COVID-19 is a term I think we’re all tired of hearing. But it’s hard to ignore that it’s transformed nearly every aspect of our lives. From the way we work, socialize and shop – down to how we think about our health and wellness. You name it and it’s probably been impacted.
While some are spending time quibbling over whether we’re now living “the new normal,” others are getting angry at the notion that there might be anything normal about what we’re experiencing. But what’s being missed on either side of this is that we’re in a pivotal place that’s actually kind of cool when you set the circumstances aside for a moment. Despite how we got here, we’re now faced with the opportunity to transform so many different things we do in the world – learning, working, connecting and beyond. And who doesn’t love an opportunity to innovate?
Fortunately for us there’s technology, which is making these transformations doable. Now that we’re beyond the quick fixes, we have time to tap into technology to really get it right – whether that’s smarter WFH enablement, increased data security or massive digitization.
In fact, the stay-at-home economy has many companies realizing how important it is to get back to basics and optimize their core infrastructure in order to build long-term business resiliency. For others, what was just a minor Slack vs. Teams debate between a few colleagues has proven to be much more serious. While merely a preference back in January, it’s now this very collaboration technology that’s critical to maintaining an engaged and productive workforce that ultimately keeps businesses moving. Whatever the focus area, you’ve got to get the basics right if you want to be set up for success in the future – quick fixes and short-term solutions are no longer the answer.
It’s not just on the B2B front, though. There are a number of consumer-facing apps, products and services that have digitized things we’d otherwise be doing outside of our work lives as well. Whether it’s taking your lunch hour to break a sweat on your Peloton or joining a quick telehealth appointment with your physician, technology remains the enabler. And these new routines are vying for the opportunity to become our better, long-term routines.
With that, we’re seeing a whole host of digital-first, cloud-based companies coming to the forefront in areas like networking and infrastructure, security, collaboration and productivity tools, general business applications, and even wellness products and apps. Even investors are continuing to keep their eyes on these sectors.
So many companies in these spaces have focused on generating demand for so long – but now that demand is ubiquitous and there’s an influx of customers trying out these platform and service offerings, how do we shift the narrative to focus on maintaining this new user base? It’s time to embrace better routines, tap into technology to set our businesses up for long-term success and, ultimately, unlock these new recurring revenue opportunities.
These are all areas we’ve been strategizing on with several of our clients at Hotwire. We’re excited to seize the opportunity. Are you?