Dear INOVAX readers, as the coronavirus outbreak across the world forces us to adapt to a new life style which we are not used to, caused a big change in our lives in many aspects. This big change also caused a re-modification in our social relationships. As well as being a significant part of our lives also before, the notion of digitalization has gained more importance with this period.
In this new period, digitalization does not only state to run processes by using digital tools or to make the business operations digital but also means redesign of all processes by using digital tools in order to reshape business operations according to the new world order, change of organization processes, improve of R&D and innovation and adjustment of a proper way of act by the needs of the market in an intense competition.
Digitalization had an impact on every one’s life, from 7 to 70, even more with pandemic. It moved the students to online education, employees to experience home office, businesses to online product and service trade through e-Commerce, and the end users to procure their needs by using these services and to use contactless payment systems that are safe and hygienic. This period integrated digitalization into our lives in many fields or brought some changes to our habits in our current lives and sped up the digitalization process. I can say that what we experienced with COVID-19 outbreak has made a dramatic change in our digital routines. These digital actions which we obtained in pandemic and turned into our routines, will surely continue by developing and in a widespread manner after the pandemic.
With the COVID-19 epidemic, social distance and physical contact avoidance, curfews and quarantine, as well as the measures taken for our health brought physical trade to a complete standstill, all sectors were negatively affected by this process. Therefore, this process has led to a significant change in the producer’s and consumer behaviors and the transformation of the trade by moving the digital world. This situation has accelerated the transformation process of the trade, which we have been waiting for a long time to complete. Producers and consumers turned to e-Commerce due to being fast, easy and safe, we observed that online sales channels recorded a significant growth in our country in this period. While the physical stores were negatively affected by the epidemic due to the measures taken, consumers started to use
e-Commerce more intensively to supply their needs in the epidemic environment. So that virtual marketplaces and e-Commerce platforms are no longer a choice for consumers, but an important basic service for public health. Shopping through online order channels, making payments using web-based secure credit card payment methods, and making the order come to our door reveals the comfort that end users experience in our country. During this period of extraordinary days, contactless payment systems used in consumer spending became widespread due to their great importance for community health, as well as fast and easy payment. Credit cards, bank transfers, electronic wallets and blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, which are contactless payment methods, have come to the fore in digital payment options. Contactless payment systems, which can also be made with contactless cards and smart phones, which have become widespread during this period, will continue to be used by being among the indispensable parts of our lives.
Another issue that came to the fore during this period is working from home / remote. The practice of working from home, which is not welcomed by many sectors or postponed due to different needs in the process of passing, has become a part of daily business life by rapidly adapting to many workplaces with the pandemic period. In this process, companies reviewed the requirements of digital transformation and their infrastructure for working remotely, and found that this process was not as difficult as expected. With this period, work from home has become more and more widespread and has started to change the future business models. Although I have received feedback that this process is very useful in the short term, I would like to state that I think it will cause performance declines in the long term.
In this process, the companies operating in the field of production have achieved significant digital transformation on production lines thanks to the use of high technologies such as robotic systems, artificial intelligence, and the ability to transfer information from smart devices and realized their production processes lossless, or even increased their capacity. When we look at the future of business processes; With digital transformation, the working areas of robots and humans independently but in harmony with each other will become more and more widespread in the world and this will provide a total quality increase in production.
Companies; by using robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud and other technological advances, they can challenge the idea of the necessity to do work in a particular physical space by digitizing some or all of the work. While the COVID-19 outbreak forced businesses in many sectors to work with less manpower, it was once again understood that the negative effects of this period could be overcome with robot and automation systems. Businesses, with the digital transformation, will start to use drones, robotic production tools and artificial intelligence more intensely in business processes in the upcoming period.
To the future that produces, improves and develops together in the digitalization journey that continues at a great speed…
In this new period, digitalization does not only state making the business operations digital but also means redesign of all processes by using digital tools in order to reshape business operations according to the new world order, change of organization processes, improve of R&D and innovation and adjustment of a proper way of act by the needs of the market in an intense competition.
PhD. Özgür AKIN
Chairman of AKINSOFT and AKINROBOTICS