“Threaded group chats, the ability to embed rich media, integrations with popular apps, and the ability to easily scroll through chat history are all compelling advantages Slack and Teams hold over email,” said Spiceworks. Business chat apps remain primarily a tool for internal and “team” communications, used that way by 79 percent of respondents. But the percentage of businesses that use it for external communications grew a bit faster than internal during the shift to WFx, from less than a third in 2019 to 41 percent by the mid-2020. A similar scenario unfolded within SMS usage, another widely used tool for internal communications. While there wasn’t much growth shown in corporate usage of text messaging for internal communications in 2020, Spiceworks noted business users reporting frequent use of SMS for external communications increasing by 7 percentage points between 2019 and 2020. One can safely assume most of these messages are being sent in lieu of emails, as well as voice calls. Up to this point, IT-driven communications applications such as chat, unified communications and web conferencing have largely been used internally or with key partners. This increasing willingness to communicate externally through business messaging could be part of what McKinsey & Co. analysts note as the “digitization of customer interaction.” According to the firm’s findings, large businesses are three times likelier now than before the crisis to say that at least 80 percent of their customer interactions are digital in nature. In a July 2020 survey of North American businesses, the average share of customer interactions that were digital was 65 percent. That’s up from 25 percent in May 2018 and 41 percent in December 2019. Certainly, email and VoIP still are the most frequently used business communications solutions, show Spiceworks data, but with the adjustment to the WFx revolution, business are regularly using five to six different types of communications technologies on a regular basis, and moving forward it’s the newer forms that are expected to see growth. Meanwhile, the overlapping voice, video, and chat functionality between various communications platforms could lead to additional end-user confusion, again suggesting the need for trusted advisors. More than a quarter of survey respondents said employees in their organization were overwhelmed by the number of communications solutions available to them. While adoption is relatively low now, we also can expect to see significant growth during the next two years in secure, end-to-end encrypted communications platforms, as workers increasingly handle sensitive data outside of the relatively safe confines of firewalled corporate networks. “As security concerns escalate with malicious actors increasingly targeting employees working from home — who often connect to outdated networks that also service personal devices — there are opportunities for vendors that can effectively help a remote workforce stay productive while helping to protect corporate devices and data,” Spiceworks researchers advised. In this regard, vendors might raise security standards beyond end-to-end encryption. “To attract security-minded customers, cloud-based communications providers can build comprehensive solutions with security built in from the ground up, taking an extensible approach to secure communications capable of meeting customers’ needs now and into the future,” they continued. We also may be seeing some shift in priorities away from price as a purchasing consideration, as IT buyers look to reduce complexity. According to the survey, 76 percent of IT decision-makers believe it’s critical for a communications tool to provide consistent reliability, making this the most important consideration. Second in importance was “user friendliness” followed by “value for money,” ease of integration, and manageability. And while multiple-point communications solutions are working for organizations now, there’s opportunity in improvement. For example, with more people working outside of dedicated office space on a permanent basis — often around roommates or family members — there’s opportunity for products to stand out by doing a better job of dealing with environmental noise and other distractions, said Spiceworks researchers. “[A]nyone who’s experienced technical difficulties on a video call — and that’s everyone by now — can tell you the current generation of communications products aren’t perfect,” concluded the report. “Going forward, factors like manageability and ease of use will also be of great concern to decision makers, especially if they’re responsible for resolving remote end users’ issues, an increasingly prevalent pain point among IT professionals.” o Executive mindsets on technology’s strategic importance have changed radically during the crisis. Source: McKinsey & Co. Organization’s current strategic posture toward technology, % of respondents, 2020 Source: Spiceworks Internal External Email VoIP Web Conferencing Apps Text Message (SMS) Business Chat Apps (Stacks, Terms) Analog Velos Secure Cummunications Platforms comm Primarity a source of savings July 2017: % of respondents who ranked “scaling down costs” as a top three digital priority Modernizing core technology capabilities (i.e. to keep up with competitors) Investing more in technology to make it a competitive advantage Refocusing the entire business around digital technologies Don’t know 30 19 3 10 40 38 41% 51% 46% 46% 22 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
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