Takeaways from the International Innovation Summit 2020 | Blog
We recently partnered with the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) for its International Innovation Summit. The conference was a huge success despite prevailing uncertainties, bringing together global experts and leaders from the IT-BPM industry. The sessions were engaging and captured how the IT-BPM sector adapted to the disruptions caused by the pandemic and what lies ahead for the industry.
Here are our key takeaways from the conference.
Success factors for the IT-BPM industry
Organizations’ success will depend on how they capitalize on opportunities arising from the pandemic and how quickly they adapt to the evolving business landscape. In all forms of adversity, there is increased need for reliable leadership that puts people and customers first, and treats profit as an outcome rather than the goal. More than ever, it has become important to co-create with the client and culturally adapt to them.
Reinvent the worker, workplace, and workways
While there’s an immediate and critical need to redesign the worker, workplace, and workways to accommodate the new reality, different organizations are in different places in their comfort and readiness to adjust to the disrupted world. Hence, a single future of work strategy will not be effective for all organizations.
There are, however, some common themes for a successful future of work strategy. It should not be limited to work-from-home (WFH) enablement; it is important to consider the interplay of WFH with other decisions related to work. Organizations need to come up with an integrated approach involving the worker, workplace, and workways to adapt and progress in this dynamic environment.
Accelerate digital transformation and develop the digital workforce
COVID-19 has compelled enterprises to accelerate digitalization. While business transformation is fueled by increased adoption of digital technologies, the success of digital transformation is not rooted in technology.
A successful digital transformation initiative considers multiple factors – fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation, embracing an agile operating model, creating a well-connected and collaborative workplace to enable higher output, among others.
At the core of accelerated digital transformation remains talent and, hence, the importance of future-proofing the workforce with digital skills. Talent will be the key differentiator, as work will follow where there is readily available skilled talent. The new digital era calls for increased focus on upskilling and reskilling, which can only be possible through a multi-stakeholder coalition of government, industry, and academia.
Rethink business resiliency
Every business and organization is experiencing some degree of pandemic-driven disruption. The crisis has redefined the meaning of Business Continuity Planning (BCP), and organizations need to rethink their BCPs to ensure necessary resilience.
This future resiliency will be characterized by dependability on teams and leaders, creating/fortifying a nerve center that’s enabled and empowered to respond quickly to various situations, enabling organization and delivery structure, and empowering teams on the ground. There’s also an increasing need to become more agile and cooperative with competition and more consultative with clients.
A unified IT-BPM industry forging forward in the Philippines
The Philippines IT-BPM industry has shown resilience amidst the challenges arising from COVID-19. The fact that the industry was allowed to operate even during the Enhanced Community Quarantine – as these services were deemed essential – demonstrates the government’s commitment to the industry.
The Philippines will continue to remain a key destination for services delivery due to cost arbitrage and a steady supply of young and tech-savvy workers. The industry is focusing on enhancing digital capabilities and will focus on upskilling talent – for example, one planned initiative is the National Upskilling and Reskilling program, which intends to upskill one million workers over the next five years.
The country launched the Digital Cities 2025 program to promote countryside development and build IT-BPM sector resiliency. The Philippine telecom providers are working in partnership with the government to mitigate the limitations on the retail telecom infrastructure exposed by the WFH model. And the Philippines will continue to improve its infrastructure to provide a more robust ecosystem for existing and new players.
Overall, the IT-BPM industry in the Philippines is well positioned to deliver services at a large scale due to its large talent supply, strong language proficiency, attractive cost savings, robust ecosystem, and strong government support. The industry also plans to take proactive measures to address some of the challenges exposed by the pandemic. It’ll be interesting to see the developments in one of the leading global locations for IT-BPM services delivery.
Read more about Everest Group’s latest research on the impact of COVID-19 on delivery and location strategies; our perspectives on services delivery from the Philippines; and/or IBPAP.
