Before the health emergency began, modernization within companies was an issue that leaders had contemplated, however, after the contingency, this issue became a problem for businesses, in addition to this process will be essential in the capacity for growth and efficiency in the following years.
Only in Mexico, according to data from the KPMG consultancy, companies advanced their digital transformation by 80% due to COVID-19. “After the emergency, companies are seeing it as a critical requirement for competition,” says Juan Francisco Jiménez, consulting partner at Bain & Company.
According to the specialist, before the pandemic, companies had realized that technology generated competitive advantages, but its implementation was a distant concern, however, as a consequence of the emergency, “these companies experienced first-hand what it meant not have a digital model, that is to say, not being able to carry out remote operations or even stay connected, ”says Jiménez.
Figures from IDC Latin America IT Investment Trends 2020 reveal that 63% of companies in Mexico offer digital services due to customer demands and market competitiveness, however, only 37% of companies in Mexico offer digital services as part of your own business plan.
In this regard, Alejandro Yáñez, partner of the same firm, comments in an interview that modernization represents a strategic enabler to achieve capabilities within companies, although he emphasizes that this must be carried out accompanied by a change of mentality in the team, because the priorities were modified.
“In the wake of the pandemic, the priorities for new investments in technology changed radically. Now number one is to generate trust with clients and, secondly, to develop a dynamic work model, whereas before these positions were occupied by cost reduction ”, commented Wendy Martínez, enterprise analyst at IDC Mexico, during a webinar carried out by the consultant.
In this sense, Jiménez deepens that currently, and after the lessons learned from a pandemic year, a generalized view has spread among business leaders from different sectors that they should invest more in these matters in the coming years, since digitization will be necessary.
On the other hand, Yáñez highlights that the route to follow in a digital transformation process has five stages: “aligning the business strategy with the needs of new technologies; evaluate its impact on the performance of the entire organization; prioritize needs and goals; select the indicated options; and incorporate new forms of work, talent and infrastructure that allow meeting the demands of the business ”.
Likewise, Jiménez complements, it is important when making a migration of this nature that companies “do not reproduce the processes they have today, but take advantage of them to question them and provoke transformations within the organization.
Regarding the advance of digital disruption in the different business sectors, the specialists emphasize that it will depend on the degree of competition in it. A good example of this conflict occurred in retail, whose growth in Mexico was so relevant that transformation became a critical issue.
The vision of the future within the industries will also be vital, since the evolution that caused the pandemic will not be momentary, the experts conclude. This will continue and the companies that execute it will not only be those that have the financial muscle, but also those that manage to pay for the transformation through improvements to their business.
