It has been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit ASEAN. Like most businesses remote working has become the norm for many. The success of platforms like Zoom has put digital communication at the forefront of the new normal.
COVID-19 forced organisations to embrace digital in a more holistic manner. This includes the adoption of Unified Communications and Collaborations (UC&C) products and services.
How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of This 2021, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth to be driven by customers across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects.
According to Rich Costello, senior research analyst, IDC, UC&C have become the lifeblood of many companies and have profoundly changed the way people work, mostly from home at present, but also when some employees (but not all) return to the office sometime in 2021.
Peter Quinlan, VP of business collaboration for Tata Communications, acknowledges that when it comes to communication, priority is now placed on the desired experience as opposed to what technology or even platform to use.
Experience matters
Referring to UC&C as a constant evolution, Quinlan note that the days when communication and/or collaboration was siloed by technology, to one where today it is about apps, platforms and experiences.
Despite enterprises maintaining vestiges of a walled garden approach to UCC, users are getting on with it in terms of functionality. The functionality has converged around those sorts of things voice/video chat, presence, information, content sharing.
He observed that people can get on with new tools intuitively, able to navigate in the environment even if they are just a guest in the meeting.
“I think people are getting on with it. And using the functionality rather than worrying about the tools per se.” he added.
Securing the platform
Quinlan also acknowledged that the place of work has changed from fixed office locations connected to corporate data centres, to where connectivity is limited only by proximity to a cloud.
The whole collaboration stack has moved to the cloud. The mobile user is now the norm, rather than the exception.
With the collaboration functions now sitting with a service provider, for example Teams or Webex, enterprises need to evaluate how the security paradigm has shifted.
Quinlan expressed concern that the confidence in the security of AWS or Microsoft is overshadowing the reality that vulnerability still exists particularly at the last mile. He points out this is important given the growing number of people that connect to corporate networks from their mobile devices at home and in public places.
“All you need is one point of vulnerability for a hacker. I think, the paradigm is shifted, and you have to get across this new environment where the mobile user is the norm, not the exception, and the app is sitting in the cloud application service provider. And then what new vulnerabilities that it creates, whether it is on a home Wi-Fi network,” he continued.
He stressed that its not just security that should be a concern – but compliance as well. He cited the example of some regulated industries that require conversations to be records. This was not an issue when the dialogue occurred at the office.
“What happens now is that the conversation happens using the mobile phone with a software client, from a cloud application service provider, or even using just a mobile phone with a native dialler and dialling out using their Singtel and their Starhub plan,” continued Quinlan.
Re-architecting communicating strategies post-COVID-19
Quinlan acknowledged that users have extended the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to even their preferred communications platforms and applications.
There will be people who will opt for using Zoom or WhatsApp or Blue Jeans or any variety of prosumer technologies where they can set up an independent account. Some may even opt for freemium solutions that do not require payment. Others may expense out the tools because their manager likes the tool and they'll let him do it.
“There's a lot of stuff that's crept into the environment, and users are using it. At the end of the day, the folks getting the job done are the best people to determine what the right tool to get their job done,” he added.
According to Mordor Intelligence, companies make their choice based on the future direction of the platform.
“Selecting the right platform helps companies reduce IT costs, reduce IT management overhead, and reduce integration challenges. Taking a holistic platform approach results in substantial benefits in end-user training, end-user adoption, and finally, business value,” continued the analyst.
Decision points for CIOs
Given the abundance of choices, Quinlan suggests that CIOs look the under covers when evaluating what solution to adopt for the enterprise. This applies just as well to cloud or SaaS-delivered solutions.
He suggested to look at how and where data (voice, video or text) is being hosted. Governance and compliance have not gone away. These remain important – no matter the relative age of the innovation.
“You do need to, at least, be aware of how that (data) is governed in your industry, and what the future expectation of that is. And look at where your cloud provider is hosted, how they are hosted and how they manage the data,” called out Quinlan.
Click on the PodChat player above and listen in on the conversation with Quinlan as he covers issues around unified communications and collaboration.
- How will the nature of work continue to evolve?
- In the context of our new way of working, what is Unified Communications and Collaboration?
- Will UCC tools become less important as most Asia Pacific organisations look to adopt a work anywhere arrangement?
- How can organisations enhance or tailor their UCC capabilities to align with their new work arrangement – be it hybrid, remote or office-first?
- What new features can employees expect from their UCC tools in the coming months or years?
- What technologies will shape the future of UCC capabilities?
- Enterprises are spoiled for choice when it comes to UCC tools, technologies and services. What is your advice to CIOs when re-architecting their communication strategy to support the new normal?
- What questions to ask providers?
- 30 seconds, what is Tata Communications’ value proposition in this space?
