In recent years, however, the IT service area has increasingly been transformed into a business (also) has become a key area, and following the outbreak of the COVID epidemic, this process has accelerated dramatically.

Customer-friendly apps

A few years ago, even the biggest companies were still saying that it would be nice to have a website, but a Facebook page wouldn't hurt either. Many have stopped there. Then, when the possibility of personal contact with customers was removed, it became a big problem. 

Although a process of "doing our business electronically" has been underway for some time, some say, what has now happened in this area in six months would not have happened in 10 years without an epidemic. Where IT is not moving or has already moved into digital transformation, full operation becomes impossible.

Digital channels have become a priority...

CRM

If we can only meet our customers and each other in the digital space, we can no longer build on our already uncertain impressions. Instead, we can measure their preferences, opinions and choices. 

IT therefore has a much greater responsibility to gather this information and provide valuable advice to business areas.

You can have it all

The worldwide shutdowns have put business decision-makers in a situation where digitisation measures that were previously only planned or envisaged have become unavoidable. Radical new changes such as automation of human processes, remote control, elimination of paper-based data capture and approval were needed. 

Who else can do all this but the IT department?

Decentralised working

We know that the Internet cannot be shut down because it is decentralised. If one server goes down, there are hundreds of others. 

Companies had to realise very quickly how outdated and how apparent is the notion that walls are (information) security. Because once the virus hits the billing department, it's in the warehouse within two days... That's why big US companies were buying thousands of laptops a day when the outbreak hit. Because they had no choice.

To the cloud!

As can be seen above, the pandemic has radically transformed and increased the responsibilities of the IT areas. However, this transformation is well supported by the increasingly secure and cheaper cloud-based service providers, which are still strongly resisted in Hungary, but in order for IT to be able to deal with business more, it has to let go of what it does not have to.

The key question is, of course, whether how can a win-win situation be built in the "digitalisation leap forward"? How will the teleworker, the client and the decision-maker be motivated and satisfied? 

With all players "squeezed" or "fleeing" into the digital space, the responsibility of IT managers in creating a brave new world has increased by orders of magnitude. 

At the same time, business areas can no longer view IT in the same way as before.