Nowhere to hide: Embrace the most seismic technological and business change in our lifetime
An HFS research report in partnership with Infosys
The world changed overnight as COVID-19 created a state of upheaval and economic uncertainty unlike anything that we’ve seen in our lifetime. It has taken several months for enterprise leaders to take stock of the pandemic’s implications.
HFS Research, in partnership with Infosys, surveyed 400 Global 2000 executives to understand how businesses can survive and thrive in the pandemic economy. The report provides an outlook for IT and business services in the current geopolitical environment.
Key survey findings
- Bigger impact: Almost 70% of respondents believe that COVID-19 will have a bigger impact than the 2008 downturn with budgets, supply chains, employee availability, and customer intimacy being impacted the most.
- Businesses that will thrive: The public sector, banking, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, and the high-tech industry respondents are relatively confident as they see emerging opportunities for making appropriate investments amid the crisis.
- Protecting the business: At least 65% of respondents are insulating their business from volatility by building diverse customer pools and investing in an agile business model.
- Digitize and Adapt: Over 60% of enterprises plan to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and over 70% plan to change their product and service portfolio to drive greater customer value.
- Critical IT investments to compete: Investing in creating a virtual, secure, and cloud-enabled IT environment that enables remote working at scale (virtualization, collaboration, security). Investments in the cloud, cybersecurity, and modernizing core IT apps and infrastructure are at the top of the priority heap.
- Increased IT spending: Enterprises expect to increase their spending the most on business and digital consulting, followed by IT infrastructure services (including cloud). They expect the demand for IT and business process services to pick up to serve the dual purpose of driving digital while saving cash.
- Unleash your people to thrive: Nearly 90% of organizations realize they need to reposition to unleash people in the new reality. Post-COVID, working arrangements will change dramatically. Only 37% prefer a return to an office-based environment. The work culture will evolve from siloed working to interdisciplinary collaboration.
