In just a few months, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. According to a new McKinsey Global Survey.

The consultancy firm this week released the results of a global survey of nearly 900 executives it undertook in July. It found that companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years. And the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has accelerated by a shocking seven years.

Nearly all respondents said that their companies have stood up at least temporary solutions to meet many of the new demands on them, and much more quickly than they had thought possible before the crisis.

“What’s more, respondents expect most of these changes to be long lasting and are already making the kinds of investments that all but ensure they will stick. In fact, when we asked executives about the impact of the crisis on a range of measures, they say that funding for digital initiatives has increased more than anything else—more than increases in costs, the number of people in technology roles, and the number of customers,” the report’s authors wrote.

The survey results confirm the rapid shift toward interacting with customers through digital channels. It found that respondents are three times likelier now than before the crisis to say that at least 80 percent of their customer interactions are digital in nature.

McCinsey asked about 12 potential changes in respondents’ organizations and industries, namely how long it took to execute them and how long that would have taken before the crisis.

“For many of these changes, respondents say, their companies acted 20 to 25 times faster than expected. In the case of remote working, respondents actually say their companies moved 40 times more quickly than they thought possible before the pandemic. Before then, respondents say it would have taken more than a year to implement the level of remote working that took place during the crisis. In actuality, it took an average of 11 days to implement a workable solution, and nearly all of the companies have stood up workable solutions within a few months.”

When respondents were asked why their organizations didn’t implement these changes before the crisis, just over half said that they weren’t a top business priority. The crisis removed this barrier: only 14 percent of all respondents said a lack of leadership alignment hindered the actual implementation of these changes.

Of the 12 changes, remote working and cloud migration were the two that respondents said have been more cost-effective than precrisis norms and practices.

“The results also indicate that along with the multiyear acceleration of digital, the crisis has brought about a sea change in executive mindsets on the role of technology in business. In our 2017 survey, nearly half of executives ranked cost savings as one of the most important priorities for their digital strategies. Now, only 10 percent view technology in the same way; in fact, more than half say they are investing in technology for competitive advantage or refocusing their entire business around digital technologies.”

The full report is available at https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever?action=download