Commentary

Digital banking has been an innovation darling of 2020 as payments increasingly moved to digital channels and economies went cashless during COVID-related lockdowns.

The term VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) had become somewhat overused and watered down in recent years until 2020 threw a spanner and greeted us with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Now, VUCA has never been truer, as we witnessed the upending of lives, businesses and economies, and the rapid changes governments had to make to ensure survival and recovery of their countries.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cryptocurrencies have continued to develop and mature in Singapore and around the world over the past 12 months. Prominently, the market value of Bitcoin recently surged past its previous all-time high to a new high of USD 41,940, and other prominent coins and tokens like Ether have also seen significant price growth over past weeks. Such developments cast an increasingly bright spotlight on cryptocurrencies and the technology upon which they are based, and other recent developments also help demonstrate what many stakeholders describe as DLT and cryptocurrencies 'going mainstream'.

By Malina Platon, Managing Director, Strategic Accounts, APAC, UiPath

By Marc Remond, vice president, meeting and learning experience solutions, Barco APAC

Before COVID-19, the rise of open banking had already set off a race around the globe to transform the financial services industry. Catalyzed by regulations in Europe and commercially embraced in Asia, open banking allows third-party developers and financial technology companies to access customer information and transaction data held by banks – at the request of the customer – for use in new applications and services.

When COVID-19 struck, people were looking for masks, gloves and toilet paper. But for enterprises, they were demanding data network, and lots of it – to ensure their connectivity remains strong for remote work collaboration. Telstra’s business is to connect the world to Asia, and Asia to the world; our network – including the largest subsea cable network in the Asia- Pacific region – was the very first to see these data demands. Our international network sees a dizzying amount of traffic on any given day, but the increase in data being sent back-and-forth during COVID-19 is truly massive. The demands for data have spiked significantly, seemingly overnight, by up to 50%.

Disruption is not new to Singapore. Long has the country recognised the necessity to upskill its workforce and keep abreast of the latest technological developments in order to maintain relevance in a highly dynamic global economy. It has witnessed a growth of approximately 92,000 ICT professionals in 1999 to over 210,000 in 2017, with that number only set to grow as many new initiatives have been launched to train a digitally ready workforce.

Whilst property markets in Asia are still reeling from the effects of the global pandemic, UK commercial properties are already showing signs of life.

Cities around the world including Singapore were laid bare by the pandemic that has forced businesses to start working from home on a massive scale. But it doesn’t just end here. This new model has dramatically broadened the cyberattack surface. Remote workers are now easy conduits to corporate resources, and most organisations are unprepared to spot unusual network activities generated by these remote users.

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt in every part of the world. It has upended everyday lives, forcing millions of people to reset their routine and adapt to a new normal. As people worldwide hunkered down and spent more time at home, they also began looking for creative ways to establish a sense of normalcy.

The pre-2020 concept of working at the office has been turned on its head. COVID-19 is forcing businesses to rethink workplace design and consider remote working as part of the long-term solution. According to a recent study, only 40 percent of employees in Singapore feel safe returning to the office, whilst 75% of employees want social distancing to be observed for at least the next six months.

One of the things we take for granted these days is the humble smartphone - it’s easy to forget the full range of its capabilities and features, which only continue to expand every year. Think of the number of separate items that have been packed into a single svelte device. To name just a few: a camera, watch, calendar, notebook, miniature TV, speakers, mp3 player, gaming console, calculator… and more! Even the computing capabilities of a modern smartphone would be considered to be on par with a supercomputer of the past.

COVID-19 has thrown the importance of reskilling and upskilling workers into sharp relief, not just in the Singapore context, but globally.

With cybercriminals capitalising on the COVID-19 pandemic, White Ops’ Ryan Murray argues now is the time to boost community immunity amongst Singaporean businesses.

Singapore is gradually reopening its economy after two months of lockdown, but some of the jobs lost may never return as companies adapt to a “new normal” of supply chain disruptions and travel restrictions.