The coronavirus crisis is speeding up change in how we all run our businesses.

A report by UK Tech News (uktechnews.co.uk) shows that business leaders are realising that digital transformation (DX) is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It’s essential. Without it they could risk damaging their business and their customer relationships permanently. Where business leaders once kicked transformation projects into the long grass, this global crisis has prompted leaders to pounce, not just for the post-pandemic future, but for a new way of operating today.

US software company,  Pega, found that 91% of global business decision makers admitted they must change to survive in a post-crisis world because the pandemic has left them exposed. Almost three quarters (74%) of survey respondents said the current crisis has exposed more gaps in their business operations and systems than anticipated, with just 6% reporting that they saw no gaps in their existing systems during the crisis.

Almost two-thirds (62%) of survey respondents said they plan to raise the priority level of digital transformation within their organisation, 58% will increase the speed of existing DX projects, and 56% will boost the overall level of investment in DX projects, underscoring the extent this crisis has had on DX planning.

One of the biggest issues organisations have suffered from during the pandemic is effectively communicating with customers. After all, in an unprecedented situation, it can be difficult to know what to say and even what not to say.

Getting communications wrong can destroy a customers’ trust – not just in the short-term, but over the long-term as well. More than a third (36%) of respondents say they have lost customers during the pandemic due to failed communication, while a similar number (37%) admitted to communicating at least one message to customers that was badly received and damaged their brand. And more than half (54%) of respondents admitted they should have done more to help customers during the crisis.

Business leaders indicated that the top three most popular DX projects needed to prepare for future crises were: cloud-based systems (48%), CRM (41%), and AI-driven analytics and decisioning (37%).