One silver lining of the pandemic is how the digitalisation of businesses happened faster than envisaged says the head of Tech, Media Telecoms at Bank of Ireland Paul Swift.
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the move to digitalisation for many businesses, the head of Technology, Media and Telecoms Sector at Bank of Ireland said in his latest H1 Insights report.
Swift said that cloud computing is now of its day and any trepidation that may have existed previously around security or where information would be hosted have all been overcome.
“Digital is now everywhere and will lead to numerous new digital-first business models providing solutions across every area of business, all underpinned by cloud technologies delivered over the internet”
He said that as the world adapted to remote working, decisions around adoption, assessment and deployment of technology that would normally take up to a couple of years, were now being accomplished in weeks. Companies who had already began the offline-to-online transition have managed better in terms of navigating through the pandemic with less difficulties and problems and has also highlighted the need for more emphasis and focus on a company’s technological presence.
This will now lead to more digital efficiency around managing sales demand (online), accessibility (discovery/searchable), delivery (autonomous/limited contact) and the reputation (social) of a business.
While the impact of the pandemic saw the sector cancel high profile events such as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and SXSW in Austin fears that the loss of key events would impact the sales and business development pipeline were premature.
“While it may be too early to forecast how the second half of the year will play out, we have heard from some companies provision that was made for a reduction in sales in Q2 was overly pessimistic.”
From a lending perspective Swift said H1 saw strong demand with an increase in lending approvals up significantly on the same period last year.
“This growth is a continuation of the trend of recent years,” Swift said. “The main requirements being funding for growth/acquisition and expansion into new markets.
“Key sector segments continue to be SaaS (Software as a Service), telecoms and digital/media space. Likewise, we are seeing significant growth from companies delivering solutions into the health sector as we see an acceleration of the adoption of digital technologies.”
Q&A with Paul Swift
Is it fair to say that the Covid-19 crisis has spurred digital transformation of organisations to occur years sooner than planned?
The pandemic has accelerated the move to digitalisation for many businesses. Companies who had already began the offline-to-online transition have managed better in terms of navigating through the pandemic with less difficulties than those that didn’t. It has also highlighted the need for more emphasis and focus on a company’s technological presence.
This will now lead to more digital efficiency around all aspects of a business. It’s important to point out that digitisation is so much more offline/offline and is often referred to as end-to-end transformation where a company will look at what the ideal user/customer experience looks like.
This is process mapped comprising all the elements in the process that need to happen in harmony so that the desired end-user experience is repeatable over and over again, resulting in streamlining processes and bringing about improved efficiencies through seamless, frictionless customer engagement. We are seeing evidence of this too in the new Programme for Government which has highlighted the need for a digital enabled society which will also see various services across all areas of government being digitised.
Has Covid-19 validated the promise of cloud?
Yes, I think so. The race to get businesses functioning remotely and operating as business as usual at the beginning of the pandemic brought about an immediate focus on cloud technologies. Any trepidation that may have existed heretofore around security or where information would be hosted have all been overcome. As the world adapted to remote working, decisions around adoption, assessment and deployment of technology that would normally take up to a couple of years, were now being accomplished in weeks.
The flexibility and accessibility of various tools and applications made the transition to home/remote working seamless in many cases and what was viewed as the unthinkable a few short months before, quickly became the norm. In essence the internet has allowed us to ‘carry-on’ working, shopping and continue our studies. Digital is now everywhere and will lead to numerous new digital-first business models providing solutions across every area of business, all underpinned by cloud technologies delivered over the internet.
While tech start-ups have been hit hard by the crisis, the reality is many continued to raise investment during lockdown. Would you say the future is bright for Irish start-ups?
The pandemic has definitely slowed the creation of start-ups, has limited the growth of some and potentially threatens the survival of others. Is the future bright? Well, that really depends on the type of business and the sub sector in which it operates. Contactless solutions for every type of sector are being demanded to cut down on personal interaction as much as possible hence we will see more start-ups delivering solutions into this space.
Likewise, the growth in edtech, ecommerce and telehealth as a consequence of COVID-19 will drive the creation of more start-ups delivering various solutions to each of these sectors. The model of education as we know it is forever broken, likewise, businesses now see the need, not only to have an online presence but to also conduct transactions and have the back-up logistics systems in place to ensure you can get product/services to your end user.
There have been fears in recent years that there would not be enough GPs to meet the needs of a growing population, however with the advent of digital delivery of medical consultations, it will free up time for GPs to deliver more services to more patients and reduce contact, protecting the health and wellbeing of both parties.
Written by John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 7 August, 2020
