CV_Playbook_14

Business communications tools took on a whole new importance when the country saw day-to-day operations suddenly quarantined to dens, bedrooms and kitchen tables of employees’ homes. Maintaining productivity and collaboration would have been nearly impossible without the capabilities and adaptability of today’s ITdelivered communications applications. Services that had been hustling for years, even decades, to prove their worth suddenly experienced years of growth in a matter of months. As the dust begins to settle, surveys of Spiceworks community of IT professional shed some light on how the WFx (work from anywhere) trend specifically has impacted workers’ daily communications habits and priorities. And as might be expected, the shifts come with disruption to a few long-standing, legacy business communication tools. It’s also highly likely the shifts witnessed during the last several months will continue in a similar direction for some time, as it seems safe to assume that the boom in remote/mobile/home-based working is a solid trend if not a permanent reality, at least for a good chunk of U.S. organizations. After all, several studies show as much as 50 percent of companies that made some moves toward remote work believe the WFH arrangements will remain long after the pandemic. The good news is it appears businesses are pleasantly surprised by how quickly their communications and IT tools were able to adapt to changes and are happy with how things have been going. According to the Spiceworks survey, a full three-quarters of respondents believe their communications solutions effectively met business demands in 2020, up from 67 percent in 2019 despite the unique challenges of 2020. In a separate study by McKinsey & Co., respondents said their companies’ reaction to the work-from-home transition was on average 40 times faster than thought possible before the pandemic. Mixed Messaging Early signs of disruption within core communication habits By Martin Vilaboy 18 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=