The tech industry experienced an upheaval in its workforce, operations and supply chains over the last 2 years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, companies were forced to adapt almost instantaneously to satisfy the new market demands present with an increased reliance on remote working solutions (Deloitte, 2022). This propelled the industry into the future, accelerating the need for digital transformation. The significant impact of the pandemic has led to key trends that will persist in 2022 and beyond.
We look at the 3 key areas that will significantly impact the tech industry today and will continue to do so in the future:
Driving New Capabilities with Cloud and XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service)
Business leaders across various industries have embraced the use of service-based IT – many of its capabilities delivered by cloud solutions – in order to increase agility, introduce new capabilities, and enable improved management of costs and capacity (Deloitte, 2022). Many tech enterprises have started shifting to a service-based model in order to meet this new need for service-based IT solutions in the various industries (Deloitte, 2022).
The Covid-19 pandemic encouraged a change in IT demands as lockdown regulations forced people to stay at home and companies started implementing remote working environments in response. This resulted in a surge in demand for digital solutions and technology to allow workers to tap into their business environment and work from home. The pandemic also presented challenges to companies’ workforces, such as health and safety management, redesigning of workplaces to allow for social distancing, and the implementation of remote working environments (PwC, n.d).
This change spurred the shift towards services like: platforms-as-a-service, software-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service, allowing hybrid workforces to remain integrated with the core business environment (Deloitte, 2022).
Everything-as-a-service (XaaS) has become a critical initiative in promoting digital transformation. It is also becoming an essential tool necessary to create new service offerings and the business models needed in order to thrive in the rapidly advancing digital age of today (Deloitte, 2022). XaaS is defined as a collective term that represents technologies, products, and tools that are delivered to clients over a network, explains Krishnamohan (2022).
Cloud is becoming the favoured platform to enable XaaS and propel innovation. Many companies are utilising a multi-cloud, hybrid strategy to improve their and their customers access to the latest technologies, to reduce vendor lock-in, increase reliability and resilience, and optimise spending states Deloitte (2022).
Implementing Proactive Supply Chain Strategies
The pandemic introduced a range of supply chain disruptions, affecting various sectors, especially the IT sector (Deloitte, 2022). This revealed significant constrictions within supply chains and complicated distribution processes (Deloitte, 2022). Many companies that make use of supply chains, including distributors, infrastructure providers, and laptop and smartphone businesses, experienced notable delays in orders and deliveries during the pandemic (Deloitte, 2022).
Many company leaders are now implementing proactive systems that allow for improved resiliency, adaptability, and visibility in preparation of potential future uncertainties that may negatively impact supply chains, again (Deloitte, 2022). According to Deloitte (2022), challenges within IT supply chains, caused by the pandemic, may only be fully resolved by 2023.
Technology businesses should take uncertainties, such as natural disasters, as well as systemic risks and disruptions in supply chains into account when preparing for future unknowns, explains Deloitte (2022). Deloitte (2022) gives vital advice, aimed at technology companies, that should be taken into account to better protect themselves from potential future challenges that may occur in their supply chains:
- Build supply networks capable of offering detailed visibility of all levels of the supply chain.
- Integrate technologies, such as 5G, AI, and robotic automation, to provide near-real-time analytics of distribution and sales, that will also offer improved visibility of complex areas across logistics and supply chains.
Gartner predicts that 75% of large enterprises will implement intra-logistics smart robots into their warehouse operations by 2026 (Hippold, 2022). An intra-logistics smart robot is a specialised type of “cyber-physical robotic automation” primarily used in distribution and warehouse environments (CIO and Leader, 2022). They further predict that over 75% of “commercial supply chain management applications” will provide AI, data science, and advanced analytics (AA) to supply chain users (Hippold, 2022). The use of AA and AI leads to improved decision-making, which has become a top priority for supply chain users across industries (Hippold, 2022). Application vendors recognised this need and now embed these capabilities into their applications (Hippold, 2022).
Establishing the Hybrid Workforce
As hybrid workforces become the new norm across industries, companies within the technology sector are experimenting with collaborative solutions and evolving their companies’ work cultures (Deloitte, 2022). 2021 was known as the year of “Great Resignation” as employee expectations changed during the Covid-19 pandemic (Deloitte, 2022). This shift in employment was a result of many factors, including the demand for remote working opportunities, employee exhaustion, and a decline in work/life balance (Deloitte, 2022). The tech industry was especially hit hard by the “Great Resignation”, as this industry was already experiencing a critical skill shortage and high competition for talent pre-pandemic (Deloitte, 2022).
Tech companies today are trying to balance employee flexibility with business demands by offering employees a dual experience: at-home and in-office (Deloitte, 2022). “Work execution culture” is becoming an important driver for employee experience strategies, as this is vital for a variety of business objectives, such as acquiring and retaining talent in an industry with a critical skills shortage (Hanselman and Marsh, 2021).
Although Deloitte (2022) is of the opinion that tech companies should evolve their culture to take advantage of the dual at-home and in-office working models, Hanselman and Marsh (2021) believe that a shift to a long-term hybrid model will be more disruptive today than it was at the start of the pandemic.
For companies in support of the dual experience model, Deloitte (2022) lists 3 key areas to focus on when implementing this model:
- Creating equality between virtual and in-person work, so that each employee can be equivalently involved in projects despite their work style or location.
- Putting rules in place surrounding co-location, such as mandatory in-office days.
- Promoting the building of strong relationships/connections through encouraging engagement across environments within the organization.
References:
CIO and Leader, 2022. Smart intralogistics robots will become part of most large enterprises, study. CIO and Leader. Available at: https://www.cioandleader.com/article/2022/01/20/smart-intralogistics-robots-will-become-part-most-large-enterprises-study
Deloitte, 2022. 2022 technology industry outlook. [ebook] Deloitte, pp.3-7. Available at: <https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/2022-technology-outlook.pdf>
Hippold, S., 2022. How Supply Chain Technology Will Evolve in the Future. [online] Gartner. Available at: <https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-predicts-the-future-of-supply-chain-technology>
Hanselman, E. and Marsh, C., 2021. The Big Picture: 2022 Information Technology Industry Outlook. [ebook] S&P Global Market Intelligence, p.4. Available at: <https://pages.marketintelligence.spglobal.com/rs/565-BDO-100/images/The-Big-Picture-Information-Technology-2021.pdf>
Krishnamohan, S., 2022. The Complete Cloud Model: Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) | STL Blog. [online] STL Tech. Available at: <https://www.stl.tech/blog/the-complete-cloud-model-everything-as-a-service-xaas/>
PwC, n.d.. Covid-19 Workforce Challenges & Tips – navigating the return to the workplace. PwC. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/mt/en/publications/humanresources/covid-19-workforce-challenges/covid-19-workforce-challenges-and-tips-navigating-the-return-to-the-workplace.html
