The impact of COVID-19 in Europe has been broadened and IDC foresees a 4.7% drop in GDP, with the accumulation of uncertainty, reduction of employees and consumption. A survey carried out in Portugal shows that Portuguese companies are also adapting to this new scenario, although only 19% admit having seen their activity severely restricted.
Gabriel Coimbra, general director of IDC Portugal, opened a webinar that the consultant is holding this morning admitting that nothing will be the same as before, and that the topic of digital transition could not be more relevant in this scenario. The webinar held through Zoom, with open participation but requiring registration, immediately counted with more than 1,200 participants, and has in alignment the presentation of the study and the scenarios provided by IDC, but also the intervention of several speakers from organizations and Portuguese companies.
Andr de Arago Azevedo, Secretary of State for Transio Digital, was one of the first speakers to intervene, aligning the various initiatives that the Government has developed in this crisis phase, which has several atypical factors and is strongly marked by ignorance and uncertainty.
The Secretary of State recalled that digital has a relevant role in this crisis, but that we are not yet fully aware of its true dimension.
The challenge is to understand how digital can or cannot be used to combat the crisis, he says, especially in response to concerns about maintaining the ecosystem and the economy functioning. The concern is also after the crisis and the way we are going to get out of this phase, says Andr de Arago Azevedo.
Showing himself proud of the companies' ability to respond quickly and adapt, Andr de Arago Azevedo says that once again we show that the crisis has revealed the ability of the Portuguese to show their best.
The exception regime is a unique opportunity to reposition ourselves, he says, arguing that at the end of this crisis we will have a very different country, and that if COVID-19 had any advantages, it would have taken us out of the comfort zone we were in and questioned the blockages that still existed and resistance to digital innovation, recalls Andr de Arago Azevedo.
Different scenarios with impacts on the economy
IDC has been developing several scenarios regarding the impact of the crisis at European level, depending on whether the pandemic phase ends at the beginning of the third quarter of 2020 or at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and this has a negative impact on confidence and consumption, with a recovery in the economy postponed to 2021.
Among the recommendations in line, Vanda Soeiro, Consulting Manager at IDC Portugal, refers to planning for the likely and pessimistic scenario at the same time, continuing the business through the use of digital channels, maintaining customer support first and identifying the links early. weaknesses in the ecosystem, while also strengthening logistics capabilities.
Companies generalize teleworking and reinforce digital channels
The survey was conducted in record time by IDC Portugal, with responses between March 27 and March 31, and had a high level of responses, with 531 participations, from companies of various areas and of different dimensions. Among the responses, it can be seen that 19% of organizations have already seen their activity severely restricted, but that 40% will continue to have a reduced level of impact, while 31% say that there are no major changes in the functioning of their organizations. Only 8% say they do not feel any impact.
The main concerns of companies with this crisis are centered on financial impact, with 70% referring to concerns about revenues and profits, followed by concerns about customers and operations, with more than 55% responses, and then employees.
The most likely scenario for the economy to recede dominates the concerns of 90% of respondents, as well as the financial impact on the organization, the decrease in consumer confidence and the reduction of consumption. It should be noted that just over 20% of organizations indicate their concern about the lack of information to support decisions.
Among the initiatives adopted are the widespread use of teleworking, a ban on participation in events and travel, and new channels of communication with employees have been implemented. More than half of the organizations closed installations and the strengthening of the technological infrastructure was an option of more than 55%.
What can be seen in the responses is also the greater availability of digital channels and enhanced security. In view of the confinement measures adopted in the national territory, the vast majority of organizations choose to increase the availability of digital channels and to reinforce security.
More than 60% of the companies that responded increased the availability of digital channels, more than 40% reinforced security and about 40% monitored the execution of the service to customers. There are still about 30% who created new digital channels and more than 20% implemented new communication channels with customers.
Infarmed, EDP, Sonae and NOS share experiences
In addition to sharing data, IDC Portugal opened the webinar to several companies and organizations that shared their experiences with the changes made to respond to the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic and the State of Emergency, which will last for two more weeks.
Carina Adriano, Director of Information Systems at Infarmed says that this pandemic is "clearly pushing us towards digital transformation". With a large part of the teams working on teleworking, the official recalled how it was necessary to quickly prepare the structure and the workers to work remotely, in terms of tools but also work habits.
Communication is one of the concerns to help adapt working methods among employees, but also in terms of management, and the response has been very positive, saysCarina Adriano
On the EDP side, Jos Ferrari Careto, Digital and IT Office of the EDP Group, says that 70% of the company's workers are already telecommuting and that this was a simplified adaptation process with Teams and the fact that people are already very proficient in these tools. Among the challenges, it highlights the fact that the call centers closed, with 500 people who started to work remotely, and the need to communicate the topics of the sensible use of technology and security.
Another testimony came from Dott, who was born 11 months ago with a digital DNA as stated by Gaspar d'Orey, CEO of the company, who believes that this is an opportunity for companies to accelerate the migration from physical to digital commerce. Dott is working in this area and has entered into an agreement with Sonae Sierra to evangelize shopping center logistics in the move to an omnichannel concept.
Sonae MC is another of the invited companies, and Miguel guas, administrator, recalls that the company's challenges involved adapting the stores and supply chains with the protections, cleaning cycles and management of the teams required for the COVID-19 adaptation. More than 90% of Sonae MC workers continue to work in stores, and yet there are about 4 thousand teleworkers with the challenges of adaptation and cybersecurity.
Manuel Eanes, NOS administrator, highlights the challenges that for a communications operator this new situation brings, but says that it is an opportunity to test a more remote, safer and more agile way of working.
Tecnolgicas accelerate customer support while preparing internally
On the side of technological companies participating in the webinar the double challenge, responding to an increase in the use of collaboration tools and the search for hardware and mobility solutions, such as portable computers or VPNs, while also having to adapt their internal teams.
Paula Panarra, general director of Microsoft Portugal shared the company's experience, which despite being already very adapted to remote work now recognizes the different challenge that having families at home, and being in confinement. "It requires constant communication with the teams (…) we are concerned with bringing not only the tools but also good practices", he stresses.
On the Fujitsu side Susana Soares, marketing director for Southern Europe, underlined the speed of change of the more than 2,200 people who, when the State of emergency was decreed, started to work from home, but in a process that had already started before .
At Google, remote work is already a common practice, but Jorge Reto, head of Google Cloud, talked about how the company is monitoring customers and remembered that it is necessary to keep the energy and not spend everything in this first month, because it can be a longer race than we are predicting.
In his speech, Jorge Correia, general director of HP Portugal, explains how the company is responding to customers who had to put their teams on the move, many of whom still worked with desktops, and how HP had to accelerate the ability to production. But he recalled that HP has been talking about the transformation of the workplace for more than two years and that it has to be done to face such critical situations as this, to make the jobs more mobile, with more collaboration tools and safer.
"This reality gives us that lesson", he stresses, warning that in the very near future we have to pay more attention to this issue, highlights Jorge Correia
Other stakeholders also highlighted the work of the teams that are being done in supporting the change that companies and the economy are going through, and Pedro Faustino, managing director of Axians, asked for an applause for all IT professionals, who among the heroes who have been highlighted in the area of health, or services that have to remain in operation (such as supermarkets, security and sanitation), they are also heroes because they leave home every day to ensure the maintenance of essential information systems so that everything continues to work.
Editor's note: The news was updated with more information while the Webinar was running. last update at 12:34 pm