The Future of Technology and Business: Lessons from a Different Kind of Year
Recently we’ve been reflecting on the last year, with all the changes, and trying to glean both lessons and insights.
Last year at this time, we were all starting to realize that this pandemic would not be short lived. Our lives were going to change for a while, and nobody knew how long. This would require all sorts of shifts, not just to the way we all lived our lives, but to the way we worked and did business.
We saw retailers of all sizes were scramble to fast track ecommerce plans, while production companies pushed all their content online into the ever expanding world of streaming. Employees learned to work online from their homes, while it slowly became normal not to see faces as we walked around essential businesses.
A year later, the virus still rages in certain parts of the world, even while vaccines seem to offer a glimmer of hope. Masks are still everywhere, and most non-essential workers are still at home, at least part-time. Employers are starting to try to understand what it would mean to bring employees back to offices, while officials think about the importance of mask mandates and social distancing practices. Sports are back, often with fans in the stands. Perhaps normalcy is on the horizon.
So, after a year of uncertainty and change, we thought it would be a good idea to share some of the things we’ve learned from our own practices and from our clients.
You can do a lot from anywhere.
Remote culture has been hotly debated for years. Should you build a remote team? How do you keep people engaged and in the loop on important discussions happening in the office? I can remember long conversations in 2018 and 2019. It seems that we now have our answer, forced by necessity. And that answer is: there’s quite a bit you can do without meeting in a brick and mortar building.
Steadfast has always been a remote company, so building a distributed team was not new for us. Watching so many others catch on to the power of the internet in our economy, and the ability to do so much from literally anywhere in the world has been fascinating.
Remote work has given employees the chance to work from anywhere, allowed migrations from industry hubs to smaller cities and rural areas, and launched good companies stratospheric. We’ve learned about how bad our lighting is wherever we found room for our home offices, and tried to find zoom backgrounds to make up for our backdrops.
Isolation and productivity have gone hand in hand, and the choice of whether to maintain this new world isn’t as straightforward as some might think. However, even as companies debate questions of whether to bring employees back to the office, we don’t anticipate remote work is going anywhere. If your employees can work just as easily from Hawaii, Denver, or Tulsa, why not empower your team to build their lives wherever they choose.
This new world will continue to bring challenges for remote-first companies. We don’t believe that we’ve seen the last great productivity tools for these distributed workforces yet. This is one trend we’re watching closely, and hope to be a big part of finding a way forward.
All businesses are now tech businesses
We still refer to the “tech industry” as a specific sector of our economy, and yet when you pull back and look at what is happening, especially over the last year: every industry in now incorporating technology fundamentally into the way business is done.
Ecommerce and DTC models have been on the rise for some time, but the pandemic has supercharged this trend. Delivery services are now ubiquitous, and local grocery and hardware stores have curbside pickup, all powered by online connection.
This trend isn’t just happening in commerce. Telemedicine has never been more important or more accepted, and the rise of services based in or substantially enhanced by technology has been interesting to watch.
Every industry is now looking for ways to use the internet to make itself more efficient, more present, and more connected. From logistics to communication to community, more businesses are incorporating digital platforms and systems into every facet of their work.
We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of established businesses looking to update their systems and revolutionize their processes. It’s been fascinating to help companies big and small find better, more efficient methods of doing business using software.
Logistics are more important than ever before.
Building on our last point, one of the areas that we’ve seen a real focus placed on in the last year has been supply chains, logistics, and inventory. In a world where most products are going from manufacturer through various shipping mechanisms to the customer’s doorstep, managing that whole process is vital.
This means having an eye on inventory even when it isn’t in your back room, and ensuring a seamless experience for the customer from ordering through delivery. While this is readily apparent for commerce companies, it may be less apparent for businesses like construction or interior design.
Where do we go from here?
We absolutely believe that these trends will continue. The ability to increase efficiency and provide flexibility for commerce, employees, and customers is just too powerful. The companies that will win in the 2020s are the ones that find the most efficient and effective uses for software and tech, regardless of their industry.
These are just a few of the areas we’ve seen become ever more important as the pandemic has gone on, with no indication that they will slow down. There are certainly plenty of other trends, including the increased focus on social media and community for businesses of all types that are worth talking about and digging into.
Our goal is to help continue to make business thrive in this new world, by providing the best software we can to solve some of the issues above. Whether that means creating better portals for your employees and customers, or taking your logistics pipeline or inventory management to that next level, we want to jump in and help.