Looking back on any trends pieces published around this time last year, we can all agree that predicting the future can be a tricky job. Notwithstanding, Group VP of Marketing and Alliances at Enghouse, Jeremy Payne, stepped bravely up to the plate to draw out some broad themes which will build on the transformational role of UC in the pivotal era of 2020, and be particularly important to keep an eye on in the year ahead.
Hybrid working
If 2020 was all about work from home, 2021 will be about a blend — where some of us go back to the office, for at least some of the time. And even in the office workspace, people may prefer to use their own devices as access points and to avoid sharing touchscreens and devices. So we’re going to need applications and digital workspaces which are universal and accessible, wherever and whenever. Payner reflected:
“You might be in your home office, somebody else’s office, a serviced office or a Starbucks… Many organisations are going to be refining what they put in place, to make certain everyone can work on their own phone or iPad, and of course, it will all be cloud-based”
Market segmentation and consolidation
Beyond the explosion of solutions and shadow IT relied on to get through the crisis, Payne predicts a settling down of the UC market around core platforms, to address security concerns, and build collaboration and communications strategy into their long-term thinking. Providers are looking to secure market share in the enterprise, which is leading to acquisitions like the recent Salesforce-Slack announcement, simply to compete.
Luckily there is a world of businesses out there with different needs, and as Payne pointed out, while large enterprises are shifting away from their first adopted app, “Segmentation is clearly happening in the market and while a lot of the usual suspects like Microsoft Teams are doing well in medium to larger sized business, specialist vendors like Vidyo are carving out niches in specific verticals like Healthcare and Banking So there are lots of different kinds of business, around which provision will continue to consolidate.” From the explosion of launches in 2020, there will doubtless be winners and losers, however, and, “not all have strong enough points of differentiation from a product point of view”, as the market inevitably matures and settles.
Meaningful Monitoring
When people are working from home, or in a hybrid distributed situation, it can become more tricky to tread the line appropriately in terms of measurement and management of outputs. “There are few organisations that have really found the right balance,” he mused, “between micro-measuring and really supporting people. It’s different when people are at home, compared to when they’re sat together at a bank of desks looking at the same wallboard.” Whether in contact centres or other areas of knowledge work, the challenge for managers is to ensure productivity while not creating additional pressure, at a time when everybody’s background stress levels are surely high enough already.
Enhancing security
Certainly, CISO’s are stressed, and undoubtedly many organisations cut corners on this front in the rush to ensure continuity in a crisis. “We’ll definitely see momentum around security and data ownership, with so many aspects to consider.” As well as network issues surrounding the mechanics of remote working, the kind of data transfers have changed so much and added new vulnerabilities: “With email, you could include a boilerplate disclaimer to protect the organisation, but what if a breach happens in a video call, or the meeting gets hacked..? Again, it will be big vendors who have the expertise to fix these problems, and ensure compliance with frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR.”
5G, finally
The next generation of mobile connectivity is rolling out just in time to support the hybrid workforce, but it’s potential within devices remains untapped, and 2021 will doubtless bring us new ways to enjoy the speed and volume of data it will offer.
As well capturing and streaming more video, we can anticipate greater use of AR and VR experiences, which will enter the UC space to enhance presence and interactivity, and we’ll also see even greater volumes of automated messaging – between devices and applications, and creating new points of reference and big data streams.
In Conclusion
Whatever else happens, we may hope that 2021 is a calmer and more positive time, on the geopolitical stage and within the business world generally. But the explosion of innovation catalysed by the upheavals of the present year shows no sign of abating, and we’ll continue to see science and technology connecting people for collaboration and communication, in new ways we never dreamed of.
