the challenges of the first day of QUARANTINE

The determination of the national government to urge companies to turn to telework as a measure to prevent the circulation of the coronavirus in Argentina will lead those households without connectivity to decide to have it and those who already have access seek to increase speed. On the other hand, it will mobilize those companies that have not yet decided to migrate to the cloud to do so.

These are two of the first effects that this new social behavior is causing to the pandemic: home office and tele-education. To respond to this situation, there is a kind of double game that occurs simultaneously with the day to day of official decisions, which generates new definitions at the level of companies and households.

On the household side, there was more demand for connectivity, according to a first survey that iProfessional could do. This aspect was especially noticed in the towns farthest from the main cities –generally well connected- either because they did not have an internet connection or because, as a result of responding to telework on the one hand, and to the tele-education of the boys at home on the other, the access speed had to be increased.

The telecommunications operators were, in turn, demanded by their clients, companies required to satisfy, at the same time, their users. A chain that is also reflected at the systems level. Those companies that had any doubts about migrating to the cloud or later facing a digital transformation process had to start making decisions within the framework of a global situation that prevails over the local one.

“We have been registering more demand for new home connectivity services, initially due to this decision to suspend classes but to take students to stay online to carry out their homework,” he explained to iProfessional, Ariel Fernández Alvarado, president of CATEL, the chamber that brings together the largest telecommunications cooperatives in the country.

Broadband connectivity reaches 65.8% of the country with more than 9.1 million accesses, according to a report by the Internet Chamber of Companies (CABASE) based on data from the National Communications Authority (ENACOM) , the distribution is not even.

Although more than 60% of the connections are above 6 mb in speed, when adults in a home telework and children educate themselves, it is necessary to have better access not only in terms of speed but, fundamentally , of stability. In other words, that the internet works without suffering microcuts that usually cause stress and headaches.

“For us it is a double challenge because this situation was not planned by any company. So they are adjusting strategies forward. The problem happens because inputs are needed that are not produced in Argentina and, to respond to this demand, it is necessary to facilitate this equipment, “added the CATEL manager.

Traffic on Monday grew with respect to the behavior it had been registering in March, but at pre-existing levels, according to CABASE. And this is basically the product of multimedia consumption that has been registered in Argentine households.

“The home demand for broadband is organized according to multimedia consumption, such as YouTube, Netflix and online games, so that telecommuting does not generate a bottleneck in a massive scenario of people doing home offices,” they explained from CABASE.

Camera sources pointed out that traffic consumption was at the same level as it was four Monday ago, when the boys were still on vacation. “With the massive presence of children outside of schools, there is a greater consumption of multimedia content throughout the day. The volume of traffic does not vary greatly from February, but there are daytime peaks that compete with the historical peak that is occurring on business days between nine and twelve at night, “they added.

That Internet providers, in turn, have a higher demand for services from their clients, be they companies or end users, implies that they must also organize themselves differently to respond to requirements and protect the workers involved in these tasks.

In other words, the demand for technological service implies a change in the culture of the organization in the same way that these days, those homes where telework and tele-education coexist, also demand another way of accommodating.

Thus, from Telecom they indicated that the situation poses a situation to be solved for the technical schools “dedicated to giving the best experience of our connectivity services. For this reason, we are also reorganizing our way of working so that, when entering the homes, our technicians and our clients are safe. “

From Telecom explained that this situation is generating changes at the personnel level, systems processes throughout the country. And that, due to this situation, there may be delays in home care as users will be asked for more information than usual due to the situation.

Fast adoption

For CATEL, the greater demand for service represents an opportunity for digital transformation. “When something like this happens the adoption curve goes up quickly, it is short. But a new milestone is set and it is to give birth from there where you have to return to work. It is an ideal time to make the connectivity situation in the interior visible and take care “said Fernández Alvarado.

The challenges that arise in terms of digital transformation are more than anything else for companies, which must also respond to new demands at the level of processes and organization of remote work.

Digital transformation is still in its early stages in the corporate sector, where half have already migrated services to the cloud, but there is still another half that hasn’t. This situation of evolution towards this form of process automation is even more incipient among SMEs, which generate 80% of the work in the country.

IDC numbers show part of this process. Half of the infrastructure of organizations with more than 100 employees in the cloud is in the cloud, both public and private. The expectation is that the use of the public cloud will grow at a double digit rate per year.

“Regarding the maturity of their digital transformation, in Argentina, 85% of organizations with more than 100 employees are in the early stages of their (digital) transformation. This number is even higher among SMEs,” detailed IDC. .

In a context where the technological infrastructure is the basis for continuing to carry out work, academic and social communication activities so that the economy also continues its journey, the need to evolve towards new forms of automation is also evident.

And making the decision at this time will also be key in determining priorities and a plan to follow. “Our recommendation is to choose the workloads and areas of the organization that will most quickly benefit from a digital transformation strategy, and within that strategy define the applications that are most critical,” added IDC.

For those organizations that these days had to make forceful decisions in technological matters to respond to the situation, it is crucial to define priorities at the business and cost levels.

“Currently there is a specific need in the context of the restrictions that are public knowledge. That may be a start but it is advisable to think of a medium-term strategy,” concluded IDC.

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