The Corona crisis has thrown the corporate world into a complete mess / This will also impact businesses in 2021
Cupertino, December 7, 2020 – The year 2020, which was strongly influenced by the Corona crisis, is coming to an end. Now, it is time to look the trends of 2021 in the eye. The experts at OTRS Group are certain that the following will be lastingly shaped by the changed world of the Corona crisis.
These are the six trends for 2021, compiled by OTRS Group.
1. Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is no longer just a buzzword. It is clear that all organizations – be they government agencies, schools or businesses – can no longer avoid digital transformation. The Corona crisis has revealed just how badly digitalization really is going throughout the world. According to the OTRS Group study in June 2019, only 14 percent of United States companies surveyed had completely completed their digital transformation. Only organizations that make further progress in this area will be able to be successful in 2021.
2. Customer Service – the customer is and remains king
Customer contact has changed completely, as personal contact is largely eliminated today. This makes it all the more important that companies continue to show their customers that they are king. Now, appreciation and customer loyalty should stand in the foreground, and the sales aspect should be shifted to second place. With innovative automated tools that enable contact to be made via different channels, such as email, telephone and social media, the customer relationship should be nurtured even during contact suspensions.
3. ITSM – also mobile
In the future, more and more people will work from home. This also means that employees in their own homes will generally not have IT support on site. So if technical problems occur, a loss of productivity can quickly result — unless the companies have provided a remote help desk. Here’s a step-by-step plan to find the best possible remote ITSM solution.
4. Cloud software – increasingly in demand in the home office
The biggest advantage of the cloud in times of Corona is that employees can easily access the systems and files in the cloud – whether they work from home, the office or on the road. This makes things a lot easier and the mood in the home office increases enormously. Team collaboration also works best with communication tools in the cloud.
5. Leadership – new leadership skills are needed
Even before the pandemic there was a trend towards remote working. This trend has now been further intensified; in Germany, there is even a law proposing that home office usage become a right. In order to be able to lead teams from different locations, managers are required to have completely different skills than was the case just a few years ago, for example. Keywords such as work-life balance and mental health are becoming increasingly important. Addressing these requires emotional intelligence, empathy and flexibility. There is no way around introducing a remote working corporate culture.
6. Diversity
Meanwhile, the assumption that diverse teams deliver better results than heterogeneous teams has become accepted. In parallel, more and more companies are intentionally seeking candidates from a wide variety of lifestyles and demographics to create such teams. Companies should not ignore this development and should quickly check the status of their diversity strategy.
“The Corona crisis has shown us that it is not enough to just think about topics,” says Sabine Riedel, member of the board at OTRS Group and expert for digital transformation. “Although the trends for 2021 are by no means new, it is now important to turn words into action and adapt IT, corporate structure and culture to the changed conditions.”
About OTRS AG
OTRS Group is the manufacturer and the world’s largest provider of the service management suite OTRS, awarded with the SERVIEW CERTIFIED TOOL seal of approval.
It offers flexible solutions for process and communication management to companies of all sizes, saving them time and money. Among its customers are Lufthansa, Airbus, IBM, Porsche, Siemens, BSI (Federal Office for Security in Information Technology), Max Planck Institute, Toyota, Hapag Lloyd and Banco do Brazil (Bank of Brazil). OTRS is available in 40 languages. The company consists of OTRS AG and its six subsidiaries OTRS Inc. (USA), OTRS S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), OTRS Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), OTRS Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong), OTRS do Brasil Soluções Ltda. (Brazil) and OTRS Magyarország Kft. (Hungary). OTRS AG is listed on the basic board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. For more information, see www.otrs.com.