Technologies have evolved over the years and revolutionised the way we carry out our day-to-day operations. A wide range of technologies has assisted us in maintaining business continuity even in the COVID-19 crisis. However, it has also exposed shortcomings in numerous solutions that would lead to rethinking and enhancing products that can work flawlessly. Organisations would not have ever wondered circumstances where all the employees will work from home at once. Consequently, no one was prepared for the sudden changes in business operations. This will also push companies to adopt flexible practices that would allow them to streamline their operations in the future.
Interoperability Within Applications
Varying needs force companies to choose among popular solutions like GSuite or Microsoft Office 365. While there are other productivity applications like Slack, Chanty or more, they do not work interoperability. This opens up the door for more apps to tap into spaces created due to the absence of interoperability among different solutions. For instance, if two professionals from various companies want to connect over a video conference, they will have to check the availability of the same applications like Hangouts or Skype on both ends. In the case of a mismatch, both professionals then use a different app like Zoom.
Such practices have now unveiled how unsafe these new technologies are after Zoom’s security lapses. Thousands of Zoom videos are available online, thereby placing companies at risk due to breach of privacy. However, companies like Microsoft and Slack have collaborated and brought Skype integration from within the workspace. Similar approaches would be required to create an ecosystem that can allow users to connect without moving away from their preferred applications. This would, however, require a secured framework for others to build applications on top of it. Such practices have been leveraged in financial transactions, where you can pay using any applications through Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
Cybersecurity
Organisations have failed to adopt best practices for cybersecurity and have been a victim of hackers. WHO said it witnessed a fivefold increase in cyberattacks on its staff, 450 active WHO email addresses and passwords were leaked online. There is an unprecedented rise in the phishing scams during the pandemic as hackers are coming up with different techniques to exploit the vulnerabilities. Although companies like Google is blocking 18 million COVID-19 related scam emails every day, collectively, we have failed to avoid such attacks. Every solution provider will have to revamp the cybersecurity practices to ensure people are not exploited during a crisis or otherwise.
These breaches have not only hit working professionals but also gamers too. Nintendo said that 160,000 accounts were breached in April. Despite the importance of cybersecurity, companies keep overlooking the necessity to offer secure applications. In this ever-changing technology market, businesses focus on bringing solutions as quickly as possible without ensuring robust cybersecurity layers.
Cloud
Several organisations did not migrate to the public cloud, citing data privacy issues. But, this pandemic has shown how important it is to move to the cloud. Companies who had everything on the cloud are able to maintain business continuity without the need for changing their workflows. Besides, firms often preferred to keep the rarely used applications off the cloud to cut operation cost. But, the ever-extending lockdown has caused hindrance for organisations as they are not able to use the applications, which was not moved to the cloud. While the firms will have to migrate every app on the public cloud, the companies offering cloud services would facilitate services that could allow companies to keep the rarely used applications on the cloud at a nominal cost.
Data Privacy
The pandemic has to lead to an increase in surveillance of citizens through drones, sharing of location data to ensure social distancing. While these solutions are helping the governments across the world to monitor and handle the COVID-19 spread, it is taking away the privacy of users. People were wary of the facial recognition technologies and use of CCTV cameras on the street, but governments are now using computer vision systems to ensure compliance with social distancing. Undoubtedly, technology is assisting during the pandemic, well-devised policies about the collection and processing of data of such highly debated technology would have removed the doubts in citizens. Companies will have to make solutions that can bring trust in people when they are leveraged beyond their regular use.
