Twilio, the leading cloud communications platform, recently announced the results of a global study on Covid-19 impacts and outlook of companies digital communications. The global pandemic Covid-19 has caused massive impacts and disruptions to the world economy and our daily living. The way we work has also massively changed, the economy and workforce were forced to change, adapt and adopt, working from home (WFH), changing the ways we work and communicate internally, with clients and public.
During the course of WFH, observing and following Covid-19 news, impacts and disruptions to the world economy. I am interested in the future of work, the new future workplace and working style. As a sole proprietor photography business owner, covering consumer and enterprise technology topics on my other content creation segment. Twilio’s COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report caught my attention and interest, as I continue to learn more about the future of work, the new workplace and how businesses are going to change, adopt and adapt their business and digital communications strategies.
Twilio surveyed over 2,500 enterprise decision makers globally to gauge the effect on their company’s digital transformation and communication roadmap, the complex changes posed by this global pandemic crisis and how will the companies continue to evolve and change moving forward into a new post Covid-19 era.
“Over the last few months, we’ve seen years-long digital transformation roadmaps compressed into days and weeks in order to adapt to the new normal as a result of COVID-19. Our customers in nearly every industry have had to identify new ways to communicate with their customers and stakeholders – from patients, to students, to shoppers, and even employees – essentially overnight,” said Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio. “Cloud scale, speed, and agility are enabling organizations to innovate faster than ever. We believe the solutions being built today will be the standard for digital engagement in the future.”
Key findings of the COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report include:
- COVID-19 was the digital accelerant of the decade. COVID-19 accelerated companies’ digital communications strategy by an average of 6 years. 97% of enterprise decision makers believe the pandemic sped up their company’s digital transformation.
- Digital communication is the new lifeblood for business. Almost all companies (95%) are seeking new ways of engaging customers as a result of COVID-19. 92% say transforming digital communications is extremely or very critical to address current business challenges.
- Previous inhibitors to innovation have been broken down. 79% of respondents say that COVID-19 increased the budget for digital transformation. Companies report easing of barriers such as: lack of clear strategy (37%), getting executive approval (37%), reluctance to replace legacy software (35%), and lack of time (34%).
- Omnichannel communication is taking on new importance. 92% say their organization is very or somewhat likely to expand digital communication channels as the world reopens. Over half (54%) said COVID-19 propelled focus on omnichannel communications and 53% added new channels amid the pandemic. 1 in 3 companies started using live chat and IVR channels for the first time as a result of COVID-19.
On a personal note, I reckon there would be changes (probably massive) to the way businesses conduct their work, operations, communications, marketing, both internally and externally. If you are a business owner or key management personnel, how would you steer your organisation’s business, work operations, digital communications and engagements with both your internal staff/employees and external clients/market/public? Do visit Twilio COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report and have a read, you can also download their full report inside their article.
The impacts and changes adopted by companies are also going to their affect their vendors, partners as well. While I own a sole proprietorship photography business, I am also the owner/writer of two portals/blogs in photography and travel and technology and business. The world economy is heading towards a new era of work, small business like myself are also aligning myself with the changes, adoption and adaption of new digital communications.
This global pandemic Covid-19 while has brought massive impacts and changes, this might be the trigger and accelerator for the world economy to change for the better, a new workplace in the future and how we make the Earth a better place.
* Information courtesy of Twilio and Rachael De Foe *