We have been hearing a lot of debate around who is responsible for driving the Digital Transformation and several roles were names such as CEO, CIO, Chief Digital Officer, etc.

But in the last year, the businesses and industry have turned upside down on the head due to the pandemic.

While “Going Digital” has been on the agenda of many companies, the pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of digital technologies. It turned out to be a wake-up call for almost all businesses to have a robust plan to deal with disruptions in the business and ensure proper business continuity.

Employee empowerment has emerged as the top priority for people to work from where they want including getting reskilled and upskilled on leading-edge technologies.

Digitization has a huge potential to add value to society and to contribute to public health. The global crisis has forced many sectors to come together and innovate and collaborate.

The Healthcare industry has now seen the outbreak which was once in the 100 years and planning to mitigate such in the future by adopting digital technologies like AI, Big data for tracking, and new shotspot tracking.

Telemedicine has helped tremendously to patients under quarantine to consult doctors even in remote places.

After the demonetization in India, social distancing restrictions have forced contactless digital payments as a norm. Bank branches will eventually be open only for those who need the human touch.

Internet of Things is another technology that is making a huge impact on businesses as well as personal lives. Energy consumption to saving, Water utilization to conservation, farming, and many more.

Governments and other bigger industries are coming forward to provide all the support to individual entrepreneurs & new startups to focus more on innovation. Many businesses have adopted new digital business models to survive and thrive in the pandemic.

Work from home was a challenge for any organization at the beginning of 2020 but now almost 80% workforce is remotely working and that has also positively impacted companies’ balance sheets as a lot of infrastructure costs were saved.

Digital is the New Normal now, helping businesses and communities to be ready for any further outages and do better in the time of crisis.

By Sandeep Raut of Going Digital (Consultant with IndusGuru Network Partners)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of IndusGuru Network Partners