We need to admit that the pandemic situation is very intense and unlike any previous crisis. It has impacted more or less all companies around the world, including vendors, customers, and even ourselves.
With lockdowns and work from home orders, businesses have been forced to digitise and go online.
In an interview with Mr Teerapan Luengruamitchai, Managing Director of TCC Technology, we find out how key stakeholders have been affected by the pandemic, how digital transformation might help and our post-pandemic future.
How has the pandemic impacted key stakeholders?
For Thailand’s TCC Technology (TCCtech), a leading integrated technology solutions and infrastructure provider, they have three groups of customers that have been affected: the prepared, the unprepared and the potential customers.
Prepared customers can adapt quicker and may only need some support like additional space on the cloud, activating alternative disaster recovery sites and tools like Zoom, Office 365 or VPN access to their servers to help with transitions to remote working.
The second group, unprepared customers, might need more support like early state cloud adoption, training and more customer service attention. These two groups have resulted in a surge in short-term demand for TCCtech.
The third group of potential customers may face adverse impact from the pandemic from a reliance on physical business operations as opposed to the digital space. This group could experience greater loss of revenue, as they struggle to digitally transform their business due to a lack of funds or training to adopt the technology. As a result, some organisations have been forced to downsize or shut down completely. To support these companies, discounts of remote working technology may be necessary.
Mr Luengruamitchai, Managing Director of TCC Technology, said: “We understand our customers’ situation very well and work to meet their expectations, even if we have to utilize extra technology resources to help customers run their businesses smoothly in order to help our customer pass this difficult situation. We view this as a challenge, which should be manageable with our experienced workforce and growth mindset.”
How did TCCtech respond to the pandemic situation?
In Thailand, a partial lockdown in and out of Bangkok was initiated after a state of emergency was declared on 26 March.
TCC Technology Group had Business Continuity Planning in place and a Disaster Recovery Services Offering to customers since the commencement of business. These are established with the purpose to help customers mitigate risk.
Before the outbreak, the technology group considered a number of risks and planned for various scenarios, including a pandemic. In March, TCCtech reviewed and adjusted to the specific COVID-19 case with more immediate responses like classifying the team to align with outbreak prevention guidelines, plan activation and communication.
TCCtech continues to monitor and evaluate the situation, keeping customers updated every step of the way. And their business continuity plan was activated immediately to ensure their people and customers were safe and the maintenance of essential operations.
What did TCCtech prioritise?
TCC Technology Group placed a focus on safety and business continuity for their customers.
As a result, most staff are assigned to work from home, but they can use TCCtech’s properties to serve as alternative sites when needed whilst maintaining social distancing and minimising the number of staff working from the office. Accommodation is available for staff to stay at or near sites to be ready in case of a full lockdown.
Most customers require quick responses and advice. TCCtech’s mission critical support teams ensure continuous delivery of services 24 hours, seven days a week while staying safely separated from others.
What are the upcoming trends in the technology industry?
The pandemic and remote working situation has made technology adoption much faster than expected with surges in demand for cloud platforms and secured connectivity.
Technology is the key component being utilised to take care of customers and businesses. Tools like Cloud Platform as a Service and video conferencing software are quite standardised.
But the delay of decision making and payment by customers due to uncertainty in the current climate could result in deterioration of revenue. Even the majority of revenue in the “As a Service” model offering, which results in “recurring” revenue for TCCtech.
To relieve suffering from the crisis, programs have been launched to prevent impact on revenue in the short term, though the size of the impact will depend on how long the situation persists and how well they cope with the situation.
The International Data Corporation expects in a pessimistic scenario that IT spending will decline in Asia Pacific to 1.2% growth in the first quarter of 2020, down from the forecast of 5.2%. This growth is predicted to decline even further due to the extended period of uncertainty.
If the pandemic prolongs further, there may be some medium-term impacts on business performance to prepare for, including higher expenses caused by disruptions to supply chains and delayed service delivery timelines for customers, or even cancellation of services.
These delays could also cause opportunity loss and missed partnership opportunities, as informal networking becomes more difficult. With a loss of revenue or higher expenses, there may be a slowdown in tech spending and a weakening of the overall market sentiment.
Is there any light at the end of the pandemic tunnel?
During the pandemic, people are automatically adopting technology to keep businesses running and stay in touch with loved ones.
If there are any silver linings to take away from the tragic situation, it is that more are getting ready for digital transformation and preparing well to encounter and mitigate the impacts from this kind of situation in the future.
Digital transformation decision makers may also look for some IT solutions such as a work from home suite, including technology to track employees while working at home, which may result in businesses requiring less dedicated space and the need for tools to manage co-working spaces for their staff instead.
This should be a positive factor which helps accelerate growth in the technology market, especially in areas like cloud infrastructure and business enabled applications over the long-term. The financial performance will depend on how well they can help customers transform and invest in digitisation in the future.
Right after this interview, you may like to find more on how SMEs and CXOs get started in digitally transforming their business. More digital transformation is expected in the future, with investment growing at an annual growth rate of 17.5% and expected to approach $7.4 trillion between 2020 and 2023.
How can SMEs and C-level staff get in on the action? Find out how to implement a successful digital transformation strategy and avoid the pitfalls at W.Media’s next digital event on 14 May 2020.
