Resilient Digital Transformation Amid Global Pandemic


Written by Enzo Luna

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace. Industries are transforming as organizations adopt new technologies including artificial Intelligence, 5G, IoT and more. At the foundation of this transformation is always-on digital infrastructure requiring organizations to be resilient and agile in responding with innovations.

The virtual Innovation Day: Resilient Digital Transformation 2020 featured thought leaders, recognized industry visionaries, partners, and experts who explained in their presentations and discover how together we can address challenges and build a sustainable future in a new electric world. One that is enabled through connected and sustainable data centres… in the cloud, and at the edge.

Omar Hatamleh, Innovation Expert, Author and International Keynote Speaker, talks about the future and the scope of Artifical Intelligence (AI) in the business and IT industry through his presentation: A Future of Innovation & Strategic Transformation.

Hatamleh said that AI enables bridging the gap between academic institutions and industries, and how AI now crosses into several industries such as: legal, finance, medicine, engineering, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, defense, and many more.

Digitization is reinventing the way businesses and comsumers produce, distribute, and use energy.

Digital transformation may seem like an expensive prospect, but allowing and embracing digitization, businesses can finally end fragmentation among stakeholders in the planning, design, installation, and commissioning stages.

For example, Schneider helped Dutch water utility Vitens cut deployment time for a digital automation system by 65% and deep in the California desert, Schneider helped Edwards Air Force Base cut energy consumption by 18%.

In his blog, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman & CEO at Schneider Electric, wrote how the current global pandemic changed and transformed corporations and industries and why the need to digitization to greatly save costs while building more capacity and robustness.

“The COVID-19 crisis will transform industry. New circumstances have reinforced the importance of agility, efficiency, and resiliency. Our industries are simultaneously needing to save costs while building more capacity and robustness. To achieve both, there is one solution: digitization. But this is not new to industry. Digital transformation was in motion well before the pandemic hit. During the crisis, those who were fully connected had a significant edge. And those who were not, are now trying to catch up. COVID-19 has been a massive accelerator of digital, reinforced by the core needs of remote everything, resiliency, efficiency, and sustainability.

We must expect everything to become remote. Remote connection and monitoring allow for greater agility, safer working conditions, and higher levels of security. It allows operations to continue without disruption, while abiding by social distancing protocols. During the crisis, many industries experienced scenarios of being unable to send workers to site, leading to operational delays. Unmanned operations allow industry to continue even with reduced physical presence. Augmented reality allows operators to monitor and diagnose machine issues from afar. Virtual reality allows operators to undertake virtual training and visit sites without physically entering them,” wrote Tricoire.