The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It is also having a huge impact on the global economy, with most organizations being impacted – from an operations, customer and employee perspective. Also impacted are services where an interruption would endanger life, health or personal safety. One thing is clear – no industry is going unscathed.
I asked each of our OpenText™ Global Industry Strategists to share their thoughts on the impact of the current pandemic on their specific sectors.
Public Sector
Government organizations must look to technology to keep citizens informed and secure, but they will also be rethinking their operational model for the future by fast-tracking digital transformation. For many, COVID-19 has acted as a Draconian gap-analysis and will accelerate the pace of Future of Work (FoW) in Government.
Additionally, ransomware cyberattacks started circulating in January, preying on fear and confusion about the virus, and using pandemic-related traps to spread malware. Security and cloud-based disaster recovery solutions have become fundamental to preventing government vulnerabilities from being preyed upon.
Follow Brian Chidester, Sr Industry Strategist for Public Sector.
Legal
Attorneys are actively counseling clients on legal and regulatory risks caused by the spread of COVID-19. Containment measures make it difficult to perform obligations. For example, businesses are evaluating the impact of delayed transactions or whether to invoke force majeure clauses.
For legal professionals, remote support is increasingly being required. COVID-19 is forcing the industry to embrace flexibility, SaaS, and web-based technology to remain competitive and deliver work anywhere.
As previously mentioned, cybercriminals are exploiting public fears and accelerating attacks. Law firms remain a top target due to the sensitive/confidential documents they possess. To ensure remote workers meet obligations without compromising security, law firms will accelerate adoption of a cyber resilience strategy and deployment of data security technology to address these needs.
Follow Andy Teichholz, Sr Industry Strategist for Compliance & Legal and read his blogs here.
Manufacturing
By now we’ve all heard about the production shutdowns and plant closures being forced on manufacturers to curb the virus spreading and respond to government mandates for social distancing, as well as parts shortages across the supply-chain.
But this sector has a vital role to play, being asked to convert production facilities to produce medical devices and masks. As UK hospitals struggle to meet the demand of COVID-19, the Prodrive Motorsport company is switching its factory to ventilators, as is Dyson. In the US, Ford is partnering with GE and 3M to begin manufacturing face masks.
Read How COVID-19 will change how we work FOREVER to learn more about how the pandemic is impacting the sector and they are responding.
Follow Tom Leeson, Sr Industry Strategist for Manufacturing.
Financial Services
As nations brace for the battle against COVID-19, Financial Services organizations are essential services at the front line of delivering ongoing service to their customers. Ensuring ongoing communication is critical, especially considering the market volatility and the rapidly changing environment. Furthermore, as branches are shuttered to reduce the spread of the virus, banks have had to implement remote working strategies and engage with customers exclusively through digital channels and (now distributed) contact center.
Read Why trusted advice is vital in uncertain times and Nurturing relationships while working remotely to find out more about how the industry is impacted and reacting.
Follow Monica Hovsepian, Sr Industry Strategist for Financial Services and read her blogs here.
Energy
During the COVID-19 situation, the general public expects that the lights will turn on, trucks will be able to refuel, our factories will be powered to operate and the internet will run. It is inconceivable, despite all the other challenges we are experiencing, that our utilities fail. However, power plants and oil wells cannot be run from a home office. The engineers that keep our lights on still have to go to the power plant or to damaged transmission lines.
The best way to support these essential workers is to provide them with systems that maximize their efficiency, giving them the time they need to operate or maintain assets. Combining a content management system, containing all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and drawings required, with the capability to provide the content on any device is one way we can help achieve these objectives.
Life Sciences and healthcare
The Life Sciences industry is front and center of the COVID-19 pandemic as global efforts to develop a vaccine are ongoing. Their fast and collaborative response to the outbreak has been an inspiring testament of how well the industry can work together to produce results around a common threat.
Life Science companies will forever change following this current pandemic, and so too will healthcare in many countries around the world.
We must thank all the healthcare professions dealing with today’s challenges, and also look to ways that the healthcare ecosystem we share can learn and adapt.
Telemedicine will change how healthcare providers work. Today, with mandated social distancing and remote doctor appointments, we see a significant jump in its popularity. Staying home for a video call keeps patients out of waiting rooms and, more importantly, frees up resources for those who need vital care.
Additionally, recent reviews of HIPAA to permit medical providers to use telemedicine tools more freely for everyday communication with patients has opened the door further for remote health monitoring.
Our changed healthcare environment can only benefit the patient, should the industry continue to collaborate and share vital information across multiple stakeholders. Introducing modern interoperable enterprise data platforms and disruptive technologies will help us all prepare for the key challenges to come.
Follow Ferdi Steinmann, Sr Industry Strategist for Life Sciences.
The outbreak is moving quickly. This post shares our perspectives as of March 30, 2020, on how some of the industries OpenText supports are responding to this crisis.
While uncertainty is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, today’s industries must be able to respond and pivot swiftly and identify new ways of working productively and effectively.
You can read OpenText’s commitment to customers and partners during COVID-19 here. To learn more about OpenText services to Industry, visit our website.
