The outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created a global health crisis, which now resulted in a global economic crisis. Guidelines set by governments and businesses have forced people to stay at home. Restricted movement controls, delays in business operations, physical distance monitoring and restrictions on shopping activities to curb the outbreak have significantly affected the conventional business activities. Many businesses are currently facing financial difficulties that threaten business survival.

For some industries, physical presence will always be a requirement, such as healthcare, construction, logistics, and law enforcement. Meanwhile, for some other businesses, such as professional services, the digital transformation process may enable connection, reduce manual activities, and minimize the risk of disruption due to a situation like the coronavirus. Thus, the digitalisation of business (digital transformation) can improve business continuity. Through the consolidation of processes and operations, employees and clients can stay connected to the company. That might seem obvious, but the current situation has proved that, in times of crisis, this is not assumed.

In Malaysia, the impact of this pandemic on business survival is even worse for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represents the largest group of economic contributors in the country. While SMEs have been continuously encouraged to explore business digitalisation, it is now that the pandemic becomes an important force triggering SMEs' initiatives to embark on extensive technology utilisation. Carrying business on conventional approaches would cause the business to be disappeared from the market. Thus, the movement towards digitalisation and adaptation to new business norms seems to be more critical than ever to ensure business sustainability.

In conjunction with the current situation, discuss FIVE (5) possible ways of applying information technology to transform a business from a conventional platform to digital business operation, particularly in the aspects of managing the revenue and expenditure cycles.