MAY 202119Whether the aim is to develop new products, robust processes, or revamping old ways of doing business, you can utilize digital competencies to skillfully accelerate and adapt to unexpected shiftsback quickly when the business environment revives. More IT service providers are moving towards man-aged services and vertical-specialized solutions. Both approaches are leading to outcome-based engagements with a higher risk-reward model. IT/ITeS industry has now graduated to a value-based model with a consulta-tive approach around the best digital solutions on offer. Whether the aim is to develop new products, robust processes, or revamping old ways of doing business, you can utilize digital competencies to skillfully accelerate and adapt to unexpected shifts. In the post-pandemic era, new norms are creating new opportunities for IT and Digital service providers - digital infrastructure, connectivity, communications, edutech, e-commerce, integrated digital platforms, and many more. The need for integrated digital platforms and digital engineering projects is vital for both B2B and B2C organizations that are focusing heavily on customer/user experience.Ultimately most digital transformation efforts fail to provide relevant business value and do not live up to client expectations. Digital is not just a technology that you can buy and plug into the organization. It is multi-faceted and not only a technology intervention - it also requires investments in relevant skills, projects, infrastructure, and sometimes a complete overhaul of the current IT infrastructure. It requires combining people, processes, continuous monitoring and inter-vention, to ensure that the transformation journey un-folds and evolves flexibly. While mapping the approach for a multiyear digital transformation project, it is im-portant to stagger the project into short-term sprints and goals that can deliver measurable results aligned with the vision and strategic intent of the organization.The gig economy is thoroughly disrupting the IT in-dustry- with rapid digitalization, companies are increas-ingly relying on freelancers and contractual employees for short-term projects. The COVID crisis provides a sobering analogy: pressure on traditional staffing mod-els is intesified by COVID-19. One of the most profound realities of the pandemic is the fact that more than 30% of the workforce in developed markets has evolved to independent work, and this trend is now fast catching up in India. It will undoubtedly affect the talent strat-egy of many organizations. On-demand staffing and contractual staffing will gain prominence in the coming days. Organizations planning to transform their busi-ness models to adapt to the current situation is creating some significant contrast in talent strategies.In conclusion, while the crisis brought about a pleth-ora of temporary changes, it has also presented some lasting ones. It will be quite some time before we un-derstand the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the history of such upheavals has taught us two import-ant things. First, even during severe economic downfall cyclic recessions, some companies can gain and retain a competitive advantage. Secondly, these successful or-ganizations also relearn how to successfully develop a systematic understanding of changing habits that have a far-reaching impact on their business foundation. Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner
< Page 9 | Page 11 >