Is the Software Industry Immune to Coronavirus?

COVID-19 didn't only cause a humanitarian and health crisis, its impact on the economy all around the globe has been huge making the world stock markets crash and putting thousands of businesses on a tightrope.

For the health of all, most governments have launched containment plans, but, as you may know, this meant a slowdown or even paralysis in many activities. Every sector had to adapt to the quarantine, so remote work was the alternative, which is available thanks to technology. So, does this mean that the software industry is benefited by the coronavirus crisis?

-No.

The software industry indeed has some undeniable advantages and backup towards this obstacle in comparison to other industries. In the first place, while other industries can't even produce because of the quarantine, software companies can still deliver their products because the whole development process and the product are digital. Also, most of the companies have an agile and flexible culture, so they are good at adapting to new situations. Plus, in the software industry, most of the companies and employees are used to remote work and do, last but not least, master technology.

Our industry is quite advantageous, however, it would be naive to think that this crisis won't cause an impact too. It’s important to understand that most software companies rely on other businesses from other industries. This means that the way coronavirus’ crisis affects the different industries has a side effect on ours. This doesn’t mean the impact is only negative: e-commerce development companies had more clients than ever; healthcare businesses, schools & universities, companies adapting their business model and working mechanics, and more, are demanding digital solutions; businesses such as Amazon and Zoom are at their best moment economically speaking, etc.

Nevertheless, it’s true that businesses in the most affected services, such as tourism, beauty & leisure, gyms, restaurants & canteens, clubs,  etc. can’t invest in software solutions right now. The same happens with small and medium businesses that would want to invest in software, but have a very tight budget because of low or null sales and high costs to cover.

This means that, even though some sectors of the software industry grew, some others slowed down their sales too and many deals were paused. It's important for Software companies to adapt to this situation and focus their commercial efforts to those sectors which's demand is high right now.

Coronavirus also affected our industry in other ways. Many important tech conferences were canceled. These events are key to forming new partnerships and these business opportunities were lost (at least) this semester. Luckily some of them found the way to carry out these conferences remotely with mechanisms to promote networking, such as Collision. Moreover, those companies that outsource and travel for face-to-face meetings had all their trips canceled.

How is Light-it doing?

Luckily we've been doing great! Our team has been working remotely for a month and, even though we miss the office fun, we're able to stay in constant touch while being safe. We've also been working with initiatives to collaborate with the community in these difficult times.

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