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Chapter 2: A Collaborative Work Environment Drives Employee Engagement
Cloud Collaboration Services Power Employee Connections
Workforce demographics are increasingly diverse, with multiple generations working and collaborating on projects. An expanded array of communications and collaboration tools unites them. Cloud video-first and messaging-centric solutions appeal to the growing cohort of digital-native workers who cherish dynamic user experiences and covet the flexibility to control how and when they communicate and connect/collaborate. More established and digital immigrant employees are also expanding their digital toolsets, with remote work driving their use of and comfort with video conferencing, team messaging, mobility, and other collaboration capabilities.
Digital tools boost employee engagement in the era of flexible work. Frost & Sullivan data show that 52% of technology decision-makers worry that the shift to remote and hybrid work models has weakened employees’ well-being and relationships with coworkers. Accordingly, 77% of surveyed business leaders plan to carry out employee engagement initiatives that empower workers to make better decisions and feel more connected.
Frost & Sullivan data show that 91% of IT/telecom decision-makers consider conferencing and collaboration important or crucial to achieving their business goals. Cloud meeting and messaging tools are becoming indispensable to employee-centric organizations, particularly as they move their communications solutions to the cloud, as reflected in the data:
Nearly one-half (46%) of respondents report that their future cloud communications provider must offer video meetings.
Two out of five (41%) expect their cloud communications provider to offer team collaboration/ team spaces.
Cloud communications and collaboration tools can build strong connections across distributed teams, keep remote workers engaged, and align multi-generational employees with core company values and goals. As a result, productive, engaged employees remain satisfied and loyal.
Business-Grade Integrated Communications and Collaboration Platforms Deliver High Value
Organizations must carefully plan and align communications upgrades with their long-term strategic goals. The often ad-hoc proliferation of communications and other digital tools within organizations creates significant challenges for IT/telecom administrators.
Frost & Sullivan data show four top challenges for IT/telecom administrators:
Security concerns
Ensuring network stability
Privacy concerns
Challenges with systems integration and managing multiple vendor solution environments
Many organizations recognize that the use of cloud collaboration tools enhances productivity, accelerates team decision making, and helps build camaraderie. But most enterprises must first rationalize their existing communications and collaboration deployments before they can advance cloud migration projects. They should also avoid perpetuating cloud services silos created by single-modality point solutions. To address the ever-evolving needs of a diverse and increasingly multi-generational workforce, organizations should invest in integrated cloud communications services platforms that give users the flexibility to enjoy the following:
- See the status of other users to better time their interactions
- Switch communication modalities on the fly (e.g., escalate audio calls to content sharing and video meetings)
- Access communications and collaboration capabilities on the device best suited for each use case
- Collaborate in team spaces where knowledge and information are shared and archived to facilitate more productive contextual conversations
By 2024, tightly integrated multi-vendor solutions will account for 48% of communications environments globally, whereas end-to-end single-vendor solutions will comprise 26%. Among organizations adopting or upgrading unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) solutions, 45% prefer to buy a full-stack UCaaS solution that includes cloud private branch exchange (PBX), meetings, and messaging from the same provider.
Tightly integrated multi-vendor solutions
End-to-end single-vendor solutions
Prefer to buy a full-stack UCaaS solution
Tightly integrated cloud communications and collaboration suites provide myriad benefits:
- Complete set of integrated calling, messaging, meeting and file/screen sharing services
- Unified user experience for all communications and collaboration functions via a common app
- Reduced deployment cost and complexity
- Synchronized technology evolution roadmaps across apps
- Harmonized security and compliance frameworks across the toolset
- Integrated administration dashboards for real-time monitoring and management
Organizations must choose a solution and provider based on their unique user needs and workflows. A modular, feature-rich solution, based on tightly integrated multi-vendor technologies or a single-vendor solution stack, delivers compelling cost and productivity benefits to organizations of any size and industry.