Prashant Dutta, Vice President Information Technology, Mӧvenpick Hotels and Resorts
This current situation is alerting us on how ready we are in terms of working from home or working mobile. I’ve been doing this (working Mobile) for over 10 years now. As my work required me to travel in different parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia where the availability of resources is different from country to country and continent to continent. So, for me, it’s not new, but for many colleagues it is. Especially for hotel operational staff whose heart and soul are in their workplace and who love to work from their workplace.
Technology Dependency
Availably of your environment on Cloud as well as collaboration application like Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Slack, Zoom, etc. These days children schooling is also going on Microsoft Teams. Children are also using collaboration apps like Edmodo and Seesaw. Most events will also become online; Microsoft has declared that all its events till July 2021 will be virtual!
Cloud Applications
In many industries, all business-critical applications are not hosted on the cloud, this situation is teaching us the first lesson to host all applications on the cloud. Otherwise business is going to suffer.
Work-Life Balance or Always at work
A new mindset has to kick-in. Individuals need to make more specific plans for their life work time, family time, workout time, and self-time. How individuals are going to integrate all these together.
Self-Development is the Key
Most of the individuals have less workload compared to usual days or been redundant due to current business conditions. This is the opportunity during this lockdown period to develop a skill that can help in existing or potential job opportunities. Many universities and leaning platforms are providing the free course, Take the advantage and time to develop yourself. Here are some links
Engaging the Team.
If you are lucky to have a job and leading a team, how can you keep this team motivated and engaged? Have a call with them every alternative day if not daily. Ask them how are they doing? Ask them if they need something, Is there something which can be changed, developed or fixed during this quiet time which we ignored during our busy days
Digitalization
If someone is still arguing about the need for digitization and investment in technology, they need to see the impact in numbers at this difficult time.
Automation
From the last few years, there has been speculation that automation is taking away too many jobs and making positions redundant. Because of COVID-19, automation will go even faster. Organizations will look more towards RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Time has come when business and IT needs to sit together and understand where business requirements and business needs to be aligned which will result in a seamless business future.
