It is difficult to imagine a world where we are not connected by the Internet and where the provision of services is done in the traditional way, without digital systems that simplify our lives.
Before the pandemic, technology and digital services were of great importance. Just the fact of being able to access our bank accounts through an application and make different movements, without having to spend hours inside a bank, was something exceptional. But in the current reality, in a world hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, digital and interconnected services stopped being a convenience and became an indispensable necessity. To date, there are many organizations that have put aside their traditional way of providing services. Teleworking spread as quickly across the planet as the COVID-19 virus did. Offices are no longer crowded with people waiting for an official to assist them. No, now citizens access virtual platforms where they receive entirely digital attention.
Currently, digital services transcend financial and banking systems, now government entities, federal agencies, technology companies and other organizations have adopted a new way of operating and providing services. Through digital systems, these organizations can comply with the required safety and health standards, protecting their employees and officials while guaranteeing complete attention to citizens. With teleworking or remote work, organizations can automate several of their processes and continue providing their services without interruptions.
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Demand for digital services grows
The urgent health measures that COVID-19 forced us to adopt may have paralyzed our society at first, but today, they have only fueled the need and demand for digital platforms and services. The suspension of congresses, conferences, important meetings and even in-person classes led society to adopt videoconferencing as the most suitable alternative to continue with our activities and routine. The health sector has also benefited from new practices and habits, now doctors can examine a patient through digital services; Of course, when it is not an emergency that requires the physical presence of a doctor or specialist.
Likewise, government entities do not escape this reality, which now provide their services through websites and digital platforms. Matthew Schrader, director of government relations and public policy at Adobe, notes in his article “Congress needs to prioritize government digital service delivery”, that institutions in the United States such as the Census Bureau, the Department of Energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Agriculture of that country, adopted digital systems to provide their services efficiently and securely. With the adoption of these platforms, these government entities have been able to significantly improve the experience of their users, as well as the productivity of their employees and public officials. Through digital forms and using electronic signatures to authenticate documents, different organizations are streamlining the provision of services efficiently, reducing paper waste and environmental pollution.
Adoption of new technologies
Likewise, beyond platforms to provide services digitally, other organizations such as the United States Postal Service They put forward more ambitious proposals. In mid-August, this entity raised the possibility of adopting a digital system based on blockchain, which allows citizens to exercise their right to vote electronically and without leaving their homes, all due to the current pandemic.
For its part, in India, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) published a report where it points out that in the country there were more than 40 blockchain-based initiatives to improve the provision of public services, in 2019 alone. According to the report, this is an example of how the consumption and adoption of new technologies is constantly growing. Now, COVID-19 accelerated all these processes and gave this trend a fairly powerful boost in recent months.
Integrating blockchain technology or other disruptive and transformative technology of our era will make our spaces more productive and efficient. This is just an example of the growing need for organizations to adopt measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on society, and what better way to do it than by digitizing services.
Finally, we must not ignore that the current COVID-19 pandemic is just an opportunity to radically transform the way we live and do things. Now is the ideal time for organizations and governments to implement measures that allow them to innovate with new technologies and digital services, to provide services in a secure, scalable and reliable way.
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