Global supply chains, especially in the manufacturing sector have experienced many different forms of disruption over the years – from earthquakes and tsunamis through to social unrest and even piracy in the Indian Ocean. Each disruption brings with it uncertainty in terms of how suppliers will be impacted and how long the disruption will last for.
However, with the coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak as it has become known, things couldn’t be more different. This is not a short term disruption, this could go on for many months and impact companies all around the world. This will be the subject of a new webinar series, which you can register for HERE. In fact, Bloomberg recently estimated that this particular outbreak will cost the global economy $2.7 trillion and Dunn & Bradstreet take that one step further and are predicting that nearly 5 million businesses around the world could be impacted. At OpenText™, we have researched how businesses are being impacted by COVID-19 in a new white paper.
Manufacturers, especially in the automotive sector, rely on the timely delivery of parts to feed their just-in-time production systems. With so many automotive suppliers now being based in the Far East, it was inevitable that many western-based OEMs would have to shut down their production operations. With many countries introducing lockdowns, social distancing guidelines and companies furloughing workers, nearly all industry sectors and in fact the global economy has been severely impacted.
Deloitte recently referred to COVID-19 as a ‘black swan’ event which will force companies to restructure supply chains and introduce more flexible IT infrastructures to allow more employees to be able to work from home. Remote working will become the new normal for many employees over the next few years which will lead to a downturn in the leasing of commercial office space.
My colleague recently posted a blog discussing remote access to business applications and this is a critical need for high tech companies in the Far East during a time of crisis. CXOs need to offer their employees a new way to work in terms of how they get access to and collaborate on business information. Companies may decide to accelerate cloud deployments so that remote workers can get access to corporate networks and undertake their normal day to day jobs. In fact, there are four key areas where businesses need to focus when choosing solutions to help during a time of crisis.
Don’t forget to download the new white paper to learn how the global economy and businesses are being impacted by – and can respond to – the challenges presented by COVID-19, along with the summarized version of my findings via this infographic. Finally, please feel free to register for our new webinar series on supply chain disruption, HERE
