Business Lockdown Lessons From the Telecoms Industry

“The growing health crisis in South Africa and around the world has meant that internet connectivity has become critical in keeping the country running.” So says an article from The South African on the topic of increased online traffic during the COVID crisis. 

As an essential service, the telecoms industry is certainly proving its mettle during this worldwide lockdown. Thankfully, the South African internet is coping well with the heavy load placed upon it from – quite literally – every sector in the country.

Will this burden on our telecoms providers lessen in the months and years to come? What do post-lockdown businesses look like? Can we learn anything valuable from the current situation? 

Lessons for Businesses

The South African internet is currently being loaded like never before, and without a foreseeable end to the lockdown, nothing is going to change in a hurry. With many employees working from home due to health concerns, students studying online where they can, and more businesses looking for increased connectivity we can only guess the burden on the internet.  

But it’s holding up, despite recent serious undersea cable breaks and this unprecedented load. In fact, according to the news article mentioned above, we’re doing pretty well. 

They say, “Despite the many problems South Africa faces in terms of inequality and poverty, our broadband speeds are rated amongst the top 100 in the world, and more than half of its citizens have access to the internet.

“According to Christian Rennella, CEO of QuotesAdvisor.com, “every Internet infrastructure is capable of supporting a slight increase in traffic.”

Knowing that we can rely on the internet as the backbone of most businesses allows us to breathe a sigh of relief.

But there’s more to surviving this pandemic than simply having a robust internet connection.

Business agility and the speed of change

We believe that the businesses which come out of COVID will be those which have demonstrated the most agility and flexibility. 

On this topic, Michael Davies, CEO of Continuity SA says, “To survive, our organisations (and governments) have to become truly agile, able to adjust or even change their business models with extreme rapidity. It has become apparent that digitalisation is critical in helping organisations to adapt at the necessary speed, and so is a primary driver of resilience in this new era.”

Last year none of us would have guessed that things could change as much as they have over the past six months. How can you prepare for something that is, by its very nature, unforeseen and often rapid? 

 

Simply speaking, you can’t. 

But we can refuse to adopt the myopic viewpoint of people who are waiting for ‘things to go back to normal.’

If COVID has taught us one thing, its that change is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be scary.

Oliver Wyman makes a solid point about the speed of change, specifically in payments saying, “Without much fanfare, COVID-19 has just sped up the shift we have all been experiencing in payments. Instead of the slow march to digital, we are seeing five years of change condensed into a couple months. Shifting to online commerce, contactless transactions, digital wallets, and even fraud attacks have all made significant moves.”

Many larger companies with long-term digital plans in motion have found that this crisis has highlighted the fact that they aren’t actually as agile as they need to be. Smaller companies have the benefit of agility, but perhaps lack the funds or knowledge to set up a proper plan for their digital and telecommunication needs.

The fact is, customer’s habits and preferences are being shaped right now as you read this, with new trends emerging all the time. We simply have to keep up.

One buzzword doing its rounds is to ‘work at the speed of the customer.’ ISHN makes this key point: “Operating at the “speed of the customer” requires a deep understanding of where your customers and their experiences lie, though without any boundaries–of industries, technologies or expertise. It is about being at the right intersections and with the right interfaces and insights. 

“The businesses that are analyzing these emerging trends and modeling out the long-term implications will adjust faster to industry—and the global economy’s—new normal.”

Valuable takeaways

We feel that understanding your vulnerabilities as a business is critical.  

And on that topic, Michael Davies mentioned above makes an interesting point. He says, “COVID-19 has forced the world into a new reality. We have to self-isolate yet remain connected to our work and clients. COVID-19 has also graphically demonstrated how connected we are, and how that connectedness is a source of great vulnerability.”

If the success of your business hinges on a robust, reliable internet connection, then it makes sense to use a trustworthy and experienced connectivity company to manage your systems. The last thing you want to be doing when you’re in crisis mode is chasing up a series of vendors who each blame the other for the broken system. If you can keep your connectivity under one roof, with one contact (and one invoice, ideally) then do that.

In fact, being able to cope with change and pivot quickly should be the mantra of your connectivity partner. If you need to scale up or down, move to another location or tack on a bunch of new connections for remote workers then you should enjoy the flexibility to do this, quickly and efficiently. Long-term contracts are so last year!

In Conclusion

Looking backwards to see the future clearer is a great concept to adopt. 

The ISHN article mentioned above states, “Those business leaders who believe we will return to “business as usual” are at a huge disadvantage. COVID-19 will have permanent consequences on the future of every type of company in every type of industry.”

What lessons have you learned from COVID? What changes has this forced you to adopt in your business?