72% of businesses technologically unprepared for shift to remote work

Dive Brief:

In a global businesses survey commissioned by Xerox, an estimated 82% of respondents said their organizations will have returned to the workplace from remote operations in 12-18 months' time, on average. And 72% of respondents said they were not fully prepared, from a technology perspective, for the sudden transition to remote work, in the first place.
According to the survey, 34% if respondents said they were planning to speed their digital transformation as a result of COVID-19. The top three areas for increased IT spending are cloud-based software, remote IT support and collaboration software, according to surveyed executives.
As businesses prioritize sustaining operations, tech budgets are set to increase at 56% of surveyed companies. More than half (55%) of leaders say they're prioritizing tech spending on remote technology resources. Another 40% say their budget will focus on a mix of remote and in-office resources.

Dive Insight:

A return to a pre-pandemic office scenario is a long ways out. But companies are already preparing for phased returns of certain workers with a heavy focus on distributed work whenever possible. Two-thirds of organizations responding to a WorldatWork survey said they will resume in-office operations by the end of the summer, if they haven’t already.

But fleets have adapted to social distancing and embraced processes for the most part. U.S. Xpress adjusted orientation classes, which usually host about 30 people a day, by spreading them out over the week to increase social distancing. A number of other classes were shifted online, Matt Herndon, the company's COO, told Transport Dive.

The pandemic has led some companies to spin up chatbots and automated IT support processes to enable staff onboarding, and has encouraged fleets to emphasize safety procedures to new workers. UPS told Transport Dive in April it was stressing safety early in the recruitment process of all employees and customers.

The tech side of the C-suite is also expected to devote resources to supporting contact tracing and other tech tools designed to keep workers safe in a phased office comeback. Mircrosoft and UnitedHealth recently partnered for a smartphone app called ProtectWell, which screens employees for COVID-19 and notifies employers and coworkers. And fleet vendors have stepped up telemedicine offerings, giving workers an option to seek help from medical professionals in short order.

As more industry verticals slowly restart operations, one-third of finance leaders say growth will drive tech spend in the coming 12 months, according to PwC's COVID-19 Pulse Survey.