MANAMA — Businessman Yaqoob Al Awadhi indicated that the precautionary measures to tackle coronavirus include carrying out many of our daily activities remotely, such as conducting governmental and private transactions, holding meetings, working, education and others, in which we discovered a real opportunity to do these tasks quickly and smoothly. “This confirms the importance of accelerating efforts to digitalize businesses comprehensively, and developing digital business frameworks in a way that supports plans for digital transformation and building a knowledge economy or digital economy in Bahrain. The current ordeal has demonstrated the importance of digital technologies for the economy, administration and society,” Al Awadhi added. He stressed that the digital transformation should not be seen as a risk or a threat to companies engaged in traditional activities, but rather an imperative need to the community, pointing out that the corona pandemic is a warning sign to move forward rapidly in the digital transformation process, especially since all sectors now are looking positively for such transition. “The digital transformation changes the way business is managed globally, it allowed institutions to become more effective and become data-based facilities that improve business analyzes and allow to make better decisions. If we cannot upgrade our economy and our companies to the requirements of transformation, we will not be able to compete locally or regionally,” Al Awadhi explained. He noted that digital transformation has become a necessity as markets are under intense pressure for change in light of the corona crisis, and this transformation will be more important after the crisis as institutions will have to change the way they operate and adopt more developed technology to work in the post-pandemic business world. Al Awadhi, the CEO of NGN global information systems, explained that the continuous adaptation to customer’s requirements and market changes on the institutions made it imperative to implement digital technologies to its current business model, according to its specialization and type of work, starting from the presence on Social Media, mobile applications, cloud computing, access to information security, data analysis, advanced algorithms, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, IoT platforms, and others. He explained that this fully coincides with the concept of digital transformation, which is defined as a transition process in which digital technologies are used in building new business operations or modification to an existing business model, to simplify procedures and provide ease of access in response to changing requirements and in line with modern technology and digital customers. "The virus has brought a fundamental change in the market and production habits. There are no markets on the ground nor actual customers, and the emerging needs, changing interests revealed the companies’ ability to deal with the additional demand for digital services and the degree of their flexibility in taking decisions of digital transformation or making some technological improvements depending on their ability," Al Awadhi added. He stressed that interacting with the digital world is no longer an option, and it becomes a necessity to review the plans for transformation and upgrading the digital infrastructure, and employ new skills to obtain a better opportunity to compete, and added that It has become urgent matter to develop traditional ideas and transform classic advertising and marketing plans to become more flexible and responsive to emergency events. — SG