Ian Jansen van Rensburg, Senior Systems Engineer at VMware, explains what he thinks the major changes will be for companies following the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the significant challenges with the global pandemic is that some companies might not open for business after the dust has settled. The most vulnerable are low to mid range restaurants and coffee shops known for their day-to-day operating margins but also department stores and retail. The companies that do survive will have to work harder and be creative to recover lost revenue. Retail and restaurants will downsize but, at the same time, upsize their online presence and services.
Depending on the sector and type of business, each company will have been affected differently. Several companies will change to online business. The typical office-based employee, for example, a doctor, will start to evolve to online doctors. Online medical services already exist, but the majority of people visit their “house doctor” in person. The “house doctor” will take an online approach for diagnosing medical problems and write scripts.
Work from home policies will evolve at an exponential rate as office employees can use their desktop computers from home. There will be employees, for example, mine workers, that will not be able to work from home, but if you can access your business-critical applications from any device, why not work from home?
Large global company meetings have already come under pressure from environmentalists in recent years due to mass quantities of airline fuel and pollution. The pandemic created a business opportunity for online conferencing software to take over from large international gatherings and meetings, which is bad news for hotels, airlines, public transport and car rentals. These industries will also have to evolve and innovate.
Virtual reality platforms fail to gain traction, not because of technical issues but for business reasons. It’s too expensive to adopt or the need isn’t quite there yet. If the pandemic continues over time and destabilises the market for live music events, theatrical productions, movie theatres, virtual reality could suddenly look a lot more attractive.
Software technology companies will become more crucial than ever throughout and after the pandemic, which is good news for technology companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, etc. When fewer people leave their homes, information services and social connection through the Internet becomes more important than ever. Software technology companies could dominate the working of modern life.
To summaride some of the points raised above. Changes to business and communities after the pandemic:
- Companies need to work harder and be creative to recover lost revenue.
- Several companies will change to online businesses.
- Work from home policies will evolve at an exponential pace.
- Large global company meetings will be downscaled or cut altogether.
- Virtual reality technology will gain momentum.
- Software technology companies could dominate the working of modern life.