As a consultant, I have always been on the move. My usual work week started with a breakfast at an airport lounge, catch up with clients onsite. A typical day would include:
· Formal board room and war-room meetings.
· Solution discussions.
· Sometimes discussing the growth plan.
· Engagement models.
· Brainstorming about the market positioning in the technology space.
Sometimes it included informal dinners with clients to warm up the conversation on work. Being physically present with our clients was essential to maintain a healthy and growing relationship. Catching up with the family only on weekends. Things were sorted on a lighter note with a pre-Christmas party or just over a weekend dinner. Being in constant touch helped keep the communication channel open at work.
Discussing things over a cup of coffee or during a lunch break seemed so normal that thinking of any other way of working was unimaginable until the pandemic stuck like a lightning jolt. Or did it just creep under the carpet and shook the whole world, I wonder!
The outbreak brought with it many challenges. As consulting service providers, it was vital for us to be in constant touch with our clients, but now the offices were shut, travel was out of the question. So we had to start embracing the changes quickly. We were quick to adopt the new virtual norm, conducting all the brainstorming sessions which used to happen across the table, Conference Room Pilots on video calls. It was just a matter of time when staying connected became a priority. All of us came together, our team, our clients, and everyone involved, and the distances seemed to fade away in no time.
It was enjoyable in the beginning to work from home, though with its hiccups. Pets wanted to join in the video calls, and kids were over excited to find me around all the time. A pizza order or an online parcel would force me to take a moment from the call. Not to mention untimely power cuts or an internet glitch at precisely the right time before finishing the final touch-ups over a call or an email.
Efficiency at the centerstage
It is a reality that every sector has been disrupted and been impacted by Covid – 19 pandemic. Everyone is witnessing unprecedented change, and we at Winfo solutions are no exception. It is a fact that through the challenge, one thing that has taken the centerstage is — efficiency. Evolving with efficiency to provide strategic and focussed services to the clients became our priority as a consulting firm. We shifted our focus on value added solutions, and scalable best practices to meet the needs of our clients in these times of constant and rapid evolution.
Opportunities for growth
At Winfo Solutions, we have always kept an open eye for growth and expansion. Though the pandemic was a trigger, we were, in fact, ready for the virtual shift, even before it arrived. This readiness helped us quickly switch the gears when the whole world went under lockdown, working from their home office dens. We were ready for our clients, searching for more strategic partners who can provide satisfactory results while adapting to the changes during the implementations of the new technologies with proper contingency plans in order. We at Winfo Solutions were effectively able to tap these opportunities in the ever-changing consulting industry.
Challenges
While the pandemic presented challenges in different ways, at Winfo Solutions, our key focus was on client delivery and team well-being. It was a divide and conquer approach, while the leadership focused on maintaining client relationships, our mid-level managers constantly kept the energy high amongst our engineers. Conducting virtual events for Christmas and new year, encouraging mandatory video calls to keep the face-to-face interactions alive, and using virtual whiteboards to discuss the more profound technology showstoppers, worked wonderfully well. We effectively overcame our challenges due to the dedication and commitment that percolated across all the levels at Winfo Solutions.
Embracing the changes
When pandemic struck, many of us thought it was a temporary shift. We assumed everything would be back to normal very soon. However, at Winfo Solutions, we never waited for the moments to happen. We quickly took to action. We immediately started working on the tasks at hand, slowly encouraging our teams, clients, and vendor partners to get used to the new norm. Our clients supported us very quickly, and we quickly realized we were in sync with our client expectations in terms of implementations, deliveries, and deployments.
Thanks to everyone at Winfo Solutions, who overcame change fatigue in no time and started managing remote teams for enhanced effectiveness and to make our mark in the consulting industry.
With the change in the traditional delivery model, which has been disrupted or shattered by the pandemic, clients are looking for efficient services providers who can provide value added services. And this change is unbundling significant opportunities for both clients and consulting firms. Though the consulting may never go back to the previous version that existed, at Winfo Solutions, our relationship with our clients continues to thrive.
