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Summary
- The rapidly spreading Coronavirus has prompted technology companies to encourage remote working for employees, signalling a new era in the future of work
- Conglomerates such as Twitter, Cisco, Oracle, and others have made ‘work from home’ a mandatory policy during the Coronavirus pandemic
- Teleconferencing companies such as Zoom strategically shifted from a high-tech favoured product to a mainstream tool for students, families, governments, and companies of all sizes
The corporate world had several reasons to panic in the wake of the deadly Coronavirus outbreak. The unprecedented human tragedy is having a growing impact on the global economy, thereby hampering the functioning of several sectors, including technology, aviation, automotive, pharmaceuticals, banking, consumer electronics, travel and tourism, among others.
The Covid-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the technology sector, affecting raw materials supply, disrupting the electronics value chain, and causing an inflationary risk on products. However, looking at the positive side, the disruption has caused an acceleration of remote working, and a rapid focus on evaluating and de-risking the end-to-end value chain. Also, the potential reductions in carbon emission could result in a renewed focus on sustainability practices.
Paradigm Shift in the Working Conditions
The rapidly spreading Coronavirus has prompted technology companies to encourage remote working for employees, signalling a new era in the future of work. Giant corporations, as well as small businesses, were agile enough to adapt to ‘work from home’ culture, during the onset of the pandemic, showcasing a human side by ensuring the well-being of their staffs through such proactive measures. Conglomerates such as Twitter, Cisco, Oracle, and others have made ‘work from home’ a mandatory policy during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Teleconferencing companies such as Zoom strategically shifted from a high-tech favoured product to a mainstream tool for students, families, governments, and companies of all sizes. Wall Street traders and other firms prepared for remote trading by quickly setting up special video conferencing setups to run all day. And it wasn’t just limited to the private sector, even the UK Prime Minister and the Pentagon turned to Zoom to make remote work possible during the difficult times of global crisis.
It has been in the news recently for witnessing an explosive growth in 2020, fuelled by the increase in remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has made as much money in the past three months as in all of 2019, beating analysts’ already optimistic predictions. The company reported the adjusted earnings of $0.92 per share, above the expected $0.45 per share. Its revenue surged 355 per cent from the same period last year to $663.5 million, above analysts’ average estimate of $500.5 million.
As per the report, the video conferencing platform also saw an increase in the number of paying customers this quarter, which was up about 458 per cent from the same quarter last year, with around 370,200 customers.
The company’s shares rose 9 per cent on 31 August 2020, having nearly quadrupled this year.
Positive Impact of Remote Working- Room for Innovative Opportunities
Despite the chaos created by the Covid-19, new business opportunities for the global tech sector seemed imminent, focusing on potential revenue opportunities by adopting a two-fold approach.
First of all, since the business leaders are focusing on technological solutions to the crisis more than ever, technology has emerged as a critical tool for both living and working. Besides collaboration tools that aid remote working, are also seeing a spike in demand.
Secondly, the time is ripe for tech companies to crank up the innovation game. Suddenly, there are swathes of opportunities that have emerged. There will be a massive disruption in the way the post-Coronavirus tech scenario will emerge. Hence, technology companies are focusing on full-blown innovation to leapfrog into the post Coronavirus economy.
Negative Impact of Remote Working- Heightened Cyber Crime
With more people working from home, a new challenge arises in the form of cybersecurity breaches and malware attacks. Cybercriminals disguised as alarming Covid-19 news reports have also been reported, targeting the global workforce with phishing emails containing malicious software. According to cybersecurity firms, bank employees should be vigilant about such attacks that hack into the system to carry out data thefts.
Let’s have a look at how the FTSE AIM technology stocks been doing during the Covid-19 crisis:
Dotdigital Group PLC
Dotdigital Group PLC (LON:DOTD) on 1 September 2020, was trading at GBX 140.34 as at 12:56 PM, down by 0.81 per cent from its previous close of GBX 141.50. The 52 weeks low/high range was reported at GBX 71.00/141.50. It was having a market capitalisation (Mcap) of £421.51 million. The daily traded volume was 89,958. The company delivered a positive return on the price of 42.21 per cent on a YTD basis.
GB Group PLC
GB Group PLC (LON:GBG) on 1 September 2020, was trading at GBX 727.00 as at 1:04 PM, down by 0.41 per cent from its previous close of GBX 730.00. The 52 weeks low/high range was reported at GBX 474.00/800.00. It was having a market capitalisation (Mcap) of £1,423.68 million. The daily traded volume was 49,141. The company delivered a negative return on the price of 8.64 per cent on a YTD basis.
Keywords Studios PLC
Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS) on 1 September 2020, was trading at GBX 2,238.00 as at 1:06 PM, up by 1.82 per cent from its previous close of GBX 2,198.00. The 52 weeks low/high range was reported at GBX 1,073.00/2,250.00. It was having a market capitalisation (Mcap) of £1,623.56 million. The daily traded volume was 92,490. The company delivered a positive return on the price of 41.62 per cent on a YTD basis.
Conclusion
Experts believe that remote working affords the tech sector an opportunity to reshape and reassess how organisations’ can better invest in their employees. Well, the lethal virus could be a game-changer and shift the narrative to embracing a new work culture that is anchored in global connectivity.
