Pandemic Shows Need for Digital Enterprise Strategy

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for a digital enterprise strategy to continue productivity even when employees are working remotely

We are all currently experiencing something unprecedented in the world. The pandemic situation in which we find ourselves today is something most of us never imagined we would face as a global entity.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens our health, has upended the economy and has led to growing isolation. Yet, amid the social distancing, technology enables us to stay connected.

Technology has become the fulcrum of everything around us. You could argue that was already the case before the novel coronavirus hit. But we can all agree COVID-19 takes that to a whole new level. And this new reality is prompting businesses to optimize their technological resources.

As the CIO of a global company for which remote sites and customer locations are paramount to our business continuity, here are my recommendations on how to do that.

Implement a Short-Term, Customized IT Strategy

Adopt customer- and employee-centric strategies that work in cohesion. Ensure remote working frameworks are in place. Scale up IT infrastructure and adhere to security guidelines and standards. Effective communication plays a key role in the measures we take to enable our global employees and customers.

Explain to customers what you’re doing to keep IT systems up and running to ensure business continuity. And communicate the details of your disaster recovery (DR) plan.

Ensure Management Alignment

Get leaders across all functions on the same page to ensure they support the IT and remote work strategies and understand the risk implications of the current situation.

Empower business leaders with regular and frequent updates from the CIO organization on all initiatives as they are implemented. And align budgets where necessary to ensure that all remote workers have the support they need to perform at their optimal levels.

Monitor the Environment and Allow for Timely Course Correction

Be flexible in monitoring, but also take stock of issues that may need immediate attention.

This ensures proactive incident management. Plus, it allows for a strong BCP protocol.

Adopt a One-View Approach

In today’s digital world, a one-view platform is key to allow senior management teams to view customer projects, understand how teams are performing in these trying circumstances and assess whether intervention is required. Such platforms allow people to obtain crucial guidance and business leaders to make swift decisions.

Implementing a Digital Strategy

Today’s unique situation highlights the importance of building digital workplace strategies and supplier ecosystems that work during good times and bad.

Those strategies should include business continuity planning and DR awareness training across the IT organization. Such training across as a larger group of teams can work to make BCP and DR efforts even more seamless and productive.

The turbulent environment created by the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrates that unexpected—and sometimes life-, work- and world-changing—things happen. And it illustrates the need for robust, digital-led enterprise strategies, which are needed more than ever before.

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Vikas Vijaywargiya

Vikas has more than 2 decades of experience specializing in the charter of harnessing various leading technologies to accomplish core business transformation goals. He has held various leadership roles managing clients across geographies with the corporate executive management team, towards delivering complex enterprise-level IT initiatives. Vikas has maintained a successful track record of Digital Transformation involving legacy modernization and technology transformation. He has extensive experience in Service Delivery utilizing global sourcing model, contract management, vendor management and various commercial models. At Zensar, he is the CIO and oversees global IT strategy and manages a global team who execute across the company’s global workforce.

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