Virtually every business, big and small, has suffered one form of setback due to the corona virus pandemic. There are lots of challenges facing businesses right now – disrupted supply chains, employees locked down at home to stay safe, including shift in consumption patterns. But, in the midst of the chaos, some organizations have proactively used technology as a vaccine against potential irreparable devastation from the pandemic.

So, the lessons for entrepreneurs from the present crisis include the following;

Lesson #1: Implement Digital

The pandemic crisis is a wake-up call for businesses of various types and sizes to fully implement digital in business operations. From the look of things, businesses that delayed in implementing digital are the ones that probably suffered the impact of the crisis more. It is now clear beyond doubts that digital should be a must adopted strategy for core functions.

For instance, organizations are faced with limited call center personnel for customer and operations support. But, companies that have learnt to integrate technology and digital long before the crisis are engaging mobile apps, self-service tools, social media and artificial intelligent chat-bots to stay afloat during the crisis. As a result, the current crisis has become a stepping stone for such businesses to shine and not go down the drain.

Lesson #2: Buckle up on Remote Working

Work from home, remote working…whatever name you may call it, has proven important and helpful in this period. Remote workforce is now the buzz word as employees work from home to stay safe from the virus. Also, companies are outsourcing to remote workers, including those in offshore locations.

The lesson to drive home is this; remote working must become a new normal for businesses even after the pandemic. It has become necessary to develop inclusive remote workplace system. Working from home this period has been with certain challenges for organizations because they were not prepared for it. Some of those challenges include the following;

• Poor bandwidth
• Absence of VPN licenses
• Little or no robust video conferencing tools
• …and more

So, going forward, organizations must resolve these challenges, not just for the moment but also for the future. The crisis has taught everyone that it is needful to prepare for the worst situations even in the good times. No one knows what may erupt next and what impact it would have on businesses.

Lesson #3: Cloud Computing Must Become a Norm

Businesses that have already adopted cloud computing have gained greater competitive advantage during the covid crisis. They leveraged cloud to accomplish instant solution to two major challenges – security and scalability. It was easy for the IT team to use cloud and scale up resources for systems that experienced instant spike. These systems include help-desk, call center, and websites.

Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.