New sttudy finds COVID-19 Crisis is highlighting the digital divide

The Covid-19 crisis is highlighting the differences between highly digitized business and others, according to a study recently released by digital consultancy Tivix. The study finds that businesses with poor digital capabilities are seeing the greatest drop in demand for their products or services, while companies with excellent digital capabilities are either seeing demand unaffected or demand increasing.

Only 40% businesses that graded their digital capabilities as excellent saw a decrease in overall demand, with 60% reporting an increase in demand or no change. On the other side of the spectrum, 87% of businesses that rate their digital capabilities as poor reported a decrease in overall business demand to some extent.

With high levels of process digitization and remote work, the tech industry is faring better than many other traditional industries. When asked how the crisis was affecting their teams, one respondent from a large IT enterprise in the midwest said “Not much. If anything this has served as a giant beta test to see if our networks could handle the increase in volume.”

The data highlights that companies who are able to digitize can mitigate some downside of the Covid-19 crisis. “Businesses that have been on a path to digitization prior to the pandemic are at a distinct advantage.” said Tivix CEO, Sumit Chachra. “If not already, now is the time to digitize business processes and look at opportunities for eCommerce offerings.”

TIVIX
Tivix, Inc. is a digital consultancy headquartered in San Francisco, with offices across the US and Europe. Established in 2008, Tivix works with organizations like Apple, UNICEF, Tesla, and Boston Dynamics to help them accelerate software development and innovation initiatives.