KPMG in Qatar’s recently held seminar on “Accelerating digital transformation in Qatar post-COVID-19”, highlighted key emerging trends in the industry to be explored by companies in the short and medium term.
At the online seminar, experts shared their ideas on digital transformation in Qatar post-COVID-19. KPMG in Qatar’s Partner and Head of Digital Innovation and Advisory Nizar Hneini explained how the sectors are recovering post-COVID-19.
This included the analysis of two dimensions identified by KPMG as: the effects of change and how the economics of business are impacted due to COVID-19 and the speed of recovery during and beyond COVID-19.
The session was organized by KPMG in Qatar to provide viewers with an opportunity to gain insights from the following KPMG panel of experts: Amer Bazerbachi Assistant Director Cybersecurity, Chakib Ouabi Manager Digital Transformation, Devesh Vijay Manager Data and Analytics, El Moustapha Izidbih Manager Infrastructure and Cloud, Nizar Hneini Partner Digital & Innovation Advisory, Monica Sandhu Manager Enterprise Solutions.
During the online session, Hneini shared his insights on the importance of identifying the four types of recovery businesses and organizations have come to face with during the pandemic: hard reset, surge, transform to re-emerge and modified business as usual.
Hneini stated, “Digital transformation has seen several waves, the first one was only focused on touch points with the client. Now we see more push towards operations, supply chain, IT, HR and finance.
The right digital plans should encompass the whole enterprise to deliver the needed results.” Hneini also highlighted the importance of the readiness of digital transformation across various sectors in Qatar and stated, “Digital innovation has been applicable across sectors and businesses. This trend will continue to extend in the post-COVID-19 period with more and more services being available online for customers to use. For example, in the real estate sector an increasing number of companies are offering online virtual visits to their customers. In the financial sector, we can see an extension of new online services such as mortgage and loan applications especially with the new Qatar Fintech hub.”
During the online session, panelists explained the three trends expected to be explored by companies in the short and medium term: First that companies should be looking at reviewing and prioritizing customer journeys across all relevant touch points in order to align with a customer centric strategy, the new digital reality and changing customer base.
Second, organizations across sector should be looking at deploying selfservice solutions and AI base virtual assistants to improve the efficiency of the IT help desk. Third, implement, review or add more flexibility to their customer retention and loyalty strategy, especially in some industries where customers are more inclined to compare service providers.
The panelists concluded that this pandemic will result in a huge transformation in the way organizations communicate, do business and interact with suppliers, regulators and other third parties.
