Pramod Sharda is the CEO of IceWarp India & Middle East, a seasoned Business professional with a sharp acumen for business. As CEO of IceWarp India, his role is in providing leadership to grow IceWarp’s presence and create a market share in India. Pramod’s vast experience in setting up, managing, and running IT businesses includes: Business Unit Leadership, Business Planning and P&L Ownership, Product Development, Product Pricing, GTM Strategy, Sales & Business Development, Project Management of large PAN India projects, Data center & Core IT Infrastructure Operations management, Customer Experience Management, Revenue Assurance.
Last year, Covid-19 induced lockdowns and safety protocols forced businesses to rethink and rejig the way they operate. Thankfully, technology saved the day for thousands of businesses and millions of workers. They could swiftly move to enterprise collaboration solutions to work from home and any other part of the world. Fast forward to today, many countries in the developed and developing world have vaccinated a large amount of their working population. There is a consensus among experts that future workplaces will be based on hybrid models where people may choose to work from the office for optimal human interactions or anywhere in the world to take care of their responsibilities.
Despite the share of complexities and challenges arising from limited in-person interactions while working from home, people have experienced several benefits of this new way of work. These benefits are for themselves as well as their organization. These benefits are better work-life balance, fewer distractions, increased attention span, reduced commuting time and costs, upskilling, and high motivation levels. Because of these advantages, many people would want to continue working in a hybrid environment even when we leave the deadly pandemic behind us.
Given the emergence and adoption of various hybrid work models, the demand for enterprise collaboration solutions will continue to have strong momentum. According to a recent report by Acumen Research and Consulting, the global team collaboration software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 13.5 % from 2021 to 2028. This market is expected to reach around USD 27.8 billion by 2027. The two significant demand pockets will be North America and the Asia Pacific.
The various collaboration solutions have enabled businesses to improve people’s performance even as they work in unconventional hybrid environments. By using these solutions, people can work seamlessly between their homes and juggle among different priorities effectively. They stay tuned with ongoing tasks and their teammates without the fear of missing out. Moreover, as meetings start and finish on time (unlike an in-person meeting prone to delays, logistical challenges, etc.), people have more time for creative thinking and execution. This additional time becomes an enabler for employee engagement and motivation even as they do not get any in-person interactions with their peers, leaders, or clients.
For companies looking to hire and retain the best of talent, collaboration solutions play an essential role. By leveraging these solutions, recruiters can go beyond geographic limitations to identify and hire the right people. Moreover, with the help of appropriate mobile device management (MDM), people can login from anywhere and through multiple devices. It enhances the work experience for people and makes them more productive even on the go. As a result, businesses in intense knowledge industries can drive a strategic advantage in human resources.
Another benefit of enterprise collaboration tools is that it helps businesses track their people’s performance, even away from a brick-and-mortar workplace. For example, these solutions can monitor login hours, team collaboration hours, wellness time off, etc., to assess a team member’s involvement at work. As a result, HR and business leaders have better insights into employee performance.
The above factors are sufficient reasons to believe that enterprise collaboration solutions will shape our future hybrid workplaces, a win-win situation for businesses and their people. A word of caution here is that along with the benefits, collaborative solutions have their vulnerabilities as well. There are more opportunities for cyber-attacks in ransomware, phishing, social engineering, etc. Therefore, businesses also need to treat digital security as a high priority and not merely an afterthought. They need to invest in antivirus, antispam, other forms of firewall protection, and systems updates.It is a matter of embracing the proven technology with all the checks and balances.