As today’s business environment becomes increasingly digital, the use of innovative technologies has helped many organisations overcome modern business challenges with digital solutions.
By Prenesh Padayachee, chief digital officer at Seacom
After an 8% decline in worldwide IT spending in 2020, Gartner has forecast a global turnaround, and predicted that spending will grow by 6,2% in 2021, with areas such as cloud computing, security, core business applications, and customer experience leading the way forward.
The connected age has changed the way we do business, and today, many traditional business challenges can be addressed by modern digital solutions. More businesses need to audit their current systems, products, and processes to identify gaps that could be addressed by technology. Here are some smart places to start.
Employee productivity
There is no doubt that the pandemic pushed many businesses toward cloud adoption for the sake of operational continuity. While the transition may not always be easy, the long-term benefits of cloud adoption are clear. One of the most spoken about advantages of cloud computing is that it enables remote collaboration, which can boost productivity. For me, another remarkable productivity benefit of the cloud is that it helps us overcome the fragmented nature of information in the workplace. Instead of wasting time emailing the fifth version of a pricing tool to the whole company, or worse, finding out that someone incorrectly used the fourth version in a critical forecast, it is easy for everyone to access the correct document. Colleagues can communicate in real time, regardless of their location, and cloud platforms allow them to share and collaborate on documents or projects in a virtual workspace at the same time.
The cloud has given businesses a more secure, scalable, and flexible way of working remotely. But there is also huge opportunity for productivity when it comes to how cloud-based resources are retrieved, managed, and processed with cloud automation. Automating operations in cloud environments can improve workforce productivity by delivering resources and workflows to employees automatically, regulating version control, or helping to deliver services to customers faster and more reliably.
While cloud automation may take some time and effort to implement at first, it quickly pays off with operational efficiency. New digital tools and platforms are also emerging to make automating business processes simpler, more affordable, and accessible to any business.
Security
Cybercrime is on the rise, and as more businesses are digitising their services and processes, they also run an increased risk of being compromised. Though digital transformation may be seen as a double-edged sword in this regard, outdated legacy systems pose even greater security risks as they lack sufficient encryption, access control or up-to-date security measures to keep up with today’s ever-evolving threats.
While employees once felt safe behind a company’s on-premise firewall, many are now operating in different locations without enterprise-grade security in their homes. IT administrators also have less visibility over a remote workforce, necessitating a ‘zero-trust approach’ that ensures that users or devices are properly verified before being granted access, and limiting access according to their privileges.
Software-defined networking (SDN) enables this kind of zero-trust approach as it allows networks to be centrally controlled and monitored using software, offering improved network visibility and control, as well as many built-in security features. Security upgrades can also be implemented more cost effectively and with greater scalability using virtualisation, rather than upgrading expensive hardware across multiple branches.
Network downtime and slow connectivity
Load shedding, network overloads, and slow connectivity can cause severe disruptions that lead to financial losses. A report by Regus showed that 33% of South African business people say that a slow or unreliable Internet connection is an obstacle to working from home. Because of the varied costs and availability of reliable connectivity across different locations, businesses with multiple branches often have no choice but to use a variety of Internet service providers across their nationwide networks.
Managing network disruptions quickly becomes difficult in this scenario, but an SDN can help optimise a multitude of connections, regardless of which provider they come from, by providing network programmability and the ability to prioritise network traffic. Network traffic can be routed through either the fastest or most cost-effective transport routes, and during load shedding or network overloads, traffic can be diverted to prioritise vital business applications.
The importance of partnerships
The pandemic has certainly put many businesses under pressure. In many cases, the businesses that have been able to remain resilient during these challenging times have also been the businesses that could cut costs, pivot, or realise efficiencies by taking advantage of digital technologies. Businesses should not be held back by the ever-growing complexities of new technology. Some business leaders feel out of their depth, and using technology to solve modern business problems can be a challenge in itself.
The secret to many business’ successes is that they don’t navigate these changes alone. Teaming up with the right technology partner means having managed services that mitigate the risks of migration for you, allowing your business to reap all the benefits of new technology while focusing on your core offerings. Almost every common business challenge we face today can be solved with the right technology. The question is: do you have someone who knows the best way to implement it?