Infosys, IT solutions major, and HFS Research announced the findings of their combined research analysis. It is focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business across industries. Titled as – ‘Nowhere to Hide: Embracing the Most Seismic Technological and Business Change in our Lifetime’, divulges that a large number of organizations have accelerated the adoption of automation, digital business models, and the hyper-scale cloud for responding to customer requirements quickly and in a competitive manner.

This report also focuses on the corporate mindset hosting a huge shift by advocating change and digitizing businesses. Infosys-HFS Research proclaims that while coming up with the survey report on 400 Global 2000 executives for understanding how businesses can exist and thrive in the economy riddled with the pandemic.

The findings spotlight the way for the emergence of dynamic digital organization powered by technology has opened avenues of rapid progression and business growth. This report also highlights the increased interest of business leaders in digital transformation for redefining the existing business models, and exploring new ways of uniting people, data, and processes for creating value for their customers. The Infosys-HFS Research also exemplifies strategies implemented by successful companies in various industries (G2K) for surviving and thriving in the post-pandemic economy.

Almost 70 percent of respondents believe that COVID-19 will prove to be a bigger impact than 2008 downturn with budgets, supply chains, employee availability, and customer intimacy being impacted the most.

Business will thrive in sectors of public, banking, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, and the high-tech industry respondents that are relatively confident as they find emerging opportunities for making exact investments amid the crisis.

65 percent businesses are insulating their business from volatility by creating diverse customer pools, and investing in an agile business model.

With digitization and adaption, 60 percent of enterprises strategize for accelerating their digital transformation initiatives, and more than 70 percent plan to alter their product, offerings for driving greater customer value.

Investing in the creation of a virtual, secure, and cloud-enabled IT environment which enables remote working at scale – virtualization, collaboration, and security, where investment in the cloud, cybersecurity, and modernizing core IT apps, and infrastructure are the topmost priority.

IT spending increased, and enterprises expect to spend the most on business, and digital consulting, which is followed by IT infrastructure services, and cloud. It is expected that IT and business process services to pick up to serve the dual purpose of the driving digital while saving cash.

Nearly 90 percent of the organizations are realizing they require repositioning to unleash people in the new reality.

Post-COVID, working arrangements will get changed, and only 37 percent prefer a return to an office-based environment, where the work culture will evolve from siloed working to interdisciplinary collaboration.

“Post-COVID, we have witnessed accelerated scaling of digital across most enterprises. The strategic investment in cloud, cybersecurity, and modernization is not only helping businesses sharpen their focus on end-to-end customer journeys but also enabling them to do a lot more with much higher agility. With so much at stake to drive customer centricity and productivity, investment in employees and ensuring their well-being is of paramount importance. In a distributed work environment such as today, employees are an important centerpiece within the companies’ strategy framework and therefore, it is imperative for organizations to see how the hybrid work model can be made more effective, productive, resilient, and secure,” said Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys.