COVID-19 has pushed software developer output and assertive product advancement to new levels. While many developers already had streamlined strategies in place for the creation of new products, the pandemic really put their agility to the test as they scrambled to enable mass remote working not only for their clients, but for their own employees.
To stay ahead of the curve and react efficiently to changes in the market, it’s not enough to be fast. You also have to be flexible, reliable, and consistent. We’ve seen massive global changes over the last eight months, and software companies have been forced to speed up their roadmaps to meet the sudden need for tools for remote working, remote service delivery, and business continuity.
One thing that hasn’t been a worry is uptake. These tools have been snapped up immediately, years of demand condensed into months. Wherever possible, software developers have made remote working applications top priority and rushed the most useful features into production, in some cases even giving them away for free temporarily to help clients stay connected and provide their customers with online services like telehealth, fitness, finance, and e-learning.
However, the drastic uptick in uptake called for some serious scaling, with demand and traffic more than doubling in many cases. Cloud-native software has proved a boon in handling this flood of customers and their urgent needs to create virtual work environments and customer service centres, sometimes overnight.
Partnering with other companies, as well as sales, implementation and engineering teams in the field, has also been vital in providing feedback on new products, upgrades, and priorities for the future.
The cloud’s biggest advantage is its resiliency, also known as elasticity. Software companies that were already cloud-enabled have had an easier time in transitioning to remote work thanks to cloud-based platforms for both internal and external communications. But now they have to consider the transition back to work.
The “new normal” post-COVID is likely to involve hybrid working, a cross between remote and onsite work. Our way of working has changed for good, and is likely to remain distributed – although highly connected through new and better software.