It’s been another huge year for the unified communications and collaboration industry, with the technology it provides keeping companies connected through lockdowns and remote working, while helping businesses prepare for hybrid working environments.
Many trends continued into the year from 2020, but many only emerged this year and look set to continue into 2022.
UC Today caught up with senior execs from Fuze, LogMein and Vonage to find out what has surprised them this year and what trends will accelerate over the coming 12 months.
1. Are There Any Trends That Emerged in 2021 That Surprised You?
Chris Perrotti, Vice President, Digital Workplace at LogMeIn:
“2021 becoming the year of the Great Resignation was a shock to many of us. Along with everything else, COVID has unfortunately brought a lot of uncertainty to the business world, and many employees are seeking both better positions for themselves and more clarity around what their future holds”
“In fact, I’ve been personally approached by several people in the last year with concerns over whether their companies might push them to return to the office, despite the widespread shift to remote work.
“Employees who enjoy their work and are provided with flexibility and direction have been slower to hop between jobs, while people in positions lacking those qualities joined millions of others in looking for something better – and that trend will likely continue so long as that lack of clarity persists.”
Clément Wehrung, Director of Product Management, Fuze:
“There has been a new focus on async communication via voice this year. The last decade was all about chat & messaging, and how the new generation didn’t want to communicate via phone calls. Instead, this next generation was all about texting.
Now, in the last year, we saw the rise of voice memos as a more personal / intimate way of communicating asynchronously.
“There’s also interoperability. While major forces have reduced the level of interoperability between communication platforms over the last decade, many people keep asking for interoperability between messaging platforms in particular”
“It’s often cumbersome to identify which app a contact uses for personal or professional communications. Teams, Slack, and others allow users to invite guests, but not to collaborate across platforms. But with strong customer demand and a new regulatory push, the coming years may bring new changes to messaging interoperability.”
2. What will be the biggest collaboration challenges for businesses in 2022?
Savinay Berry, EVP Product & Engineering, Vonage:
Hybrid work and omnichannel messaging to provide an effortless customer experience. In 2022, omnichannel, messaging-first customer engagement will no longer merely be a customer want but a requirement for a customer experience that enables businesses to thrive and grow.
“This means that companies must provide a seamless, frictionless transaction no matter which channel a customer has selected”
“To provide this level of customer engagement in a hybrid-work environment, communication must be more deliberate, informed and efficient. Video calling is a key part of that deliberate communication which is attributed to sophisticated data compression and transfer.”
Chris Perrotti, Vice President, Digital Workplace at LogMeIn:
“We are going to see more traditional office space closures in the year ahead, as businesses around the world continue to adapt and transition to remote and flexible work models. That means these companies will also need to move their strategy for IT infrastructure and business continuity support out of the office and over to their employees at home.
“As anyone who deals with these systems knows, that requires careful planning and execution, or business can risk significant disruption and downtime if their internal networks fail.
“In order to help avoid this, employers need to look at what their employees need to be successful. This might mean supplying staff with more bandwidth for their home networks, mobile hotspots, stipends to purchase equipment or other end-user solutions to maintain the same levels of fast and seamless collaboration through digital channels as they would have in-person”
3. Are there any new trends you expect to emerge in next year?
Savinay Berry, EVP Product & Engineering at Vonage:
“To stay ahead of the curve, enterprising businesses and organisations will want to look at teaming artificial intelligence with programmable solutions to automate their conversational commerce offerings.
“Startups such as Jumper.ai, recently acquired by Vonage, have generated significant traction for brands in this domain. Armed with insights from these channels, businesses will increasingly incorporate communications APIs which will enable them to flexibly bolt-on programmable capabilities directly into existing applications and workflows.”
Chris Perrotti, Vice President, Digital Workplace at LogMeIn:
“Utilisation of asynchronous communication methods picked up steam this year, but it will further accelerate in 2022.
“On the surface, sceptics may say it takes more time and effort to record or write everything down for people see it later – but in truth, there’s often less ‘total effort’ required than traditional, live methods of communication. An employee doesn’t need to repeat the same information in multiple meetings or across different channels, and everyone who needs the information can access it at the time and place most convenient”
“And this is especially useful when onboarding a new team member or third-party resource – significantly shrinking time to value.”
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