An ode to the resilience of companies during the corona crisis

These are strange times. The economic world is temporarily dormant, toilet paper is being bought en masse and we are slowly getting used to life of social distance and isolation. No company or consumer can ignore the corona virus. This corona crisis affects us all deeply.

But at the same time, beautiful things happen. Everywhere, the most beautiful initiatives are springing up like mushrooms from a, now significantly more fertile, soil. On social media you can read new initiatives every day that deal with the corona situation. The neighbors stick notes on the wall with the offer to do groceries, residents in care homes receive free tulips and the elderly receive a crash course in video calling en masse. And now say yourself, #daslief.

Companies are also showing that they are extremely resilient in these uncertain times. Every day you hear innovative new ideas from entrepreneurs and companies that are changing course in times of corona crisis. Take a star restaurant that suddenly can no longer receive guests and within a few weeks one full home service has realized. Includes romantic dinner. Or an initiative of one of our own clients FREEON TOUR, a market leader in the field of holidays with the motorhome that just can't go on right now. They have started a non-profit initiative to support local catering industry in times of crisis. We Are Still Open allows all delivery or collection options from catering establishments that are having a hard time during this difficult period. These are just a few examples of the many innovative ideas of entrepreneurs during the corona crisis.

Consumers and businesses are more resilient than ever. Companies had to completely adjust their strategy in a matter of days. There are already many success stories of companies that can cope with the corona crisis. These companies have a number of things in common. Often these are: a good dose of creativity, adaptability & empathy and an app... An app you say?

We are further apart. Literally then. Because figuratively, that's not too bad. Virtual meeting has become the new normal. Almost all of us work from home. This is how I write this blog while my partner, and temporary colleague, has his 102th zoom meeting of the day. Or my colleagues, who have been forced to convert the kitchen or living room into a programming bunker. Everyone has to adapt to the new situation. It feels strange not being able to just talk to your co-worker about the upcoming Galaxy A-series smartphones or how to throw the best virtual party on Animal Crossing.

Of course we at Coffee IT already have a small head start when we talk about working digitally. As app developers, we are already at home in the digital world. Internal communication programs such as Slack, Google Hangout or Toggl are already part of our daily work. For us it is mostly business as usual, albeit with some changes.

For many companies, this new situation takes some getting used to or even causes major concern. Maybe you run a catering facility yourself or your festival has been canceled for next summer. Or are you a small shopkeeper and you currently have no customers and therefore no turnover. For this reason we have written this article. To encourage small entrepreneurs to large corporates. These times pass. But more importantly: perhaps the situation offers opportunities for you as an entrepreneur to come up with a new strategy. In many cases, an app can be a valuable contribution to the corona crisis.

The first apps that people often think of when you mention the corona pandemic are the so-called business to consumer apps. Chances are that as a reader of this article you have watched the press conference of last Tuesday, April 7. In it, Deputy Prime Minister De Jonge informed the country of the plan to deploy two apps to combat the outbreak of the pandemic. These apps will probably give a signal when you have been with an infected person or have become infected yourself. The applicability of these apps will be further investigated in the coming weeks and the much-discussed concerns about privacy and ethics will be taken into account.

Apps like this are the most obvious apps during this crisis. The government (business) is developing an app for consumers (to consumer). These apps mainly aim to create 'situational awareness'. In other words: know what is happening. And act on that. But besides the government, other companies are also turning en masse to digital solutions. Companies have to adapt very quickly to this new situation, which will probably take some time. Think of eCommerce, purchasing or suppliers who suddenly have to run at full speed to meet the increasing demand for online services, instead of offline.

Companies are changing course

Many entrepreneurs are having a hard time during the corona crisis. But it is not in the Dutch nature to give up. This has also been shown a report from the ABN about how entrepreneurs deal with the corona crisis. Packaging producer Oerlemans Plastics from Genderen in Brabant is a good example of this. The packaging manufacturer does not notice any loss of turnover, because the work still continues. Nevertheless, they have taken a completely new path at Oerlemans in two weeks: namely making and supplying aprons for hospital staff in the Netherlands. In just two weeks, the concept has been fully developed into an end product, and the first aprons are currently being delivered.

There are many more examples of business to consumer companies that are proving resilient in this day and age. Take the example in the introduction of this article, a star restaurant that has no customers or sales from one day to the next. Within a week the web app was built with which they can offer their products at home. In this way, the chefs keep their jobs and the company realizes turnover in a different way.

The tech companies like us are ready. There is more than enough knowledge available to quickly arrive at a well-functioning app solution. Technical innovations within the Internet of Things and new programming languages ​​make using apps even easier. But the idea must come from within you. Do you have a catering business, hairdresser, do you organize festivals or are you a mystery shopper at Ikea? Don't worry, there are plenty of ways in which an app can digitize your business. Go crazy.

Besides consumer apps, we haven't talked about business-to-business apps yet. And there are just a legion of possibilities. Video calling apps and streaming apps are working overtime now that every meeting takes place online. Monitoring and optimizing internal business processes has never been more important than it is now in this corona crisis. An app or CMS system can help you enormously with this. You can think of the aforementioned communication apps such as Slack, Microsoft Teams or Skype. But with a little creativity you can come up with many innovative concepts with a lot of potential. Think of combining an app with hardware to enable production from home. Or an app to stay connected with colleagues and increase efficiency by automating processes. For almost any service or service, an app can offer a contribution.

No. We can be very honest about that. An app lends itself better to some industries and target groups than to others. In addition, developing an app requires a lot of time and resources. Now there are many ways to get the necessary investments, for example with the SET grant which unfortunately is already on hold due to enormous crowds. Yet there are plenty of inspiring examples of entrepreneurs who have completely changed course and are now able to keep their heads above water.

Everyone can do something during these crazy times. Connection and loyalty have never been more important than now. In all the examples we've mentioned in this article, connection is key. Companies manage to survive with the new strategy. This in turn is good for the users, who in turn benefit from it because certain activities or resources are suddenly accessible again. Because remember: people crave to do things (1.5 meters away), buy things and connect with others.

Save local restaurants app

Of course, these times also do something to us. We have adjusted our production in such a way that the apps with urgency due to corona have priority. Our developers are therefore working hard to make these apps ready for production as soon as possible so that these companies are supported and can continue with their business.

In addition, last Good Friday we held our famous FreakyFriday in the context of the corona crisis. During these FreakyFridays we work on voluntary projects. One of these projects is the 'Red local restaurants app'. This app gives smaller restaurants a platform to be visible and offer their food. Restaurants can register themselves and indicate whether they deliver and / or pick up. The Red Local Restaurants app is an initiative of Coffee IT and is being developed alongside our regular work. The app will be completely free to download and use.

Do you own a restaurant or would you like to help a restaurant and put it in the app? Register the restaurant via this link. The more restaurants we register, the more restaurants we can help. So your input is important. Small note: the Red Local Restaurants app is for small restaurants that have moved to home delivery or takeout. The app will launch on the Play Store this week.

This is not something new. Even before corona, we guide ambitious entrepreneurs who would like to fill in their services digitally using an app. But it might be good to emphasize it again now. So; if your service, product, service or entire business model has plummeted with the corona crisis and you want to make the transformation from physical to digital. Then take contact us without obligation, we are happy to help you. We are always available as a sparring partner and to offer technical advice.

On behalf of everyone in the Coffee IT team, we wish you good health and success.