The Coronavirus-effect on business

The coronavirus seems to be a very infectious, but generally a low-impact infection for most people. What this means is that because most people who are infected are not terribly incapacitated, they are able to keep working. Which in turn means they are much more likely to spread the infection more broadly. People who have a history of health issues, especially involving their lungs are most likely to suffer severely from this virus, and the data so far shows that age is a major factor.

The result of all of this is that a very large number of people are likely to become infected (many without being diagnosed) and a large volume of older, previously sick people are likely to become hospitalized and some of these will potentially die of their resulting symptoms.

1. Schools will inevitably be closed when a case is identified in their community, and this will put pressure on parents.
2. Any place where large numbers of people congregate will consider postponing events, making some business activities difficult.
3. Many companies will consider allowing workers to work from home, and without careful planning may impact productivity.
4. Retailers will see an increase in online shopping resulting in increased business for logistics and shipping system providers.
5. Some specific goods will be in high demand, and demand may outstrip supply.
6. Public transport systems will be considered high risk environments making commuting more costly and difficult.
7. Cruise ships and Airlines will see a decline in passengers, and an increase in costs.
8. Cleaning services will see an increase in demand.
9. Hospitals will see an increase in patient submissions, while there will be issues with staff becoming sick, putting pressure on a limited resource.

This will have a major disruptive impact on the global and local economies. Some areas will see increases while other areas will see decreases.

Pandemics are horrible situations, but the more data we have and the more carefully we can consider our actions and the better we can manage.

• What will you need to do if your business cashflow is affected?
• What can you do to increase the effectiveness of your staff if they have to work from home?
• What actions can you take if a proportion of your staff are quarantined or become sick?

Confirming that your business is able to effectively run under the kind of constraints that a pandemic can bring is an important factor to consider.

Business automation can take a long time to initiate, but when in place can allow for many functions to be controlled remotely, and can allow for business to be resized to deal with macro and micro economic changes, such as an increase in demand for a specific SKU or the slowdown of sales in a territory.

Some types of automation can be quickly deployed, especially those forms that are software driven.

There are a number of tactical decisions you can make today to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your business. If your business makes use of messaging middleware then Nastel Technologies has a number of simple, cost effective and immediate actions you can take to improve your ability to maximize performance, availability and change during this time.