The coronavirus pandemic is a humanitarian crisis that continues to take a tragic toll on people’s lives. There’s no denying it is also acting as a catalyst for change on a scale not seen before.
The scale of the change and the speed at which it’s happening is shining a light on the fact that companies are facing a once-in-a-generation shift. And for all the uncertainty about what the future will look like, it’s clear already that it will be digital.
EVOTEQ is a UAE-based solutions provider that champions technological innovations and digital transformation across the region. As the COVID-19 crisis is likely to significantly accelerate the shift to digital, the company is on-hand finding innovative ways to add value for their clients.
Telecom Review spoke with Sultan Salim Al Owais, Managing Director of Special Projects, as he tells us about how EVOTEQ is taking decisive action to ensure their customers’ needs are met, and that when the crisis ends, they’ll emerge stronger than ever.
How has COVID-19 affected your business and how are you managing to overcome the difficult situation?
COVID-19 has undoubtedly had an unfortunate impact on human lives around the world and also fundamentally changing the way we work and how businesses operate. In response to the challenges presented, we have set ourselves the task of finding new, innovative ways to add value for our customers and create meaningful opportunities. This has included offering contactless IoT technologies, including thermal cameras and facial recognition systems, to curb the spread of the disease while ensuring workplace safety and security, and helping clients manage remote work arrangements with the necessary digital tools and platforms.
As people disperse to their homes to work, how is EVOTEQ adapting to customers’ needs at this time?
One approach to adapting to our customers’ needs has been to provide the necessary digital applications and solutions needed to seamlessly shift to remote working. This means ensuring that employees can access company platforms and services remotely, and having the right customer relationship management solution for both employees and customers to communicate. We are encouraging clients to assess and fortify their digital infrastructure to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances. Through a survey and consultation, we help organizations assess their digital readiness, highlighting the gaps in order to work on improving their capabilities and efficiencies and contribute to robust business continuity plans.
The pandemic has underlined the criticality of telecom infrastructure. What part is EVOTEQ playing to keep these vital communication channels running?
During this time, EVOTEQ has been a strong advocate for broader Unified Communications (UC) technology, which utilizes integrated video, voice and data in one product. We have been highlighting the importance of best-in-class platforms to our customers and stakeholders and will continue to push for companies to invest in advanced IT infrastructure to stay competitive and improve the experience for both employees and their own customers.
The crisis has accelerated the uptake of digital solutions, tools and services, speeding up the global transition towards a digital economy. Do you expect this to have a lasting effect?
I do anticipate that many of the changes we have seen will become permanent in nature. A lot of the new contactless technologies and solutions that enable long-distance contact including e-payments, online retail, telehealth and distance learning have immense benefits including being low-cost and more convenient.
It is also clear that given the economic and societal impact of COVID-19, businesses will increasingly ask – what can we do differently, and how can technology help us? The current use of 3D printing, AI, IoT, robots, drones and more have proven that technology has significant benefits for businesses and society.
Another area we can also expect to see an accelerated shift to digitalization is through smart buildings. For example, our work on smart buildings with different customers is now being extended to frictionless services like facial recognition cameras for attendance systems, heat detection cameras for temperature and fever scanning, and many other contactless services.
