When pandemics spread across the world, long term changes to society often result. In past pandemics they have happened on a society level, such as changes to the global balance of power. They have also happened at the personal level, such as changes to the way people earn their living.
Labor shortages, migrations of workers and changes in trading partners occurred during previous outbreaks and influenced how work was done. There was a new normal way of working that remained after the pandemic had subsided.
In the midst of the current pandemic, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the impact it will make to the workplace of the future. Particularly hard is the assessment of which changes are temporary and which will be the “new normal”. All countries of the world have seen a drastic restriction on the movement of people. The airline industry is one of the hardest hit sectors. Will business travel and more importantly, the reason for business travel, return to pre-pandemic levels? There are many different ideas about how this will play out.
As the covid-19 pandemic unfolded, many companies had to revise work processes and deploy technology in order to maintain business continuity. This was driven by the disruptive impact of restrictions to movement within countries and particularly between countries.
These firms had to find ways to enable their subject matter experts (SME) to work from home and minimize the number of workers on-site. For those critical front-line workers who were required to work on-site, social distancing requirements meant that they were no longer working in close proximity to their colleagues.
In reality, many companies were pursuing initiatives to enable remote connected workers before the covid-19 outbreak took hold in 2020. Technology adoption has accelerated as a response to the pandemic.
PcVue platforms are deployed to supervise operations and maintenance (O&M) across a wide spectrum of automation projects in the energy, industry, infrastructure and Building Automation System (BAS) sectors. Prior to the pandemic, in collaboration with our customers, PcVue platforms were enhanced to improve support for front-line O&M remote connected workers.
This technology was developed to provide workers with easy access to all of the information they needed in order to perform their work. It also included the ability to remotely connect with SME while on-site and for close collaboration between operations and maintenance workers. Prior to 2020, the projects were justified for business reasons rather than public safety. Those business drivers remain although, public safety has eclipsed them as the driving factor.
The customers who were early adopters of O&M remote connected workforce technology were able to accelerate their projects and rapidly adapt to pandemic restrictions. Many of them are doing well as a result. We are confident that after the pandemic subsides, the adoption of PcVue platforms for remote connected workers will continue and likely will accelerate.
The business drivers for improved efficiency, reduced downtime, reduced labor and reduced travel all remain and each has strong bottom line impact to our customers.
The impact has been to reduce the resistance to organizational change that had slowed adoption in the past. The pandemic is the disruptive agent that is enabling the new normal way for operations and maintenance work to be performed more efficiently.
Coming next….
Stay tuned for Episode 2 in which we will discuss the requirements of a platform designed for remote connected workers. We’ll also have a look at a practical case of maintenance of a regional public-school system in the post pandemic world.
Additionnal resources :
–Discover SnapVue, a virtual mobile assistant to monitor your assets as you move !
–Learn more on PcVue platforms for remote connected workers
–Download the brochure “PcVue Remote Solutions – Efficient Operation and Maintenance of Remote Asset”
Our PcVue Remote apps TouchVue & SnapVue are also available on application stores:
Created on: 29 Sep 2021 Last update: 14 Jun 2024
