Foreward by Andrew Chilvers
Businesses across the world are undergoing the biggest remote working experiment since Europeans first sailed from their home ports to set up trading posts in Asia 500 years ago.
This time around, however, companies are moving colleagues out of their plush city centre locations to set up offices at home. What was unthinkable only a few months ago is now the new modus operandi for professional services firms and their clients. Crisis management and business continuity have indeed come of age thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All this may be difficult for businesses that prefer traditional ways of operating, but most are changing their habits of a lifetime out of necessity. The old adage of preparing for the worst while expecting the best has never been more apt.
Will the professional service business model change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Change usually comes from necessity or disruption. While the world has seen creative disruption in the past decade with technology and internet start-ups, urgent change deriving from strong necessity was rare. That was until COVID-19. The outbreak marked a new era for teleworking. Businesses are now aware that teleworking ‘works’ and that they can do without renting prime locations in cities.
Many businesses that would not have otherwise tried teleworking are now transitioning to a new way of doing business. For instance, most, if not all, call centres service their clients in remote working environments, which would be considered inconceivable in the past. The crisis proved in real-time that with adequate technological infrastructure and digital literacy among employees, any business can migrate its processes to the online world. It also showed that the transition is not as hard as it looks and that it can even happen instantaneously with the right motivation.
Remote working will undoubtedly be more mainstream after this crisis. It used to be considered by many businesses and employees as a fringe benefit, but the perception is likely to change now. Remote working might become the new “normal.” COVID-19 pushed business to their boundaries and made them notice the alternative models of employment, which, as a bonus, provide more flexibility and reduce costs. Further, businesses are now more prepared and better equipped for remote working, meaning the remote working trend may continue after the crisis. Employees are also more familiar with remote working now, as their workplace and home have become one and the same.
In the remote working era, the key differentiator among professional services firms will continue to be their people, but the focus will be more on digital skills. Businesses should accelerate efforts to build key digital skills, capacity, and efficiencies to build and sustain their reputation as “top tier.”
Remote working is being seen as the new normal, how will this affect the culture of professional services firms?
Remote working constitutes a major threat to businesses adopting traditional ways and rejecting innovation in work processes (i.e. businesses with conservative company culture). If these businesses do not welcome new technologies, they might not be able to survive while remote working is becoming the new norm and other firms reduce their costs and increase their efficiency. Those who never invested in digital skills training, online collaboration, and technology infrastructure in the past will struggle to overcome this crisis as it would be difficult to allocate funds to these now.
On the other hand, remote working is an opportunity for businesses that built the capacity to welcome change and new norms into their work processes. The businesses that were able to instantaneously transition into an online servicing model and avoid any interruption in their service have already scored several points with their clients. Moreover, businesses that were able to maximise the benefits of remote working by reducing costs, increasing efficiency and allowing flexibility have gained a significant competitive advantage.
Firms that turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for digital transformation will be able to showcase their innovative side to their clients, changing the view that professional services firms are traditionally conservative. This will certainly have an impact on client relations and future work processes. It is reasonable to expect an accelerated adoption of ‘smart work,’ which means utilising remote working, reducing travels and meetings and increasing the efficiency of processes in general.
With so many people now working from home using unsecure internet networks, should there be updated rules for data protection compliance? If so, should they be more relaxed given the crisis wrought by the pandemic?
Privacy and data protection are fundamental rights enshrined in the Turkish Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. However, they are not absolute rights and can be limited under certain conditions. The key issue is to determine such conditions that would justify a limitation. Under the current circumstances, processing of personal data in the fight against the pandemic is generally allowed under Turkish law. But this does not mean that healthcare trumps data privacy and data protection obligations are suspended during the pandemic. Businesses should carefully consider the general principles under the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) such as proportionality and transparency in their efforts to fight the coronavirus. Processing of health data is a particularly sensitive subject and as a principle businesses should always prefer less intrusive methods, where possible.
Considering the fundamental nature of the right to privacy and data protection, regulations protecting these rights should not be relaxed due to the COVID-19 crisis. But data protection authorities should also act reasonably. Leaving personal data vulnerable in a remote working arrangement cannot be tolerated. However, deploying cybersecurity measures in such a remote working environment naturally takes time. Therefore, the crisis wrought by the pandemic should not eliminate the possibility of fines, but they might have extenuating effect in the determination of the fine amounts within the legally defined limits.
COVID-19 has also reinforced the importance of cloud computing in ensuring business continuity. Businesses utilising the cloud were able to access and manage their corporate data remotely, while most on-prem systems required the use of additional remote access software, which raise many security concerns. It is reasonable to expect business to accelerate their digital transformation projects as well as increase their reliance on the cloud during and after the crisis.
