Page 46 - IMDR EBOOK 20 OCT 2020

"Pandemic and Beyond: Naviga ng the New Normal" E - Book Year 2020

A Study of Impact of COVID-19 on use of collaboration platforms and its
6 implications post COVID-19

Pradnya Mahajan – DES’s IMDR, Pune
Abstract
With a signicant population of the world under lockdown and disruptions in the
operations of various activities due to covid-19 pandemic, use of video-based
collaborative technologies skyrocketed in the past few weeks.
In the present study an attempt has been made to understand the forced adaptability of
people to the collaborative tools used for communication and coordination during
Covid-19 lockdown phase. It also attempts to assess the possibility of using these tools
post Covid-19 as a standard practice for carrying out business collaboration and its
extension to other non-business tasks.

Besides secondary data, the primary data has been collected through a self-
administered questionnaire with close ended questions. The respondents were majorly
the users of these tools, forced to work from home during lockdown.

For data analysis pie charts, bar diagram and cross tabulation in Microsoft Excel has
been used. In this study it is found that majority of respondents are working
professionals showing signicant increase in the usage of collaborative tools.
Many of respondents have used collaborative tools for the rst time during lockdown,
majority of the respondents are facing bandwidth issues during the collaboration and
audio-visual delays as the inuencing factor on the quality of collaboration.
Being forced to use these tools during lockdown, many of the respondent show
likeliness of using the tools regularly post Covid-19
Key Words: Online Collaboration, Video Conferencing, Virtual Working, Technology
Adaptation, Covid-19 Lockdown
Introduction:

The outbreak of the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the lockdown
followed to control the spread of the pandemic has impacted the way people have been
adapting to technology platforms for professional tasks and social engagements. It has
forced some to unlearn the traditional methods of participating in meetings, carrying
out trainings, conducting hobby classes and giving performances.
Some organisations and institutes which were not exposed to collaborative digital
platforms and tools have seen a hundred percent rise in such use. More over the
security aspects of some of the tools like Zoom have made it to the news headline,
leading to a number of questions related to such tools in the minds of users. The review
of secondary data throws light on these aspects.

The study explores the possibility of such adaptation to technology platforms, for
future applications post COVID-19. Small and medium size organizations moving to
virtual ofces, co-working spaces and networked existence may be the ‘New Normal’

Objectives :
1. To understand benets and issues of Work from home using Collaborative
platform options during Lockdown.
2. To explore applications of collaborative platforms in other elds (arts, education,
tness) and compare the existing platforms.
3. To study the viability of collaborative platforms as an option for coordination
between virtual organizations
Methodology :

The present research aims at conducting a primary study and analysis through a
quantitative and qualitative approach. The quantitative approach is used to explore the

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