Over the last six months, pressure to keep employees connected remotely has forced the hand of many decision makers, accelerating their investment in unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions. Embracing a remote working setup was a first for many and left a number of businesses changing their course of spending, facilitating company-wide home working and staying collaborative through a challenging time.
Now, effortless remote collaboration between employees, stakeholders and even customers is not only a driver of better satisfaction; it is a fundamental part of business success. We’re seeing that remote working at scale can actually be a huge success, and the buying habits of these businesses are proving that we can expect to see a shift towards long-term home working after COVID-19 has passed.
Concerns over availability
With the increasing demand for software, hardware, and home office equipment, availability becomes a prevalent issue. Increased demand can put a strain on supply chains in the best of times, but at the height of a pandemic, these problems were amplified significantly.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, manufacturing of many products ground to a halt as factories were forced to close down temporarily. Lockdown clogged up supply and distribution channels all over the world as a result. It became harder to transport goods and deliver them quickly. This inevitably made it incredibly difficult for suppliers to keep up with demand, leaving many with either long wait times, or goods being out of stock for long periods.
With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that the availability of kit, speed of supply, and the ability to upgrade existing hardware, all became major concerns for organisations - an attitude which has quite literally transformed in the last few months. In February, research undertaken by UC EXPO found that these considerations scored zero amongst respondents. However, this figure rose to 17% in April - demonstrating the clear shift in priorities during the remote working period.
Many have now realised the necessity of collaboration, and they have been focused on improving their ability to operate remotely as lockdown has set in.
UC&C has become business critical
Pre-coronavirus, UC&C was considered by many as a ‘nice to have’; a nod to the needs of a future workforce where prosperous businesses would look to invest slowly over time. According to UC EXPO’s 2019 Digital Transformation report, UC&C was middle ranking in the technology mix, and with 29% of teams investing in it. Now, almost half (48%) of respondents consider UC&C to be part of complete digital transformation. For an area that was previously seen as entirely non-critical, that’s a big leap.
UC EXPO also found that 13% of respondents anticipate that there will be significant investments in home office equipment as a result of COVID-19. Demand has gone through the roof since lockdown was first introduced as largely unprepared workforces look to get up and running from home as quickly and effectively as possible. Where the vast majority of the country would normally only work from home sporadically, it became a full-time role, and is expected to continue in the long term. This is inevitably going to increase the demand for home office equipment, whether that be for personal or professional use.
The COVID-19 lockdown forced businesses to invest, adapt, and totally re-evaluate what is business critical, what a business needs to survive, and how best to implement it. Easy collaboration has never been more important to companies and UC&C has been an ultimate winner of lockdown. It is proving how quick and easy it is to implement, but more importantly, it is redefining the future of work and giving business leaders the confidence that workforces can operate just as effectively with more flexibility, or in remote conditions.
