We are sure that when 2020 started, no business had a global pandemic in their list of predictions. The year created unprecedented changes in global economics and business operations.
Most of the workforce started working from home, which created an immense demand for collaboration technologies like videoconferencing and team messaging. The use of collaboration software in companies became essential because a house can be a distracting workplace.
Companies would not be able to call their employees back to the office anytime soon. Moreover, according to the Gensler US Workplace survey, almost 52% of the American workforce are looking for a hybrid working environment in the future that combines workdays from home and office.
Therefore, the use of these technologies would continue in the year 2021 as companies gear to improve the productivity of employees working from home. Several emerging trends are affecting the development of collaboration software for organizations. We are going to discuss six of those trends in this article.
Distributed Teams
The distribution of the workforce in 2020 has popularised telecommuting and freelancing as enterprise collaborations. Workplace surveys have also revealed that almost half of the workforce is composed of freelancers these days.
With increasing numbers of freelancers and employees working from home, the trend of distributed teams is on the rise. The concept of distributed teams offers benefits to both employees and employers. Employees can enjoy working at their own pace, while employers can save on overheads.
However, collaboration and communication among employees in a distributed team seemed a bit of a challenge initially. That is why companies started implementing the use of the best collaboration software to close these gaps. Companies can use a collaboration software to achieve several business goals, such as:
- Project management
- Sharing files and documents
- Instant messaging between employees
- Audio and video conferencing
- Coordination between employees to complete tasks
Huddle Rooms
Most companies in the United States and the rest of the world have replaced cubicles with open floor plans. But open office environments can prove to distract at times.
To resolve the problem, almost every company introduced huddle rooms that facilitated scheduled or impromptu meetings. These rooms offered privacy for confidential discussions and encouraged better focus during brainstorming sessions.
The hybrid working environment would encourage using these huddle rooms because a part of the workforce will not be present in the office. Distributed teams can use these rooms to hold video conferences and other virtual meetings in 2021 to collaborate. Huddle rooms will ensure that the workforce present in the office can communicate with those at home without disrupting the rest of the floor.
Cloud-Based Communication Solutions
Businesses are replacing most of their legacy infrastructure with cloud-based solutions. So it is not surprising that companies prefer using cloud-based collaboration software to on-premise communication tools.
Cloud-based communication solutions offer several advantages to the workforce, such as convenience, file sharing, real-time task updates, centralized interaction, and several others.
Smart Meetings
The present collaboration technology offers several tools to conduct smarter meetings. Managers and employees can use virtual assistance, interactive boards, smart scheduling, and video cameras in the meeting rooms. Therefore they do not have to transcribe the meetings manually or struggle to pull data from their projects.
Digital whiteboards also allow them to prepare annotation charts during presentations using a smart stylus. Since all of these devices can be connected using the Internet of Technology, information can be relayed and synchronized faster.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
While the current VR and AR technology may not be as immersive as sci-fi movies, they are advanced enough to offer better collaboration. It is anticipated that there will be significant breakthroughs in VR and AR in 2021 that will enhance the present collaboration solutions.
Employees will be able to create 3D visuals so that their teammates can understand their ideas more clearly. For example, engineers and architects will be able to create 3D mockups of their ideas instead of explaining things via their computers. While the hardware required for this technology is too bulky in the present, we can expect more compact devices in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have progressed by leaps and bounds in the year 2020. Research by experts in 2018 had revealed that more than 40% of companies in the United States would be using artificial intelligence to unify their communication and collaboration in the coming years.
Many organizations have already started using voice assistance, predictive tools, and bots to achieve various business goals. Collaboration tools will also use artificial intelligence and machine learning and the future to leverage data, protect communications, and increase productivity.
Companies have already started building collaborative environments to match the needs of the current workforce. We can expect the future technology of these tools to revolutionize the way people work in an organization. The trends we discussed would surely affect the advancement of collaborative solutions in 2021 and the future.
