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Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Senior Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager marketing@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Nazal Parvin Associate Publisher nazal@bekabusinessmedia.com (415) 516-7053 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Neil Ende General Counsel Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2020 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media It remains to be seen whether the significant shift to remote workforces, and the subsequent shrink of office space, is a permanent reality or a shorter-term reaction to “unprecedented” events. While the prevalent notion right now is that a good percentage of workers will remain at-home or remote at least a few days a week even after mask mandates are lifted, scattered workforces do present clear and obvious challenges. Businesses surveyed regarding their remote work arrangements have cited expected issues including productivity drops, reduced collaboration among employ- ees, security vulnerabilities and loss of company culture or identity. Worker surveys show frustration with inadequate tools, longer hours and added stress, and the lack of a virtual replacement for spontaneous problem solving and iteration. (Unless partners and providers succeed in helping these businesses better support remote workforces, incidentally, they likely will not realize the savings on real estate space, losing what is arguably their biggest upside to WFx.) Surveys also have shown, however, that many organizations, across all verticals, expect anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of their employees to remain as remote or hybrid workers for the foreseeable future. Several very large corporations and global brands even have announced already that remote options will be available to workers through most or all of 2021. We also know, so far, that the run to remote has dramatically impacted usage of and spending on IT, telecom and software services. According to an 8x8 analysis of more than one million global business users, for example, app usage for business communications and collaboration has more than doubled, which is leading to nearly 2.5 times more voice calls and six times more video meetings. Usage of desktop and mobile apps for voice calls, video conferencing, team chat and SMS increased by more than 107 percent. The amount of time that a voice call is one-clicked to a video meeting has increased by 16 times, shows 8x8’s analysis. Likewise, we have seen all sorts of emerging “digital transformation” technolo- gies receive a massive market push from conditions that necessitated remote and virtual experiences. A few of those technologies – including SD-WAN, e-commerce, NaaS and UCaaS – are discussed in this September-October issue. And keep in mind, much of the spending up to now was done in emergency mode. The real money could come as companies look to build more permanent systems for supporting remote and hybrid workforces. So, while it’s possible that five years from now the concepts of social distancing, sheltering in place and staying away from the office all will be distance memories, it is also possible that for the next eight to 14 months, the need to support and enable remote and hybrid workforces could be a part of nearly every IT decision made by a significant percentage of medium-sized to large enterprises. The race is on. Remote Chances LETTER 6 CHANNEL VISION | September - October, 2020