It’s no secret that the outlook for the tech sector at the beginning of 2020 was exhilarating. Trillion-dollar companies were racing to invest in the sector. We were conditioned to expect the wide-scale adoption of state of art technologies like 5G, edge computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and hyper-converged infrastructure technologies.
Although these new ventures were delayed due to the unexpected onset of a global pandemic, the IT sector is anything but falling back on revenue.
If anything, 2020 has accelerated the adoption of IT solutions more than ever. Although the cutting-edge technologies were delayed, companies all over the world realized how crucial it is to build an IT infrastructure to stabilize their core services and operations.
Here are few reasons why businesses should, and will, invest more in information technology this 2021.
Digitization Is Taking Over
If there’s one thing that 2020 taught us, it’s the importance of digitizing our business operations. Long before the pandemic turned our lives upside down, digitization was already taking over.
Businesses of all sizes and fields were integrating CRM and other on-demand software applications to optimize their operations. However, the pandemic took digitization to a whole new level.
When employers were forced to let their employees work from home, they had to adopt digital solutions to keep the work flowing. Consumer-centric businesses that relied on direct customer interactions like restaurants had to switch to digital menus, touchless payments, and delivery applications.
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Consumers Are Still Wary About Public Spaces
Although the news of the finalized vaccine gave people some hope of regaining their pre-pandemic lives, the public majority are still scared of going out into shared public spaces. This is why online shopping and delivery services will still keep growing in 2021.
Moreover, we can witness the integration of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality in the online shopping experience. It won’t be surprising to find household shopping for furniture and clothes using these technologies without visiting the store.
On the other hand, having survived the first wave of the pandemic, most of the workforce has grown fond of the remote work experience. Even employers recognize the benefits of remote work. So in the case of ending the pandemic, we can still expect the benefits of digitization to be relied on.
Businesses Want More Efficient Tools
In order to survive in this digitized world, businesses are turning to IT solutions to solve their dilemmas. There was once, not long ago, when a lot of startups and small businesses neglected IT, arguing that such fancy services are only needed by the big players.
However, that’s not the case anymore. In countries like the UK where a second lockdown has forced everyone back into their homes, even small businesses realized the need for adopting IT solutions. The specialists at NetworkLondon, an IT support company in London, explain how IT solutions are catered to the needs of any business, regardless of its size.
By adopting new technologies, businesses can implement cybersecurity, cloud solutions, networking, and project management to improve their efficiency while working remotely. They can also make good use of automation tools to improve their productivity.
The Value of Data is Becoming Noticed
The value of data is another thing that small businesses turned a blind eye to, prior to 2020. When comparing the performance of businesses that used data strategically to those that neglected to utilize their data, it’s clear which one of the two has taken a competitive advantage.
Now that new industries are adopting digitization strongly, we can only expect the value of data to become so much more precious.
This will boost cloud solutions that offer insights to these data, as well as business intelligence companies that offer their services. All of these changes will drive businesses to invest in effective systems that can streamline their processes, analyze their data, and store their information securely over the cloud.
Digital Healthcare is Evolving
The healthcare sector has been one of the most resistant to digitization so far. Even worse, the failed trial of implementing Electronic Health Records has left everyone in the industry skeptical about the value of digitizing healthcare.
However, we’re starting to witness a strong technological revolution in the sector all the same. Nowadays, patients prefer the convenience of receiving telemedical care instead of waiting in lines for their physician’s appointment.
Wearable technology and health-monitoring applications have increased patients’ compliance and generated more accurate health reports for physicians.
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The Need for Cybersecurity is Stronger than Ever
With the way IT is making its way into every single industry and workplace, the need for cybersecurity is becoming more pressing than ever. Implementing new technologies is always the riskiest at first since there are a lot of loopholes that make room for malicious activity.
However, since we’re forced to adopt digitization, cybersecurity has become a globally relevant issue that needs to be addressed quickly.
As we walk into 2021, we feel the impact of information technology more strongly than ever. Instead of exploring state-of-art technologies, we’re utilizing IT solutions to optimize our infrastructure and daily operations.
What’s more, adopting It solutions has become as relevant to small businesses as it is for larger enterprises.