To say that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has represented a disruption for us all is, at this point, probably a bit of an understatement. Businesses of all types and their technology leaders were already trying to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating speed of digital business transformation. Then, the pandemic began in 2020 and upended just about everything, sending industries in wild new directions that few could have predicted.

The past 18 months have taught business leaders that flexible work and collaboration environments can be the key to business continuity—whether the business is office-centric, hybrid, or distributed. The proof is in the numbers: In 2020, the collaboration software category exploded, growing five year’s worth of users in the first six months of the year alone.

5 tech experts who have “been there, done that” share 4 essential pieces of advice.

Over the past decade, all public services have faced digital transformation challenges and developed associated programs. Most of these initiatives have had to be driven by money – the need for efficiency, productivity, and income generation, in response to increased financial pressures and a decade of austerity.

February 2020: remember the date because this was when the world finally agreed that the only way to survive was by adopting technology whole-heartedly. Collaboration for designing and delivering the vaccine needed to quell COVID19, or for family time, or to ensure your business was sustainable. Welcome to the 4th Humanity Revolution with technology as the engine and attitude and behavior changes as drivers of the innovation culture.

Scaling and generating more revenue without necessarily increasing costs is a good sign for your small business. But with the potential to scale by increasing sales volume comes the challenge of keeping the company’s operations and profitability stable. This is why companies emphasize the importance of operational efficiency.

It's safe to say that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for all of us — especially for organizations that were in the process of undergoing their own digital transformations as the lock downs started in March 2020. The need to use technology to support a fast-paced and agile workplace was always paramount — but somehow, it's become even more so in an era where most of your employees are going to be working from home for the foreseeable future.

It’s truly difficult to put into numbers just how enormous the change represented by COVID-19 has been to us all. Seemingly overnight, the ongoing pandemic (that we’re still firmly in the middle of) changed the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we collaborate and so much more.