A month ago, when nothing was known yet, and we treated the pandemic half-jokingly, many people
were trying to predict about the expected impact of a pandemic on the IT industry.
To sum it up, in the long run the entire sector will rather be the beneficiary of the current situation. In
turn, in the shorter or even medium-term perspective, the freezing of the economy will certainly
deplete the wallets of some contractors who will turn on the risk-off button and abandon development
plans, catapulting into the zone of “safe” costs, which will obviously affect the corresponding reduction
of profits, especially of software developers . While in January, the global consulting company
IDC.com forecasted a 5% increase in the IT services market, in March it was forced to reduce its
expectations to a modest 1%. Not bad at all! It is worth emphasizing that the correlation of demand for
IT services with GDP is not close, although it is difficult to delude oneself that companies are willing to
invest in new solutions in uncertain times. IDC.com probably assumed that the sector’s development
would lose momentum for some time. What is certain, however, is that society and national
governments have seen in recent weeks that many things can be done remotely. From the point of
view of security and the principles of good management, having a “remote alternative” will soon
become a new standard. Recently, many people have also found shopping online to be pretty sexy.
The owners of traditional stores feel motivated to rent virtual commercial space on “Google Street”,
which coronavirus will definitely not return to. This is a big opportunity for business scaling for IT
companies specializing in creating virtual online stores. However, it seems that the pandemic so far
has benefited after all the internet entertainment industry: gaming and movie rentals. Netflix acquired
as many as 16 million new subscribers between January and March! The whole situation can be
summed up in the words of W. Churchill: Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
Dominik Matczak, Ph.D.
