Collaboration and communications tech still has a future with hybrid working

The attitudes of both employees and employers towards hybrid working - a style of working that allows for a more balanced home-office work pattern - have fundamentally changed due to the pandemic, according to GlobalData. The company notes that this is good news for tech companies producing collaboration and communication (C&C) services such as Zoom that have seen a boost from remote working over the pandemic. C&C tech acted as a life vest for businesses forced to move to remote working.

Their use will only continue as these enterprises step into the future of hybrid working. Companies have growing commitments to environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, which means they have to demonstrate the benefits to society and address customers’ environmental concerns – all enabled by C&C services.

Over time, the market is bound to consolidate – as evidenced by Zoom’s agreed deal to buy Five9 for around $14.7bn. The generally accepted ‘marketing rule of three’ indicates that as individual markets mature, they tend to be dominated by three dominant players, so the battle has started to gain a place at the top table.

Experts predict that “Zoom’s deal is just the start of what will be an onslaught of C&C mergers and acquisitions.”Another key trend is the migration from upfront investment-heavy, on-premises products to pay-as-you-go-based cloud solutions, often from new competitors such as Facebook and Google. Facebook’s ‘Workplace’ now has over seven million paying business customers, while Google’s ‘Workspace’ is being actively marketed as a solution for hybrid meetings.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA