Plan for an impact on the way companies approach large industry events in future. Over the past decade, several large companies such as Nintendo, Oculus, Samsung, and Sony PlayStation have established “direct“ digital connection with consumers, and now other companies are having to adopt this strategy, at least temporarily. It remains to be seen what permanent impact this could have on future events: the relative success (or failure) of their direct approach will determine what companies’ event strategies look like for 2021 and beyond.

Diversify supply chains geographically to be shielded from adverse events. Many non-Chinese vendors are reliant on chipsets or specific hardware that comes only from China or certain other markets. Likewise, Chinese vendors should consider strategically expanding manufacturing premises, either outside the country or within China, to future-proof against adverse events that affect one particular geography.

Virtualization of hardware has been a niche in the vendor space; this is the time for wider experimentation. Vendors should future-proof themselves against the shift to cloud by bringing virtualization expertise in-house. As hardware become more vulnerable to supply reductions, cloud technology can step in to substitute, and even replace, hardware.

Increase R&D around broadband quality of experience and smart devices. The world has suddenly woken up to the fact that it needs to be prepared for global incidents such as the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increased focus and new investment in smart home and digital media applications. Vendors should be ready to meet this new demand.

Communications vendors should focus on providing platforms and services that connect, inform, and entertain people. These platforms and services could include video calling and conferencing, emergency broadcasts, public service broadcasts, or content sharing.

To roll out services quickly in affected countries, communications vendors should harness the power of the cloud. COVID-19 is spreading globally but unpredictably. Providing a cloud-based service will help communications vendors meet the needs of their telco and service provider customers more quickly.

Technology vendors and consumer tech players should open up their AI smarts to help the fight against COVID-19. The leading players in this space (e.g., Google, Baidu, Alibaba, IBM, Cisco) have world-class AI technology and expertise, and they should make that available to governments, scientists, and the medical community at no charge to help them fight COVID-19. This has the potential to help society at large in a way that reflects well on those tech players that take this action.

Show how your technology can help B2B/2C players through the crisis. Service providers of all kinds, and commerce players in particular, need technology solutions and tools that can help their business and customers. Key solutions will include tools to better manage strained logistics and deliveries, flexible payment solutions, enhanced security tools, and technology that enhances the shopping experience (e.g., AR, voice commerce, chatbots, video).