Fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is just beginning to bubble to the surface. Along with the bad, some silver linings came to light for most enterprises. However, two things are crystal clear: organizations must quickly adapt to disruptions and accelerate their digital business initiatives or the business will dangle in the balance.

Adaptability
In today’s uncertain world, adaptability to changing conditions is decisive for all organizations. For any enterprise to thrive, adaptability must be achieved. An intelligent business is one that can rearrange itself based on a current situation. To get there, consider these strategies:

• The C-suite must prioritize adaptability as a critical organizational trait.
• As disruptions increase, there are no guarantees that the biggest and toughest industry players will survive. Don’t delay to institute change if your organization is stagnant.
• Leaders that understand their environments and hone their instincts are the best positioned to respond.

To be successful, organizations must create better access to information, augment that knowledge with clearer insight, and react quickly. This process will allow for immediate decision-making instead of being bogged down by inefficient processes that produce slower responses.

Digital Business Acceleration
Digital business acceleration and adaptability go hand-in-hand. As organizations race to drive digital transformation, they must remain agile and make business decisions quickly. The pandemic served as an accelerator as technology progressed rapidly around the globe. The shift from in-person activity to almost all-digital supercharged digital transformation efforts across every industry.

Ditch Pre-COVID-19 Game Plans
We’re still not out of the woods: expect shifts in demand, customer engagement, and disruptions to supply chains throughout 2021. Organizations should rethink plans of the past and develop new strategies to accommodate the uncertainties of the future. Expect IT spending to increase across the board for most organizations indefinitely.

Go Digital
In 2020, consumers converged online searching for a wide spectrum of items from basic household goods to complicated IT solutions. Many businesses quickly developed digital capabilities to create deeper relationships with customers, and it’s paying off. Research shows that organizations with increased digital channels are 3.5 times more likely to be top performers. This rush to optimization kept businesses competitive during recessionary times.

However, transformation is about implementing digital strategies that change the game by creating new digital products and business models. To succeed in the 2020s, organizations must define their digital business tools to achieve greater results.

Modernized IT Systems
Most IT departments’ response to COVID-19 illustrates a profound shift. Many CIOs increased IT tools and applications to modernize legacy applications and their infrastructure. Some organizations completed IT tasks that are normally difficult to execute. Business leaders can no longer afford to table expensive technology initiatives. Without digital acceleration, many organizations won’t make it to the end of the decade. To withstand the next disruption, all enterprises must be future-ready.

“It’s fascinating to examine how quickly the pandemic forced organizations of all sizes to advance their digital strategies and become more agile in decision making,” said Tony Rossabi, chief executive officer of Recovery Point Systems, a data protection and resilience services leader in North America. “The consequences are sure to be considered at PTC’22: Reunite. Rethink. Renew.”

Don’t Delay
If your organization is still mired in bureaucracy that makes change difficult, it’s not too late. The concept of business as usual flew out the window in 2020, so don’t delay. Creating an environment that allows for speedy decisions and recognizing the need for increased digital business strategies requires buy in from every level of an organization. Work to educate and inspire your team so your business can thrive in the years to come.

About Recovery Point
For more than 30 years in North America, Recovery Point has been providing data protection, resilience hosting, and colocation services to the largest, most demanding commercial enterprises as well as federal, state, and local governments. Our colocation facilities are audited against key national standards for site, network, and data security, including SOC2 and PCI-DSS.