Business – People – The Online. Time to shape the future.

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Русская версия этой публикации.

While the overly conservative were thinking whether they need online business tools, the world has seen a wedge of "black swans" fly over.

They share with us their pain points, such as: "I've had a bad experience with developers" or "I’m hoping you can tell me something inspiring...". This is a task completely new to us. It’s not about a lack of budget, like with a small business for which custom digitalization is simply not justifiable.

These are relatively big clients who until now were indecisive about online solutions, but are now ready to make up for the lost time.

For these clients it’s not enough to take their business activity specifics and combine it with IT. First, we must answer the following question: what has recently led companies to success or failure in their attempts to automate and digitalize? Only then can we expertly analyze and apply relevant industry experience to match their case.

For these clients it is important that we become a unified team that works together towards a newly set business strategy. IT is not a panacea that automatically wins you the game. It’s not enough to safely and securely integrate IT into your business, you must make sure this brings success to the company, right?

That said, engineering does include getting into the nitty-gritty of all relevant contexts of a product. Yet this depth, including building the client's growth strategy based on their IT product, has never before been necessary.

It is important to first define expectations and evaluate them through the prism of the experience of other similar projects. Investors pay close attention to “survivorship bias” – focusing too much on success stories which creates an assumption that all you need to do is just replicate them. On the contrary, it is negative experience that is treasured the most by seasoned product owners. Only it allowed them to redirect their efforts at the right time.

Going Online. Automation and digitalization of your business. Key decision-making guidelines.

And while we are continuing to look into various use cases across the market in search of optimal ways to successfully digitalize businesses, Armageddon happened.

Biotechnology allowed people to "feel" the virus, information and communication technology made us all a part of this play. There are many ways to look at this, but we are yet to see the true social consequences.

The businessmen I know from around the world are not market analytics gurus and don't talk about "black swans". They talk about possible bankruptcy and calculate how much longer their business will be stable, regardless of whether the governments have promised to help.

That is understandable, especially for businesses that depend on the actual offline life processes and the restrictions set by the quarantine.

However, this not only brings a reasonable caution from the business side but also an insurgence of "online" activity from those businesses that became socially important in this situation.

The constructive activity of online businesses caught my attention when I began looking for ways to help a good friend of elderly age. He was left alone in a country that was one of the first ones to take a hit and close on quarantine. Worrying about him I contacted people who could help me understand how to arrange grocery delivery without him leaving the house. I started receiving links... and noticed certain self-organization and social responsibility of businesses in these new and trying times.

Based on the tendencies in this country we can predict how the situation will evolve in other countries with the quarantine getting stricter.

Small shops and cafes have taken advantage of social media to offer unique services to their customers. First, they could call and pre-order food and then pick it up without entering the building. Then, through volunteers and taxi drivers, they delivered orders to high-risk groups and everybody who's scared to go out.

As the uncertainty of how long the world will be kept under quarantine to reduce the danger for risk-groups grows, social media is seeing an uprising concern for how to address the various needs that cannot wait for long. These are pet stores, hardware stores in case of urgent reparations, jammed locks, broken kettles, and glasses. Many things will not hold up to a test of a prolonged quarantine. And all of this will require setting up online order systems and delivery.

I am not aiming to be negative towards big companies. Many of them have reacted faster than governmental cogs started turning and sent their employees to work from home. Businesses, small and large, are donating to hospitals and those in need. Chemical factories and even distilleries have quickly moved to produce sanitizers and are distributing them to hospitals for free.

Yet an overview of online tools in companies of varying sizes who are already offering some online services to their customers was mildly disappointing. Some businesses that have established their delivery pre-quarantine could not adapt and have since closed. None of the large offline retailers could establish an E-Commerce department and delivery quickly enough. I'm sure this wasn't because their revenue has already skyrocketed, but because of the increased stress on the business structure and due to organizational chaos.

However, if your creative thought is only stopped by a myth that an online store cannot be set up even in half-a-year, by which time the quarantine would already pass, then perhaps the engineering solution below can help us all.

Rapid launch of a stable E-Commerce solution with perspective growth into a full-fledged product.

We will appreciate any input and experience you have to share.

If your IT personnel are already considering tools to quickly setup an E-commerce solution, we will be happy to share our developments and insights.

For the purpose of science, we've already "lab tested" several tools in order to confirm they fulfil the requirements.

Right now you have a unique opportunity to receive customer praise for any of your efforts due to the common problems we are all facing. Now, as never before, small issues and errors will be omitted.

Even if there's a photo missing or a description or review is out of place, you are still doing the right thing.

You could, for example, start off with just some quarantine-related goods, some groceries, or a mix of them. Everybody will tag along if you list the most necessary items and ask the younger population to deliver these to the risk-groups. You can even rally people to help those unfamiliar with placing online orders.

We are already seeing examples of such self-organization in town chatrooms, public groups, comments, influencer profiles, and local media channels.

What else can we add to the "why should I go online" box for the business owners to think about? If you’re waiting for "a sign" to decide whether you need an online presence or not, now is the time for action, if ever.

One of our E-Commerce clients has shared an insight that their sales went up 40%, though the purchased goods are in no way related to quarantine restrictions and are not necessities. Thanks to the increased revenue and keeping up with these troubling times, they organized free psychological support for all customers.

The same customer also told us that his business acquaintances are experiencing a similar growth in sales numbers. We are keen to learn and keep track of changes in the global market statistics.

All of you, as businesses, have an opportunity to get the attention of your customers without any additional marketing efforts. Yet it's hard to measure customer gratitude. They will be loyal to those who supported them during these tough times.

More importantly, this isn’t just our concern. Right now, after the first few days of confusion and chaos, many bright minds are looking for ways to resolve the crisis. We are hoping to see many great solutions. And we expect IT companies to be overloaded with these projects.

Let's try to imagine the world after the quarantine. Should we expect significant changes?

Here are some thoughts:

 - Everyone who is not currently buying online will start doing so;

 - We will see an increase in daily activity automation: buying groceries, the digitalization of the services niche, contactless elevator buttons...anything else comes to your mind?

 - People will see more opportunities for cooperation in groups to resolve common problems;

 - Companies will focus on organizing projects based on employee relevance, experience, and skills instead of relying on their proximity to a physical office location.

 - Many will see the potential of remote work and will get their share of invaluable, albeit somewhat radical, experience of setting up online processes. Looks like we’re finally getting some good tools for that, too;

Will this problem divide and isolate us or bring us closer together in the home we call Earth?

What other technological and sociological ideas can you contribute to resolving this crisis?

Share.

We need to act. Together.

A special thanks to everyone involved in writing this:
 - Engineers
 - Business analysts
 - Partners
 - Users
 - Medics
 - Businessmen
 - Movie directors
 - Managers
 - Marketers