A March 2020 report authored by researchers at Cavell Group, titled, 'The Impact of COVID-19 on the Cloud Comms Market,' the novel Coronavirus pandemic's led to an influx of enterprises looking to deploy home-working solutions for employees. Andy Elliot, AudioCodes' VP of Marketing told me, the company's seen this first-hand, witnessing what he called a "massive uptick in requests for work-from-home solutions."
I was told, this newfound traffic's been especially expansive, as have services such as voice integration with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Genesys, for contact centers that want to maintain business continuity. According to the same report, service providers saw a 60 percent increase in demands for Microsoft Teams in March and a 30 percent jump in requests for Zoom, along with growth in traditional phone calls.
"Technology is fuelling the home-working revolution. This much is clear"
Elliot, playing Devil's advocate, provoked a paramount question during our time together, asking me: Is this change short or long-term? His answer, "there's a more fundamental shift happening in our working practices, which are fuelled by team collaboration and unified communications technology." He believes these technologies are the new norm for a large section of the global workforce.
"This holds for knowledge workers, contact center agents, those in customer service, sales, and other administrative functions previously tied to an office"
Business continuity, as you may know, is not a short-term concept. It is more of a long-term thought process. And Elliot acknowledged that we’ll eventually emerge from the pandemic, but said businesses will have to recognize continuity is necessary and it should be sustainable. He likened a short-term fix to putting a band-aid on something that requires much more serious medical attention.
Other elements, such as real estate cost savings, inexpensive cloud communications, and collaboration tools that enable higher levels of productivity, all came up in our interview. All points Elliot stressed. On top of that, he said the countless other benefits outweigh any downsides employers might consider, and this includes flexible working practices. This, he added, will act as an incentive to attract long-term talent to your teams.
Andy Elliot[/caption]
