The last year has brought a lot of change. In some cases, wanted. In others, not as welcome. But without a shadow of a doubt, it has brought change to our work lives. Either in its consistency and availability, the format in which we conduct it, the location it takes place in, or – the closest to home for us at Davinci Technology – the tools we use to complete it.

One of the most impressive things to us has been watching multiple industries take not just steps but leaps forward with technology to allow them to continue conducting business as normal with a remote work force. For a lot of organizations, this was not something they were prepared to do prior to the pandemic for various reasons. Reasons like board or executive buy in, cost validation, hesitation from their workforce, or even just dislike for change all stand out as ones I have heard. All these reasons might have been valid prior to the pandemic, but the change in landscape required a monumental shift in workflows that inspired a new way of thinking.

Suddenly, some of these barriers became irrelevant with this new perspective. If these changes were not made standard, business operations could cease entirely. And so began some of the most aggressive technology rollouts I have ever seen on sheer necessity. Not only has the technology provided an ability to work more flexibly or remotely, but it has also provided new ways to accomplish tasks, collaborate on projects, or deliver products or services. In some cases, it forces businesses to shift to more online models which opens them up to a national or global markets beyond their original local effort. While these changes were painful at first, and probably made reluctantly, many of the newly developed workflows through the pandemic are here to stay, whether an organization continues to provide work from home as an option to their staff or not. What’s more, executive teams and boards have seen that these products and services can have dramatic impact on their organizations in drastically shorter timelines that they probably believe a decade earlier. They have seen firsthand that technology can drive their organizations in ways they never had before.

I say all of this with full understanding that some organizations have been operating this way for quite some time. The retired CEO of Starbucks, Howard Shultz is famous for the insight that Starbucks saw a monumental shift in their business when they started treating Starbucks as a technology company, not a coffee company. I believe there are many other great leaders out there who hold this belief about their own organizations. My belief is that this pandemic and the seismic shifts it has had on industries and organizations with regards to operations, delivery, and workflows has opened people’s eyes to the potential and flexibility that technology brings.

This type of progress is not new. We as a society have undergone shifts like this throughout other various stages of civilization. While I’m not going to say this shift in technology is truly akin to the advent of fire, the idea that the way groups of people work together changed after that liminal moment in history is something I am willing to stand by. Or how World War II inspired leaders of the world to band together differently than before and relaunch the global partnership initiative as the United Nations, inspiring collaboration, communication, and shared resources in a new way.

These shifts have happened on smaller scales too; in a YouTube video posted by Veritasium – a science and technology channel focused on teaching about various S.T.E.M. topics and fundamentals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMlf1ELvRzc) –  about how Isaac Newton made the irrational number Pi fundamentally more accurate and easier to calculate, he breaks down in detail the way Newton constructed this solution in a completely new way that made previous methods both inaccurate, and incredibly timely. The previous method was antiquated immediately. Veritasium also discusses in the video how the invention of the crane made the ladder obsolete in the construction of buildings. Abruptly, we as humanity could construct hundred story buildings, whereas someone with a ladder was still limited to roughly five.

I prefer the crane and ladder example for our current situation. A ladder is not obsolete in its entirety today, but it is when trying to construct large buildings. I feel this analogy will persist in our era regarding technology advancement. Technology will continue to shift organizations and change the way entire industries conduct business. However, I am hopeful companies like Bugatti will continue to make handmade cars. Or carpenters will continue to construct beautiful custom cabinetry while the general industry shifts to more manufactured products. And Rolex will continue assembling their time pieces by hand rather than the assembly lines of others.

All this to be said progress occurs in various ways; sometimes by visionaries setting sights on ambitious targets and other times, out of necessity. Either way it will occur.

Through the pandemic we’ve experienced it together as a global humanity and many of the progresses we have gained because of it are here to stay. We at Davinci Technology Solutions are excited about this newfound enlightenment. It is the type of invigoration we have been experiencing with customers for years and will continue delivering for years to come. While I would never wish the hardships, this pandemic has put on our economies and lives upon my greatest enemy, this shift in thinking and technological progress within the industry is welcomed progress that cannot be ignored.

If your organization has not experienced this type of reinvigoration through technology, please reach out to us. We are eager and excited to bring this level of progress to your organization and teams.