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When COVID-19 struck, the impact was felt overnight. With doors shut, and employees locked down in their homes, a digital transformation took place. Many businesses re-invented themselves to remain competitive through the embracement of digital technology.

However, for businesses like Digit Content Services, the new normal really wasn’t all that new.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but foresight is better.” — William Blake

From consumer behaviours to organisational processes, the pandemic has brought about sweeping changes to the world of business. A tremendous amount of disruption was caused along the way, sending industries into a spiral of chaos.

Some businesses however found the transition into this brave new world to be relatively smooth, as they already had digital technology baked into the core of their business and workflows. Those who were previous adopters of cloud-based technologies prevailed as COVID-19 forced many businesses to rewrite the rule book when it came to operating and delivering products and services. Despite rapid innovation in recent years, this technology is nothing new.

Over the last decade, cloud computing has been actively used by workforces of all shapes and sizes for communication, collaboration, and storage.It has never been easier for businesses to invest in cloud based solutions to enhance their operation.

This is because the technology required is more accessible than ever. By ignoring and failing to act on the digital transformation that has taken place, you are putting your business at a strategic disadvantage. There is a place for cloud technologies in every business.

At Digit, while much of the world came to a halt, it was business as usual. Cloud computing is a central component of our workflow and has always given us the freedom to collaborate and communicate from wherever we choose. Our business is not limited to a physical location and this proved to be particularly advantageous during the COVID-19 lockdown.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WAS ON THE HORIZON

A shift to cloud-based technology had been on the cards for a while. It was inevitable. People love convenience, especially when it can save them time and money. Who knew it would play out as quickly as it has? This rapid digital transformation certainly caused a lot of overnight disruption in many industries – with some having to innovate more than others for survival.

If these businesses had started to explore the possibilities of cloud-based technology just a few months prior to the unfolding of a global pandemic, there’s a very strong chance they could have been better positioned to meet the challenges posed, resulting in limited damage to their operation.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but foresight is better.   Time was not on the side of businesses that were frantically trying to build a cloud-based workflow for their teams during the national lockdown. When introducing team members to a new application, it can take time for them to get into the swing of things. Rushing through the adoption process can lead to messy onboarding.

REAPPROACHING COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION

Video conferencing tool Zoom appears to have emerged  as the biggest winner of the pandemic, helping to bring remote teams closer together from a distance. Many never knew how valuable face-to-face communication was until they lost it. Zoom bridged the gap between separation and togetherness.

As a remote team, Digit has been using video conferencing tools for several years to foster cross-team communication and build lasting relationships.

Cloud-based collaboration tools, such as Google Drive and Microsoft Teams, have given people the ability to collectively work on single projects in real-time. Gone are the days of only being able to access a document on a physical hard drive.

With cloud computing, location is no longer an issue. This has given remote working teams an immense level of freedom and flexibility.  Slack channels are also being created to offer a centralised hub for team communication and file sharing. This saves the need for dozens of emails to be bouncing around every single day.

Team members can be added to announcement channels, ensuring they never miss a beat when it comes to company-wide news.

More sophisticated cloud-based collaboration tools, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Adobe Creative Cloud have enabled teams to work on projects of varying complexity. These are just a few examples of how small businesses like ourselves have been using cloud-based communication and collaboration tools to successfully virtualise our working environment over the long-term.Working in this virtual environment does come with its drawbacks.

Nothing beats jamming with team members over ideas in a single office, and the authenticity of human interaction can never truly be translated via screens.

At Digit, we are committed to making sure our team has regular and consistent in person meetings to maintain the collaborative spirit on which we evolved.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The digital transformation is only just beginning. Over the next few years, we expect to see the increased adoption of cloud-based technology enhance the operations of companies across a wide variety of industries. Through the natural course of innovation, we expect cloud-based technology to become even more useful and accessible with machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence.

At Digit, we will continue to embrace the many benefits of cloud-based technology, exploring new opportunities to improve our operation as and when they arise. We certainly look forward to seeing how things advance over the next few years.

More developers are going to be tasked with evolving remote working tools and applications than ever before, and as early adopters of this approach, we cannot wait to take advantage of these enhancements.

* By Dan Gould, Co-Founder, Digit Content Services

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