As the year anniversary of the first UK lockdown came and went, a lot of us took a moment to reflect on a 12 months that we could never have predicted.
Speaking to UC Today, Lee Underwood, Channel Manager, UK and Ireland at Snom, commended the UC industry as a whole for its resilience and consequential growth.
“The UC and collaborations market is definitely one of the biggest areas for growth right now, with revenue increasing by more than 25% in the second quarter of 2020 YoY, according to IDC.
“A massive contributor to that growth has been the shift to home working as a result of the pandemic and the rush to equip a large number of staff with the collaboration tools and applications necessary to facilitate remote communications.
“We’ve just witnessed the one-year anniversary of the first UK lockdown, and what will be really interesting moving forward is where organisations invest next as they prepare for a hybrid working culture.
“We’re seeing a lot of organisations take advantage of empty offices or reduced staff numbers to carry out work that would ordinarily cause disruption, including installation or upgrade projects. The return to the office feels quite momentous and there’s a big focus on making that transition as seamless as possible and ensuring the technology is in place to support a hybrid working model.”
Quality
That momentous shift is something that a lot of people are looking forward to after a year of Zoom quizzes and virtual birthday celebrations. However one lesson that Underwood was keen to point out was how businesses have realised the importance of audio.
“Audio quality is one of the most important aspects of seamless communication. Without it, frustrations grow and productivity dips, neither of which are conducive to a good working atmosphere. At Snom, we have a dedicated audio testing lab to ensure that the quality is nothing short of excellent.
“In the dash to enable home working during the first lockdown, many organisations rushed to get their hands on any available headsets – not all of which were fit for purpose. While the pandemic has lasted much longer than any of us imagined, the result was a surge of purchases that failed to meet user needs, including headsets with poor audio quality. A year on, those same organisations are now reviewing what they have in place as they look to future-proof their business and make investments that will support a hybrid working environment.”
The next 12 months
As we leave 2020 in our wake, the questions always end up focusing on the next 12 months. With hybrid working on the horizon, Underwood said headsets have become vital.
“Headsets have been a huge necessity for any home office and we’re continuing to develop new features in 2021. There’s often an assumption that all headsets are pretty much the same but at Snom, our range suits a variety of needs”
For example, our wireless A190 headset allows you to roam seamlessly whilst using our Multicell Dect technology, without losing signal. With Spring officially upon us, you could even take calls in the garden if you wanted to, using one of our high quality Dect headsets. Features like this are helping to increase flexibility and removing the notion that you need to be chained to your desk for fear of missing an important call.”
