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percent were provided no additional technology during the pandemic. This comes despite that 75 percent of deskless workers report to spending most of their time using technology, and 70 percent believe access to new technology would help them do their jobs better. How could better IT tools help deskless workers? Not surprisingly, the functional areas where deskless workers see technology providing a benefit largely mirror the benefits that digital tools provide desked workers. When respondents were asked about the areas or their work lives that would benefit from technology, top responses included communications (96 percent), operations/logistics (93 percent), onboard/training (91 percent) and productivity boosts (90 percent). “This data suggests there’s ample opportunity for entre- preneurs to build companies that simply re-imagine existing deskless software to make it faster and more modern,” said the Emergence study. One of the key reasons IT and digital resources for deskless workers lag those of the deskbound is that most software developers work almost exclusively at a desk. Most have never worked in deskless-heavy industries, Emergence analysts point out, and therefore don’t have a clear sense of the type of software and hardware that would help deskless workers. Apparently, most deskless employees can tell and don’t seem to be experiencing the boosts in produc- tivity, communications and customer experience that digital transforma- tions are bringing to the desked. According to the Emergence survey, 60 percent of deskless workers are unsatisfied with or believe there is room for improvement in the technol- ogy they are provided at work. Dissatisfaction rates are especially high among employees in construc- tion, healthcare, manufacturing and retail. The top reasons for their dissatisfaction include technol- ogy that is too slow, inefficient, hard to use or understand, not available on a mobile device or tablet and not collaborative. “Few employees in Silicon Valley would say the tools they use to do their jobs are ‘slow,’ ‘inefficient’ or ‘hard to use,’” said Emergence’s analysis. And despite not having a traditional desk, the most common hardware platforms provided to deskless workers are desktop PCs and laptops. A full 83 percent of deskless workers surveyed are asked to use these less-than- ideal devices to do their work, showed the survey. There are some signs of progress noted by Emergence, as nearly 60 percent of deskless workers now have access to a company issue smartphone or tablet, and deskless- heavy industries are leading the way in terms of using emerging hands-free platforms and devices. Even so, almost half of deskless workers (47 percent) believe that budget constraints prevent their companies from providing them the best hardware and software, while about a third said companies simply don’t appreciate how better technol- ogy would benefit their roles. Interest - ingly enough, a quarter of respondents admitted to not know if specific technology solutions for their industry are even available. When “the right” technology is not available, deskless workers react in much the same way as their desked counterparts – namely, using shadow IT. Indeed, frustrated deskless workers are filling the technology gap themselves, show the findings. More than half (56 percent) claim to use technology not provided by their employees to perform their jobs. More often than not, this means turning to technolo- gies that they already use in their personal lives. Nearly half of respondents, however, learned about a rogue technology from a co-worker, and a third of the time deskless workers proactively sought out new hardware and software specifically to handle a job-related task. Considering that deskless workers represent about 80 percent of employees across the globe, this use of unauthorized IT could be even a greater threat to corporate networks and data than the shadow IT that’s all-too common in deskbound environments. “Those of us in deskbound jobs have received the benefits of great technology for decades. We’re more productive, more closely connected to our colleagues and have an ability to make a greater difference to the compa- nies we work for,” said Kevin Spain, Emergence general partner. “Deskless workers deserve the same.” o Deskless Workers Top Technology Complaints Too slow 44% Not efficient 20% Hard to use and/or understand 14% Not available on a mobile device or tablet 14% No collaborative 12% Source: Emergence Speed Tier Acceleratio 2019-2021 Source: Open Vault June 2019 June 2020 June 2021 Where Deskless Workers Say Technology Could Benefit Source: Emergence.com OPERATIONS/ LOGISTICS COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HR/BENEFITS CULTURE PRODUCTIVITY ONBOARDING/ TRAINING Gartner CCaaS Magic Quadrant 1Gbps+ 500-900 Mbps 200-400 Mbps 100-200 Mbps 60-100 Mbps <50 Mbps 100% 2.1% 4.8% 10.5% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 3.0% 8.6% 33.9% 24.9% 27.5% 4.8% 13.2% 37.3% 18.2% 21.7% 4.7% 17.2% 47.5% 10.5% 9.6% 96% 93% 90% 91% 74% 88% 89% Genesys CHALLENGERS LEADERS NICE CXone Five9 8x8 Vonage Odigo Takdesk Amazon Web Services Evolve IP Content Guru 36 CHANNEL V ISION | Fall 2021