Elaine Maddison

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of every day life. The above quote by Bill Gates speaks volumes to me. Our lives have been unquestionably disrupted over the last few months. From the personal to the professional impact, many (myself included) have taken a step back to consider what matters.

For the vast majority it is likely it has amplified the value we place on people and connectivity. Even in the early days of lockdown, when it came to connecting with loved ones or colleagues, we automatically turned to technology. Whether through endless Zoom calls at work or by keeping in touch with friends or family on WhatsApp or FaceTime, technology became the natural way for us to maintain those relationships and stay in touch.

I have spent years waxing lyrical about the benefits of technology to businesses and beyond, but I truly believe it has only been in recent weeks it has been given more credence.

Something seems to have clicked and so there has been more discussion about how tech could provide the connectivity we need to help us through the crisis Covid-19 has created. From the Scottish Government’s review into how the country’s technology industry can support business recovery postpandemic to technology playing a central role in Track and Trace, it has made me prouder than ever to work in the tech sector.

I also know that what we do now will no doubt be integral to economic recovery – both in Scotland and potentially globally.

When lockdown was announced on March 23, many organisation’s IT departments went into overdrive. They needed the infrastructure to ensure their entire workforces could log into their systems at 9am the next day as they would if they were in the office. This was no mean feat and for those without a flexible or remote working strategy caused considerable strain, however for the vast majority it was possible. It might not have been perfect and there may have been bugs to fix along the way, but the mission was accomplished.

As lockdown played out, we also saw how technology provided a lifeline to keep businesses of all sizes running, from sales in high street brands soaring online to small hospitality businesses scaling up their online presence to stay connected to their customers and keep sales moving.

While at the time all of this was no doubt overwhelming, it has also reaped positive results because it has forced many businesses to digitally transform – maybe faster than they had planned – but they now have a business model which is both innovative, agile and resilient.

Central to the above examples is the role cloud computing has played in supporting businesses.

According to data from Flexera’s 2020 State of the Cloud report, 57% of organisations surveyed plan to increase their cloud usage due to Covid-19.

The agility and speed of the cloud has made sure businesses can keep running and cope with any uplift in activity. As a result, this will hopefully convert many to the point they are now considering other areas of their business which could benefit from the cloud.

This was no different at Brightsolid. However, I am proud of how we have weathered the crisis and we are positive about what the future holds.

This seems to be the case with many of our customers too and while we expected them to place projects on hold, the opposite is true, and instead they are expediting digital transformation projects. While more broadly, there are still (at time of writing) a lot of unknowns about how exactly the economy will recover and indeed when that might be, we do know that as the saying goes “it will take a village” to achieve this. The community spirit and connectivity in our personal lives has most definitely seeped into our professional ones.

Initiatives like Scottish Business Cares, with its many valuable webinars, have demonstrated how collaboration will certainly contribute to our recovery. This community has united to create a close-knit network where challenges have been posed and ideas on how to resolve these have been shared.

But I do believe more could be done here. To truly see business recovery and guarantee technology provides that guiding light, we need Scottish technology companies to connect and work closer with businesses than they ever have before.

When companies feel pushed to accelerate to adopt technology at a pace, critical mistakes can be made. It then becomes the role of the tech sector in Scotland to step up to share their knowledge, experience and ideas to benefit as broad a spectrum of businesses as they possibly can to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Yes, technology enables the connectivity we need for now and the future; but it is people working together that will create our collective future success.

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so you don’t notice it

KEY: Technology enables the connectivity we need for now and the future, but it is people working together that will create our collective future success