IDC forecast that 2019 would be the year when enterprise IT spending by departmental managers overtook spending by the IT department itself. Cloud-based on-demand services have become the norm by lowering barriers to technology purchases and enabling cost centre managers to quickly and easily deploy the software of their choice. Flexible subscription contracts gave access to an almost unlimited bank of resource to accommodate seasonal and periodic spikes in demand.

With increasingly draconian measures worldwide aimed at keeping people at home to quell the spread of COVID-19, companies of all shapes and sizes and across the majority of industries are finding themselves in the same situation – how to equip and empower their workforce for mobile working. More than 5 million companies around the world will experience an impact at a cost to the global economy exceeding US$1 trillion.