optimizing the
existing business models and never current versus exploring and scaling
hurting its fabric. the business models for the future.
Such a fearless attitude is possible
At the end of the maturity stage,
business. A strategy that focuses
companies get digital by reimaging
future and a culture where
business, operations, and customer
intelligence and talent are cultivated
models that are significantly
and attracted. If you are not ready
different from where they started. It
to take a fearless initiative be ready
will bring not only fundamental
to lag.
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Accepting Digital The COVID-19 pandemic has forced
many organizations to experience
One of the major inhibitors of some degree of digital
adopting digital to going digital is a transformation by allowing their
poor understanding of what employees to work remotely
DIGITAL is. without hampering their
productivity. No wonder, digital
Digital transformation rightly
transformation has become a way
achieved impacts the entire
of life and a necessity to survive –
organization. Right from value
everybody is doing this. The
proposition to customer
question is how many of us are
engagement, from core processes
doing it correctly.
to operations, and from talent to
how work is done. For complete
digital transformation, enterprises
need to address all the elements by
realizing the full potential of digital.
Legacy IT infrastructure is
considered as one of the prominent
hindrances in digital transformation.
It not only makes the process Digital Transformation
complex and inefficient but also
makes it hard to simplify processes Often the primary stage of digital
and policies. A legacy IT transformation is reactive, IT-
infrastructure often prevents centric, and operation-focused. Yet,
organizations from eradicating not many organizations recognize it
bureaucratic structures and as an important step towards the
adopting effective working digital journey, instead, they focus
methods. on improving efficiency by providing
paperless or paper-on-request
The journey to digital processes. Nevertheless, after
transformation must be reaching a more developed and
accompanied by strong leadership, refined stage of the digital journey,
a visionary approach, and a fearless organizations ensure their efforts
attitude to tackle deep issues in the are more inclined towards
(technology and organizational) transparency and customer-
architecture and ways of working. centricity.
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It is high time for organizations to successfully plan and implement a
begin planning, evaluating risks, and thorough digital transformation.
developing digital strategies to
explicate their transformation Leaders familiar with digital
efforts and design their digital technologies play a dominating role
roadmap. in change efforts. Leadership
commitment is the key to success.
The best thing is many organizations Engaging a Chief Digital Officer
have developed a workforce that (CDO) who is more digital savvy has
relies on collaborative tools, digital more chances of achieving
documents, expanded bandwidth, transformation success.
and enhanced cybersecurity as
employees work remotely. Indeed, People and Organization
technology has changed the way Digital transformation is about
global businesses used to operate, change – a change that takes place
but this is only the beginning. at all levels of the organization.
Salient Considerations for Digital Therefore, the impact of the
Transformation transformational change on
IT leaders need to access the current customers, employees, partners,
situation and identify the needs and stakeholders must be
suiting the current environment to considered. When you are aware of
customer expectations at the
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beginning of the digital allowed their employees to access
transformation journey, you can data from multiple devices and
substantially improve the customer multiple systems. Addressing
experience and minimize costs. policies and governance in this area
Similarly, you need to understand is pivotal to achieve successful
employees' concerns related to the digital transformation in 2021.
change and how they see the
change impacting their roles. Even if Processes and Services
digital transformation is meant to To start going digital, business
enhance their contribution and leaders must understand the
productivity and not replace them. processes and services that are ripe
It is always better to have a change for transformation. Here are some
management plan ready before processes that work well with
starting the journey to address all transformative technology solutions,
the concerns and issues employees
and stakeholders might have. It will • Processes that are already
help make a transition positively. calibrated, well-documented,
and follows
Policies and Governance
• standard operating procedures.
Business leaders must be aware of • Processes that rely on the
the laws defining parameters for the predictive rule or standardized
digital journey. Depending on it, decisions and need minimum
they must identify and implement human intervention.
policies and governance strategies. • Manual and repetitive processes
Besides, policies and governance having multiple transactions and
must be updated in some areas run frequently (daily, weekly,
supposed to be affected by monthly) and involved manual
emerging technologies. For work that is prone to human
example, biometric verification or errors.
fingerprint verification is dominant • Processes having low exception
these days. Therefore, rates, restricted variations, and
implementing seamless has versatile handling
authentication ensuring users can procedures.
securely conduct their business • Processes with high costs but
using mobile applications. string ROI potential that is
Additionally, while working intended to offer cost and time
remotely, organizations have savings so that workers can
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focus on mission-critical Digital Transformation in 2021
activities. Represents a Roadmap to Recovery
Apart from the transformable The COVID-19 Pandemic gave us a
internal processes and services crash course in managing
mentioned above, business leaders disruptions. What we learned from
must identify more services and 2020 will help us define our success
processes that can be transformed or failure in moving ahead on the
using cutting-edge technology to digital transformation journey.
better meet customer expectations.
Accelerating digital transformation
Technology Solutions initiatives is probably the only good
thing that happened during the
A focused approach and diligent Pandemic. By enabling remote
planning enable organizations to work, it forced many organizations
choose the best and cost-efficient to shift their focus from innovation
tools. Business leaders must to business survival.
retrospect the automation
requirements within the However, with great efforts, signs
organization and then look for of economic recovery started
solutions leveraging shared services appearing on the horizon.
and ready-to-use applications. Considering the painful efforts
However, considering emerging every organization took to survive;
technology solutions like Artificial business leaders are emphasizing
Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things investing in digital transformation to
(IoT), and Robotic Process greet the future with optimum
Automation (RPA) is a must. preparedness.
Nevertheless, before integrating
any product, it is mandatory to
check its compliance with security,
accessibility, and other standards.
The way in managing data also
needs to be checked.
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According to a Gartner Report, 202 performing organizations plan to
will witness an average 2% increase further increase spending on digital
in IT spending by business leaders. infrastructure in the coming years.
Whereas the board of directors
plans to increase the spending on Organizations that delayed their
technology by an average of 6.9%. digital transformation initiatives due
to the COVID Pandemic in 2020 are
These figures illustrate the hard expected to open their pockets in
lessons we learned in the last year. the second half of 2021 – resulting in
Gartner also reveals that an investment surge. How quickly
organizations that spent an your organization ramps up with the
increasing amount on digital initiates will depend on your ability
innovation despite the Pandemic to maintain pace with the
are more likely to emerge as top competition and that way you
performers. About 69% of such top-
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capitalize on anticipated economic understanding that change is often
shifts. painful but always necessary, and
you need a commitment to stay
For example, organizations that focused on the future rather than
invested in new business models or the transitional state.
digital products and services to
emerging from the Great recession Business leaders must understand
back in 2010, we're positioned to that with monumental changes they
thrive during the recovery. The need to prepare for addressing
organizations that failed to make a some unique challenges. However,
shift and struggled to survive all attaining transformation in
those years might have been incremental stages, both
knocked off existence completely or strategically and financially always
by the end of this Pandemic. proves beneficial. Smaller and
manageable steps simplify iteration
The changes brought about by the towards larger goals. It helps
Pandemic were unique in source and enterprises to remain agile enough
scope. The end of the Pandemic will to react to new changes.
by no means represent the end of
disruptions. As a result, the first Finally, the eternal truth that we
lesson we all learned during the learned in the past year – everything
COVID Pandemic is – Change is IT is not true digital transformation,
Constant. it spans beyond that. Although
technology is a key component that
Organizations acknowledging the helps an organization to identify and
importance of constant evolution respond to the evolving business
and responding rapidly to change and customer needs, even the
will be better positioned to not only cutting-edge technology solutions
survive but also capitalize on are only as effective as how they are
disruptions. Digital Transformation being used. Supporting the human
Protocols in Post-COVID World side of the change by establishing a
To become a change-capable culture change proves epic to drive
enterprise, you need to embrace the long-term adoption and
mindset, processes, and tools that sustainability.
empower leaders and the Therefore, when you want to set
workforce to manage uncertainty. goals for the new year, it is critical
To achieve business agility, you not only to embrace best practices
must have a collective
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for digital transformation but also to employees. However, during the
learn from past experiences. pandemic, all these doubts and
distrust vanished without leaving
With the key identifications and any traces.
understandings, you can take these
five steps forward to attain digital It was nice to see organizations of
transformation in the post-COVID small sizes relied on tech platforms
world. and the corporate teams using them
kept on delivering exceptional
PROTOCOL ONE Digital results. It's not like, those tools
Transformation is More Than were suddenly invented, but they
Technology Adoption were already in use but used at the
A sudden change that forced a fullest potential for the first time.
swarm of workers to remote Previous barriers to adopt,
platforms brought about many integrate, use those technology
changes that were not possible tools were shoved aside and those
before. Companies rethought and who moved faster experienced
redesigned their supply chains, immediate results.
automated manufacturing, used The COVID-19 forever altered how
predictive maintenance to gain global organizations used to
insights into the factory floor to operate. Organizations and IT
avoid disruptions and more. All business leaders become more
these changes were not temporary. trusting of how people, processes,
Adaptability became a mandatory and technologies are capable,
business competency and an resilient, and adaptable for a long-
accelerated pace of innovation has term change.
become a new normal.
PROTOCOL Two The Power of People
The COID-19 Pandemic accelerated
the pace of digital transformation in Digital transformation initiatives are
a true sense. Many organizations hard to succeed if you lack strong
were complete with the technology and visionary leadership. During the
adoption that previously shown COVID—19 pandemic, we
resistance. Besides, before the understood the two vital
onset of the Pandemic, many dimensions of digital
organizations distrusted transformation – employees are as
technologies, their capabilities, and valuable as your customers, and a
doubted the skills of their digital-ready culture is mandatory to
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survive in today’s hypercompetitive people who are going to be
world. impacted the most; hence, involving
them at every stage of change and
Business leaders will now be tasked adoption is very much necessary.
with another opportunity alongside
finding new digital tools – motivate, A digital transformation process
train, and inspire people to embrace must be perceived to make people’s
the change that comes with the life easier and more productive.
digital culture. Digital People resist the too-much-too-fast
transformation in the post-COVID approach as they consider
world is about working through the technology as their immediate
people by providing the tools, replacement.
energizing them, and listening to
them. Involving people right from the start
and conveying the message
Investing in the latest devices and transparently throughout the
most advanced technologies is transformation plays an important
surely the most common role in successful digital
misconception amongst business transformation.
leaders. Although it brings new
capabilities to the business, it won’t Adopting digital tools largely
solve problems if your employees centers around employees and
are not skilled to use them. It's easy customers, like workforce training
to fit the needs around the and customer experience
equipment but equally hard to management.
empower employees. Incorporating The changed customer behavior is
demos, pilots, training, practices, expected to continue even after
and design processes help in COVID-19, therefore, customer
facilitating a greater understanding experience management with
of the new technologies. It allows “improved customer service” will
receiving and offering feedback a be the epitome of digital
seamless process. transformation in the post-COVID
As employees interact with world. In addition to that, employee
processes daily, their inputs are well-being is among the highest
more valuable. They can guide on priorities for many businesses.
what’s working and what’s not.
With every technology adoption, it's
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PROTOCOL – 3 dramatically fats-track the
Prioritizing Process Automation development of machine learning
models. Traditional coding
The COVID-19 pandemic shook many platforms will take a back seat and
businesses at its core and forced no-code platforms will witness
them to deviate from their original enhanced adoption. In simple terms,
status quo. Yet, businesses started AutoML will significantly amplify the
prioritizing the development of impact of digital transformation
new, automated processes to post COVID.
address the realities of COVID-19.
Many companies will stick to the
In those challenging times, remote working model or adopt the
businesses faced new opportunities hybrid working model after the
and by re-analyzing processes, they COVID pandemic. It means almost
tried to grab them. They prepared a three times the workforce is likely to
new course of approach by continue working from home.
deploying technologies throughout Therefore, organizations need to
digitization projects to reduce costs implement new technologies and
and achieve leaner operations. automated tools to support their
Using technology to automate remote workforce. Support in terms
activities right from copying and of intelligent automation to handle
pasting content from one system to line-of-business, document
another, right up to cognitive automation, and automating
solutions that can ‘think’, learn, and customer experience and service.
reason like humans.
In the post-COVID world,
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) organizations will start applying AI,
was a strongly emerging technology automation, and other technologies
before the pandemic. In the post- to make workflows more intelligent
COVID world, RPA will gain more and automated. Henceforth, the
momentum and will find a place to focus will be on automating the
be embedded in several intelligent supply chain, processes, and
automation suites that enable workflows.
digital transformation.
PROTOCOL Four
No-code machine learning will Increased Investment in Cybersecurity
become mainstream. In the post-
COVID world, AutoML will The global COVID pandemic not only
disrupted business operations in the
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short term but also influenced how world expenditure and investment
businesses will behave in the years in data protection, privacy, risk,
that follow. The COVID-19 for sure compliance, and resilience will
caused a widespread disruption in increase.
cybersecurity operations, which is
supposed to impact strategies, In the new normal Disaster
investment, and priorities in the Recovery Planning (DRP) and
post-COVID world. Business Continuity Planning (BCP)
will be an ongoing focus.
Remote working was a particular
issue that increased the risks of Migrating on-site computing to the
incidents like phishing and data cloud has become a synonym for
theft. Larger corporations cybersecurity. In the coming years, it
comfortably got away from the is expected that organizations will
storm, but mid and small size invest more in cloud security such as
companies are still fighting the dual- or multi-factor authentication
hovering dilemma. Even though, and digital identity management.
expenditure on cybersecurity is Henceforth, it will become a priority
expected to rise in the coming to implement enterprise-wide dual-
month's data privacy will continue and multi-factor identification tools,
to remain a pressing issue for many encourage employees to use a
businesses. certified password management
tool to protect their information,
Various businesses have been and reiterate the very real risks
affected due to loopholes in data related to sharing passwords and
security. The extent to which those digital information in general.
businesses were affected varies
according to industry, size, and “Defense is the best offense” – it’s
geography. Mid-sized companies true here in a way. Out-of-date
suffered the most due to higher cybersecurity can be one of the
network and employee disruption, biggest growth inhibitors during
with an equally higher number of digital transformation.
cyber-attacks.
Identity, access management, data
protection, and privacy are
considered prime areas of spending.
It is expected that in the post-COVID
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Errin O’Connor, Founder and CEO of EPC Group
Errin O'Connor is the founder and chief architect of EPC Group. For the
last 24 years, O'Connor has been assisting in managing EPC Group's
corporate strategy. He architects the proven methodologies around
business intelligence, collaboration, enterprise content management,
and custom application development. PC Group has completed more
than 5,000 Power BI, SharePoint, Office 365, and Microsoft stack-related
implementations, including efforts around business intelligence (BI),
custom application development, hybrid cloud strategy, Microsoft
Azure, Office 365, SQL Server, Microsoft Intune, Amazon Web Services
(AWS), and Microsoft Project Server.
O'Connor is a frequent speaker at Microsoft Power BI, Office 365, and
Microsoft SharePoint events throughout the United States and Canada.
For more information about O'Connor and EPC Group, visit
www.epcgroup.net.
EPC Group has a long history as one of the leading Microsoft Power BI, Office 365, MS
Teams, and SharePoint technology consulting and software integration firms in the country.
We leverage our time-tested deep expertise through proven “From the Consulting Trenches”
strategies that serve as the foundation for our solutions and services for thousands
organizations.
EPC Group has designed this document to help companies advance digital transformation and enhance
customer experience, regardless of where the organization is on its digital transformation journey. It
recognizes key considerations for digital transformation, outlines five-step process for advancing the
next generation of digitization in post-COVID world, and identifies scope for technologies, resources,
and trends facilitating digital transformation.
For more information, contact marketing@epcgroup.net Stay Connected
@2021 EPC Group, Houston, Texas, USA. All right reserved. EPC Group believes that information provided in
this document is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice.
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