“Overall, working from home and going truly digital has been a pleasantly successful exercise for our organisation”, expressed Ahmed Fraz, Group CEO, Wavetec, during an exclusive Q&A session with our editor in Chief while sharing his insights on the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the global financial landscape.
1. How is COVID-19 impacting operations? And how is your institution reacting?
A vast majority of our clients have been classified as essential service providers by various governments across the globe, hence they are open during these uncertain times. This includes clients from healthcare, banking and government institutions, therefore, we also have to be operationally mobilized. Our online customer support services are functional 24/7 with a dedicated team of customer support engineers working from their homes day and night providing support services to our clients across the globe.
Similarly our product development and sales teams are also fully functional, working from home, modifying current solutions, developing new features and products that meet present day safety requirements and the challenges posed by COVID-19. Our sales staff is constantly interacting with our clients by various online video meeting platforms.
Big challenge that we have faced is on our Manufacturing & Supply Chain / Logistics side. Shutdowns faced by our various vendors spread over half a dozen countries have hampered our manufacturing process which is being conducted under strict government & health official guidelines and SOPs.
2. What measures have you taken to ensure lower health risks for your employees and do you think working remotely can be a new norm?
Our staff is our biggest asset. Our HR has developed a special Work Policy for these uncertain times which is in-line with local & international government & health official guidelines. Masks, sanitisers, health tips, WFH & proper coaching of the staff are some of the measures taken by us.
Also by giving job & salary security to our staff has reduced their anxiety and increased their dedication and productivity.
Since global lockdowns were initiated in March, we have been successfully following work from home policy which has worked well for us and also for our clients. Even amidst a global crisis, we are witnessing greater productivity and higher job satisfaction. This can only be possible if proper systems are in place. Organisations with strong HR & control systems will be able to run the WFH program effectively.
Wavetec Response to Covid-19
3. How are you helping partners and customers cope with this crisis?
We have launched a series of solutions to enable social distancing and ensuring occupancy levels are maintained. These solutions are an extension of our existing products, developed to be truly touchless.
Wavetec’s SafeQ solution suite offers touchless Virtual Queuing, Online Appointments & People Counting products to our customers. Our solutions have been carefully designed to disseminate information via smartphones, integrating with applications like WhatsApp.
We are working very closely with our clients, listening to their needs and providing them with solutions in-line with government & healthcare guidelines for the New Normal. Successful businesses are those who never seize to innovate!
4. Do you believe this crisis is offering opportunities for digital business such as yourself and what steps have been taken to make sure you are on top of everything?
Yes definitely! Up until a few months back, adoption of digital solutions was the strategy of the future. Then COVID-19 took us by surprise! As a result, businesses across myriad industries — government, retail, banking, telecom, health, and education among several others — have turned to digital tools to support this new way of working.
Businesses are now re-evaluating how to deliver quality customer experiences during and post COVID-19 and how digital channels can be used to support the increase in customer footfall.
Occupancy limits, social distancing and self-service is the new normal. Our solutions are developed based on the premise “NEW NORMAL” ensuring smooth customer service, positive brand perception and customer loyalty.
5. Do you think the future is completely digital or human touch will remain necessary for the masses?
Human touch can never be replaced, digital brings in efficiency and reduces certain risks. We will continue to see increased digitization, acceleration of which depends on many factors which include literacy rate, population, government policies etc. Rapid development in Robotics & AI is increasing the acceptability of the digitalisation.
6. How do you think this outbreak of COVID-19 will affect the industry? What will it look like?
Social distancing and occupancy limits is the New Normal. COVID-19 has significantly impacted the technology sector, especially affecting materials supply and value chain electronics. More positively, the disruption has caused an acceleration of remote working, and a rapid focus on digitization! Moreover, reduction in carbon emissions might result in a focus on sustainability. Every cloud has a silver lining, Corona Pandemic has given us some pain but also has taught us many positive lessons, hopefully moving forward, we will learn, remember and improve our lives.
