{"id":9497,"date":"2020-06-12T06:03:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T06:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eu.syspro.com\/blog\/coming-out-of-lockdown-the-corona-opportunity\/"},"modified":"2021-03-04T14:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T14:51:02","slug":"coming-out-of-lockdown-the-corona-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eu.syspro.com\/blog\/erp-and-technology\/coming-out-of-lockdown-the-corona-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming out of Lockdown – The Corona Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
Now that we\u2019re\u00a0slowly \u201ccoming out\u201d of lockdown, <\/strong>what is the Brave New World we find ourselves in?<\/div>\n

Will lockdown-learning fuel change or will we soldier on wearing a blindfold instead of a face mask. What changes will last and what opportunities will we grasp?<\/p>\n

People interaction \u2013 the pros and the cons<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Working from home (WFH) with remote comms now familiar and proving effective, but 2 months on and realizing the need for social without the distancing, we seek meeting rooms with 3D people rather than Teams meetings with 2D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Internet use broke down the walls for good and enabled a new balance of blended workspaces. We learned most people are disciplined, working with less supervision \u2013 self-managing their time and tasks to fit personal or family chores in too. In future, the WFH fortunate will add some visits to the office as well. And not just IT or service staff but channel partners and customers too. Manufacturing planning and scheduling, inventory management, financial admin, and many other roles can be location independent. This has implications for access to business systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP).<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And isn\u2019t it amazing how I can\u2019t \u201csee\u201d what you\u2019re saying when you\u2019re wearing a mask \u2013 because we use more than body language when talking, we need to see and read lips as well.<\/p>\n

Alas, email use increased significantly with lockdown, and now too many people copy the world maybe to show they are working hard, concerned perhaps that businesses may be looking to find out who contributes and who doesn\u2019t, who, without visual supervision slacks off in action and attitude. Positively, most experienced intense working, faster-focused progress, and rapid-fire days.<\/p>\n

The nature of work and the work environment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

WFH has shown office jobs and meetings can be more effective without office distractions and office commuting \u2013 we\u2019ve got used to Social Distancing, become hygiene aware, and more focused on the task at hand.<\/p>\n

MS Teams and Zoom worked best when you knew everyone was stuck at home and easy to \u201cfind\u201d. As we \u201ccome out\u201d new discipline may be required here to keep the effectiveness up.<\/p>\n

Projects became smaller or broken into smaller parts to spread cash flow and manage risk. This will continue as operating costs are kept under control \u2013 less flying and driving to customer sites, releasing valuable time. Face-to-face meeting agendas will be different, focusing on negotiation and relationship, rather than on touching-base and general updates which are more effectively done online.<\/p>\n

Trust has evolved a new dimension. If your hygiene is sloppy, do I trust you to do business? And are your ethics in doubt if your sanitizer is empty when I arrive at your door \u2013 a friendly smile alone doesn\u2019t cut it anymore. Reception: first face of our business to customers and also now first line of defense for health and safety. It differentiates you.<\/p>\n

Then with Increased and reliable WFH, the need for office space will reduce, and a glut of empty buildings and cancelled building projects will result. Plus, we may all lose a bedroom to a home office.<\/p>\n

Supply chains have changed forever<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For SYSPRO, as I am sure for most business system providers, channel partners, and customers, the biggest change we\u2019ll see is in Supply Chain processes and how we must enable them.<\/p>\n

Covid-19 has driven faster response to change \u2013 separating winners from the also-rans pushing more effective sourcing matched to better service from less inventory investment, with shorter supply lead-times. Working within your supply chain replacing critical imports with local supply where possible.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Your ERP and other business systems can no longer just do the basics, you and they are going to have to enable more supply chain collaboration driven by end-consumer visibility, optimized sales fulfillment through appropriate stock-mix and holding, faster more automated processes to enable supply chain response to radical demand change or disruptions like we now experience.<\/p>\n

Lockdown shopping habits propagated huge upstream Supply Chain Whiplash against planned product flow. Take the Grocery Retailer and CPG\/FMCG Supply Chain.<\/p>\n

They were open, it was easy for them. But was it?<\/strong><\/h3>\n