The workplace of today is very different from what we know of a year ago. The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped our working model and engagement amidst the new normal of lockdowns, remote workplace, and pandemic guidelines.

The most significant shift in our client base is the normalization of remote work. This comes with the proliferation of different methods of engagement in the form of increased emails, tele, and video calls, messaging, and collaboration. They are the same methods we employ but on steroids and revised forms. The remote mode additionally piles layers of complexity to the existing challenges of effective communication and issue resolution.

Operating multiple locations was a known challenge pre-pandemic despite the head office teams being in the same physical location. This is stressed in the new world where the head office crew is now in their own remote locations. To illustrate, in pre-Covid days, an operations manager can walk over to a marketing manager who sits across the hallway to resolve an issue. Along the way, they realize that they need a loss-prevention solution and walk over to that department to close the problem. In today’s setting, this physical interaction is not at all possible. The key is to have the technology to digitally bring them together in the virtual setting with the ability to engage and resolve issues in a more efficient method.

As we see the world transitioning to another phase of the pandemic, we realize insights pointing to remote work continuing to be part of the new workplace. The mix of remote and return to the physical workplace will shift over time. One point that has not been highlighted more than it should be, especially in the retail world is the endurance of the physical location. The world is preoccupied almost with an obsession with the shift to moving everything online (which is valid and required). We overlook that sooner than later, the physical locations will be reinstated. Imagine coffee shops, airports, gyms, electronics stores coming back to life.

We need to equally prepare for a hybrid future where business back-end interactions will be a combination of the pre and post-pandemic models.

As a service provider in very deep collaboration with our customers, we recognize that a significant response and support a company can provide during this time is in the form of adaptable tools, technology, and systems.

We learn the top 3 critical outputs to stimulate adoption:

1. Back Office Operation Optimization and Efficiency- a solution to consolidate all separate systems to one communication hub for all departments, locations, and external partners.

2. Empowerment of the field to inform details, requirements and proactively influence results. The ability to have all dimensional visibility of information and actions.

3. Reporting and its power of real-time data, consolidation, analysis, and learning.

The success of adoption is to pivot how we optimize technology to efficiently revolutionalize the new normal. Technology will bridge the gap and fuse the physical and virtual worlds to communicate and locate.