COVID-19 crisis has brought in the dawn of ‘new normal’ for businesses as there is a conspicuous shift from physical to digital. Although, digital transformation was in vogue and business leaders and top brands had all shifted to digital, but Covid-19 crisis has acted as the catalyst to accelerate this transformation (from physical to digital). The pandemic has put all doubts for such transformation and it's ROI to rest, as digital laggards were put to test and digital incapacities were challenged.

As the pandemic envelops every aspect of life, businesses are now turning towards digital in full swing, right from the deployment of digital workplace practices to the use of BI & data analytics for business resilience and growth. The digital shift is seeing an increased attention towards contextual customer experiences, boosted productivity with intelligent automation and adoption of cloud computing. We will cover top 5 technologies in this blog that will test digital readiness of modern brands for a bolstered business operation in the new normal.

1. Digital Workplace

Digital leaders had long realized the need for establishing a digital workplace that was ready for a distributed team to work from anywhere and on the move. Today, everyone is recognizing the importance of a digital workplace for their mobile teams (and teams forced to work from home) - to reduce cost, increase collaboration and efficiency, boost productivity and better business gains.

Deploying modern digital workplace tools goes beyond teleconferencing and local intranet. It requires an organization wide implementation of digital workplace tools that employ collaboration at ease with modern cloud solutions, intelligent automation and data analytics - thereby reducing time and cost involved. Digital workplace is evidently the new normal and digital laggards as well as leaders have all accepted the reality as the globe witnesses the most unprecedented crisis in near times.

Read: Microsoft Teams Adoption for greater Collaboration & Productivity in New Normal

2. BI & Data Analytics

Brands in the new normal stand at an advantage in adopting technologies that increases transparency, resilience and responsiveness. With modern BI tools and data analytics solutions informed decisions and the rate of their responsiveness has grown manifold. Real-time data pertaining to both business processes and customer behaviors is helping brands take decisions that are both informed and future-proof.

Customer sentiments and behaviors can be gauged with precision, supply chain transparency can be established and subsequent trigger-based planning can prepare the businesses for both present challenges and future crisis.

These tools can help brands to outlast the pandemic and give them the ability to outpace it as well.

Read: How CX analytics can boost customer journey for your brand

3. Cloud Computing

Cloud has emerged as the solution for businesses that needed to deliver fast and boost productivity even faster. Cloud apart from its storage functionality delivers faster movement of data across the enterprise, within the stake holders and across the larger public domain. With the increased demand for remote working, the rise of cloud is inevitable.

COVID-19 has reaffirmed the belief that cloud adoption & optimization is not just about achieving optimum business functionality but is also about ensuring the survival and sustainability of modern enterprises. Cloud’s flexibility and time efficacy places it as a prime candidate that shall expand the limitations of business and their capacities to handle crisis.

Read: COVID-19: Why Cloud Adoption can save the day for businesses

4. Accelerated Automation & Conversational AI

Brands are now turning towards an accelerated push towards automation during today’s crisis, to simplify their business process and to use the data at hand for determining critical decision points- for right investments and potential cost savings.

Intelligent automation is assuming even greater importance with the rise of Intelligent Digital Workforce Management. It will be a symbiotic amalgamation of Intelligent Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to foster a real - time digital workforce - with Intelligent Automation in the forefront.

A good customer service has always been a pre-requisite and with conversational AI, putting customer in the center, automation kicks in here as well. From self-service capability, to automated set of crucial queries and an element of final human interaction, automation bridges all gaps from long wait time in contact centers to boring FAQs in basic bots.

Read: Why boosting investment on Automation makes sense to combat COVID-19

5. Digital Experience Platform for Contextual Customer Experience

Today's crisis has put a reformed thrust on building customer relationships through empathetic and personalized digital experiences. With people forced to live behind closed doors, the need for impressive digital experience has gathered even more momentum. Leaders of today and tomorrow will be the ones who will nurture strong customer relationships through robust and seamless digital experience platforms.

With contextual customer experiences, leaders are now putting customer centricity into action with personalized content delivered across platforms and devices for higher engagement, loyalty and retention. These digital practices with impressive contextual offers allows brands to both boost new-customer acquisition and create a stronger, more profitable and loyal customer base with higher return on marketing investment.

Read: Why COVID-19 is the Catalyst to Fast Track Digital Transformation Initiatives

Technology Investment with an eye on future: End Note

Most brands today are taking steps to ensure strengthening of their IT systems for remote work capabilities and operational efficiency. Business continuity practices are now functioning at full strength, but the need today is to take steps much ahead of today's efforts.

Future-proofing businesses would mean investment in the tools and technologies that we have just enlisted. To come out of the pandemic and today’s crisis would mean robust investment in technology ecosystem that can accelerate a new wave of digital transformation for a stronger, more responsive and resilient future.

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