Tech Industry Quarantine — How It Affects Business

The political environment, world economic and legal solutions, societal influences, technological development — all these factors influence all businesses in one form or another. All of them can be forecasted and calculated. However, uncertainties always happen, and it’s impossible to be ready fully for them. 

This year brought humanity the Coronavirus outbreak, upending the world business environment. Given the speed and scale of the pandemic spreading, companies all over the world have to react quickly and thoroughly choose their next steps. 

Coronavirus didn’t leave any business domain and affected in some way shape or form companies from all industries that could additionally make things worse, impacting on their economic environment.

How COVID-19 Affects IT industry

The virus has spread to almost all countries. Believing that it passes by us would be foolhardy. The IT environment treats the Coronavirus spreading very seriously. Management of IT companies cared about the health of their employees and switched companies to remote work. Such giants as Google, Salesforce, Twitter, Lyft, and many others already did it, and every day thousands of companies lead their example. Our development partner, located in Ukraine, also began to work remotely.

2020 Events & Conferences going Online

All industries are united by the fact that 2020 can be a year without events: no presentations, no tech summits, no conferences. A way out of this situation is to conduct all activities online such as Apple does. This year, WWDC will take on an entirely new online format packed with content for consumers, press and developers alike. Microsoft’s Build developer conference also transforms into a “digital event.” Not only IT events are affected. Sporting events such as the NBA and Formula 1, musical performances, and festivals are canceled or postponed too. This year will bring about a new format of conducting events, and a lot of significant conferences and shows switched to online presentation mode.

The Main IT Companies’ Concern

A volatile situation triggered by COVID-19 made many companies postpone or reconsider their plans of investment in informational technologies in 2020. In such circumstances, companies will be interested in business automation solutions and staff engagement software that offer to continue working effectively during the quarantine. 

At the same time, venture capital firms will review projects they were going to invest in, and pay their attention to the booming ideas related to the virus situation. All services that help people to handle pandemics affection will be the most demanded this year. So, software development companies should be ready that an order portfolio will shift its direction.

Industries that Have Growth Regarding Coronavirus

Any crisis or collapse is always opening new horizons and gives a lot of new opportunities for business. Although this dreadful situation with Coronavirus representatives of some industries became demanding, and had a massive influx of customers. People try to decrease the time being on the street and contact with each other in person. Services allowed us to achieve these goals, starting to be more and more popular.

A significant number of users will have such business:

• Healthcare, biopharmaceutics and clinical trials (all worlds struggles with Conovairus: scientific research, producing medication and remedies, addressing the effects)
• Social networks (Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, etc.)
• Telecommunication
• Streaming services (Youtube, Twitch, Pornhub)
• Online games
• Remote education services (many world-known platforms offer their courses for free now)
• Delivery of goods (local delivery company all over the world)
• Software providing communication services (Skype, Whatsapp, Discord and other)
• Taxi services (Uber, Lyft)

The current reality informs us that we should be ready to work not in office only. So, it will increase the trend of choosing mobile devices instead of desktop computers, and lead to a growing demand for new mobile applications. In other words, all services which allow you to stay away from the virus threat will increase.

For IT companies, it means a sharp increase in the demand for developing remote tools and services for different economic sectors. Many businesses already have an urgent need for such solutions. So, development companies can face a lack of specialists if demand for software starts to increase dramatically. Rapid team expansion is always problematic in the IT industry, especially under the current circumstances, it can be a real challenge. In these cases, outsourcing options can beсome a lifeline for these companies.

Outsourcing Services as an Option

An ability to temporarily outsource part of the job allows not to suspend their activity and not to provide reorganization of the working process. An essential fact that companies already used outsourcing/outstaffing services feel less the negative effect of COVID-19. 

Many businesses using the variety of services of IT companies were сoncerned about how these temporary changes will affect their projects. Can it slow down solutions’ delivery or decrease their quality?

The answer is “no” if your partner is an experienced, flexible and fast-deciding company. The right vendor has an optimally-adjusted management process, and a high level of communication among departments, the fact their employees are miles apart or in one room doesn’t matter.

World crises and disasters are never positive. However, it’s never a reason to give up. COVID-19 certainly will leave its impact on world business, but only we decide what it will be for us. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.