The New Normal: What The Past 18 Months Have Meant For Enterprises And Business Intelligence

In late 2019, Forbes reported 100 statistics connected to digital transformation and the customer experience. Most notably, they found that 70% of companies already had a digital transformation strategy in place (or had one in development) and companies planned to spend more than $2 trillion in total on digital transformation in 2019, a figure that represented 40% of all technology spending that year. These efforts largely aimed to improve business intelligence through data analysis and automated business processes, enabling employees to maintain a comprehensive view of the business while focusing on higher-value tasks.

This was December 2019.

Fast-forward just over a year-and-a-half and those numbers look quaint by comparison. The Covid-19 pandemic changed our relationships with work, shopping and entertainment. Remote and hybrid work environments forced enterprises to reconsider their business strategies and technology solutions, while a massive increase in e-commerce forced retailers to double down on logistics and online marketing. These changes required executives and employees to be able to access important data from anywhere at any time.

If this experience taught us anything, it was this: Companies were either prepared for the pressures of the pandemic or they weren’t. Those that invested heavily in business intelligence in the months and years leading up to March 2020 found themselves in pole position to take advantage of the sudden market changes; those that were mired in legacy systems found themselves struggling to stay afloat.

Companies are still under great pressure from the unprecedented challenges caused by Covid-19, and they continue to seek ways to operate more efficiently and extract more value from the information and data they have available to them. Those that were better prepared going into the pandemic are already in a position to more swiftly adapt and act.

Meanwhile, those that weren’t can’t afford to be caught flat-footed a second time as they emerge in a new world — and a new normal.

Read what the new normal means for enterprises and their business intelligence strategies in the full article on Forbes here