#CurrentStatus Episode 58 is about our the unexpected supply chain issues and the enterprise application gaps exposed by COVID19 when the pandemic impacted all of us globally. Co-hosts Phoummala SchmittTheresa MillerHolly Lehman and guest Porter de Leon cover this topic in depth. The pandemic changed everything from how to shop to what we can buy and how fast we can get it.  Let’s take a closer look.

Supply Chain – What happened?

From manufacturing to technology companies there were a lot of great plans when COVID impacted us, and what we are learning is that things were taking 9-10 months to implement something and now they are learning that we really need to complete things in 4 weeks.  These gaps were known, but it’s now prioritized to be on the front burner, but the process and tech doesn’t exist to make it happen.  Companies are now shifting to Agile, because we need to be able to prioritize in a faster way.

Not only did companies need to be able to scale their remote workforce essentially overnight.  Remote workforce’s were scrambling to purchase webcams, microphones, lighting and other things that could no longer get to them overnight and some cases not at all.  Supply chain was interrupted and the ability to scale an organization and deploy tech landed on a new timeline of implement now.

There isn’t a One Size Fit’s all Journey

Not every enterprise will go to cloud, not every company will leave data on prem and everyone is seeing different gaps. Acceleration of closing those gaps is the focus.  For example, admins were using SSH, but that doesn’t work as a one size fit’s all.  Now we want everyone in through VPN, but that workflow doesn’t work either.  Other issues on expensing systems being separated from other systems, efficiencies and more.

Be sure to tune into the episode here, by click on the YouTube video below to get the full scoop on what we discussed during this episode.

#CurrentStatus Episode and Recording

The Issues

What are the issues with companies, their alignment and forced advancement.  It’s different with every organization.  One of the major issues is just getting employees the bandwidth they need to work remote successfully.  The whole house is on the internet at the same time, calls are dropping, work is slow, this has been a big impact.  Managing the distributed workforce has been a challenge.

 

Concluding thoughts

Enterprises scaling to working remote created some very unexpected issues for enterprises needing to support remote workforce’s overnight, to families trying to figure out how to work remote and share bandwidth at home, and iron out the supply chain issues we experienced.  It’s a form of disaster preparedness.

Catch some of our other episodes of Current Status here!