Digitalization – It is no longer an option, it is a means of survival

The coronavirus crisis has accelerated plans for the introduction of digitalization. Many have urgently started this process overnight, which is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises that must adapt their operations, starting from optimizing administrative, sales, distribution, communication, and promotional channels.

The current situation with the coronavirus pandemic has drastically limited our physical mobility, but at the same time opened up an online domain of operation that has not been utilized nearly enough, so what seemed like an interesting option just a month ago has now become an absolute necessity and a new business reality. The accelerated transformation of business that we are witnessing in both the private and public sectors is a result of a sudden need that would not have been possible without years of investment in digitalization, which many are only now seeing. Indeed, in this thankless situation, we are fortunate to operate in a time when various tools and platforms are available to us through which we can seamlessly carry out most of our daily obligations while respecting the social distancing measures imposed by life with the pandemic.

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According to available data, as many as 70 percent of Croats are currently working from home. It is interesting to compare this with the numbers published by Eurostat, which show that in 2018 only one percent of Croats utilized remote work options. For example, Microsoft recorded a 27 percent increase in users on the Teams platform globally in just one week in mid-March, with the number of active MS Teams users rising from 32 million to 44 million. Cisco also recorded a huge increase on its platforms – in March, the use of Webex quadrupled, with 324 million users and 73 million meetings held via that platform. Such trends are also present in Croatia, where Hrvatski Telekom reports more than a 20 percent increase in mobile data traffic and more than a 40 percent increase in fixed network traffic.

Benefits and Tools

All available data tells us that digitalization is no longer an option for certain industries, but a necessity for survival in the market. Although not all industries have a primary digital DNA, this absolutely does not mean they cannot function online. The fact is that the experience of dining in a restaurant is not the same as ordering delivery, but technological support for business is now coming to the fore. It enables even those most affected to continue operations and provides them with the opportunity to successfully navigate the current unfavorable business circumstances. This is particularly evident in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises, which must adapt their operations, starting from optimizing administrative, sales, distribution, communication, and promotional channels, which today is only possible through digitalization.

Consequently, it is particularly important to emphasize the increased activation of digital tools in Croatia. The increase primarily relates to the use of the MS Office 365 package, with an emphasis on the activation of the Teams application and an increase in the use of collaborative tools within the Office 365 package by more than 30 percent during March. Recognizing the need, HT has enabled all business users a range of digital services, channels, and tools free of charge since the very beginning of the pandemic. Such tools help companies in their daily operations as they can introduce changes in customer availability, facilitate agreements with suppliers, and ultimately accelerate business and reduce costs, not only during the pandemic but also afterward.

Due to the strategic partnership with Microsoft, HT users of the Microsoft Office 365 package can activate Teams applications until January 2021, and those who are not users of the Microsoft Office 365 package can try it for free for 30 days. In addition to Microsoft’s solutions, there are also Cisco tools such as Webex for online meetings and video conferences, which are available free of charge for 90 days, as well as Cisco VPN or Palo Alto Networks solutions that enable secure connection of official computers to the internet.

Foundation for Tomorrow

To facilitate companies’ adaptation to working from home, Hrvatski Telekom organizes free webinars through which it explains to companies how to establish connectivity among team members, how to work on shared documents, how to organize audio and video conferences, and more.

– Many found themselves unprepared for this situation and sought the best ways to stay connected, without noise in the communication, logistics, and business channels. In the first days, communication was dispersed across multiple channels, so we communicated with each other via emails, WhatsApp, Messenger, and calls – says Lana Gašparić, director of Auta Gašparić.

Today and tomorrow, things will begin to normalize, and employees will return to their workplaces under special conditions. Despite the challenging situation, digitalization has not only enabled those who embraced it to continue operating even in these moments but has also highlighted what we can do differently, more simply, and above all more efficiently in the future. It will be interesting to see how many features of remote work will remain in the future and how they will affect work habits and management models.

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