A third of businesses are not currently happy with their existing technologies and 74% are looking to improve remote working capabilities; that’s the assessment according to a survey conducted by Digicel Business.

Across the world, businesses have been feeling the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not just a health issue, there have been significant changes in how businesses operate and serve customers. A survey conducted in late 2020 by Digicel Business, targeting senior decision makers or influencers within businesses (ranging from SMEs to public and private sectors organisations) in the Caribbean and the Pacific, explored the impact on business performance, current concerns and future outlook, system improvements made since Covid-19 restrictions and priorities moving forward to improve system resilience.

Covering multiple sectors from six countries in the Caribbean and two in the Pacific regions, there were many similar challenges. From the more than 3,000 respondents, some common concerns included funding challenges, business productivity, cybersecurity threats, and dissatisfaction with remote working technology.

In Jamaica, for example, 21% of businesses are struggling to pay suppliers, 29% are facing difficulties when requesting payments from customers and more than a third of businesses are seeing a 40%+ hit on revenue.

Tom Carson, Digicel Group Chief Business Officer said: “Digicel Business is in the business of providing solutions, but instead of presuming to know what the challenges are, we believe in doing the research to find out firsthand, so that we can address problems directly, and turn these challenges into opportunities for our customers. The result of this is our Covid-19 Business Impact Report and Recovery Guide.”

Disruption from the pandemic has tested system resilience at an unprecedented level and highlighted key shortcomings and vulnerabilities, and despite efforts to improve systems, almost a third of businesses are still not satisfied with their existing technologies, and are looking to make improvements primarily in areas concerned with remote working and process automation.

Of those surveyed, 48% plan to offer staff remote working options after the threat of Covid-19 has passed, so strengthening IT infrastructure resilience will be crucial, and by focusing on flexible workplace; collaboration & communication; business continuity; cyber security and smart technologies, organisations can drive long-term business resilience.

Tom continued: “We believe in listening to our customers and providing them with solutions that meet their needs, this is why we introduced the Digicel Business Hub. Whether serving SMEs, large corporate entities or regional Governments, we partner with the industry-best (Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Fortinet, Dell and IBM) to provide end-to-end fully managed business solutions to improve business efficiencies.”