Covid 19 and the way forward for the IT Industry

The impact that the pandemic has caused to the IT Industry cannot be measured with any yardstick. Not only has the industry suffered as a whole but even ancillary industries such as IT Hardware, Transport companies, Manpower consultants etc. have also borne the brunt of this aggressively spreading virus.

A majority of the employees have been given instructions to work from home (wfh) and this seems to be a new norm for the next few months at least, till the time things get back to normal.

Conferences have been cancelled, new product launches have been put on hold, hardware and supply chains have been severely impacted. People and manpower that are associated with the above have either been laid off or have been kept on a retainer ship. Large contracts have been cancelled and software companies are having to deal with bench strength that may need to be channeled to other projects to keep them in production mode. Among them the airlines, travel and hospitality companies are the ones that depend on a lot for IT as their backbone and since they have been grounded, it has had a ripple effect on the IT world.

In spite of this carnage, there is a silver lining for the IT industry. Experts believe that in the next couple of years following 2020 there will be an exponential demand for IT products such as ones for teleconferencing , virtual meetings etc. and the market will see a huge jump in demand and sales of such products. Experts also believe that there will also be a huge jump in demand for other IT products and services such as online ordering for food, e commerce, booking for transport, Malls and other areas. Telemedicine and virtual hospitals are also areas where IT might see an exponential growth.

The education industry has taken this opportunity to tap new customer in the market. Since schools and colleges have been closed for over 2 months, online education companies such as Byju’s, Educomp etc. have been marketing their service aggressively. They have been giving out free trail sessions to students so that they can utilize their idle time to horne their skills online and not lose valuable session time.

Overall, to sum up one can safely say that these times are here to last, for a while at least and the “new normal” will take some time getting used to. All companies, small & large will have to put forward their “A Game” and make sure that they can evolve quickly and move ahead with the times.