Today, digitalization has become an increasing focus in the past year since many companies relied on digital operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As employees transitioned to working from home, telecommuting and virtual meetings quickly became part of daily operations, as coworkers and consumers tried to stay connected. Enterprises were forced to seek efficient and secure communications as their new highest priority.
With this newfound emphasis, organizations quickly began looking for ways to bolster their communications. Many organizations today they’re finding the desired level of communication stability using digital communication platforms. These platforms offer a range of vital functions such as voice and video calls, instant messaging, document sharing, conference calling, collaboration, and more. Employees have access to this through an integrated suite of software.
While the pandemic sparked the emphasis on digital communications, platform technology was already blossoming. In 2021, the global cloud communication platform market was valued at $2.71 Billion. The market is expected to grow, alongside business technology use, at a CAGR of 14.1 percent from now to 2028, with estimates putting the 2028 market value at more than $7 Billion.
The growth can be attributed to the regular communications the technology can offer enterprises and the sense of community and collaboration the platforms can offer the employees. A Harvard Business Review study found that employees in the modern workplace now spend around 80 percent of their time on activities that require collaboration with other workers. These platforms are crucial to an employee’s daily processes.
Eleviant is a technology company that specializes in Mobile, Cloud, Web, IoT, AR, RPA, and AI Technologies. Eleviant works with companies in the Manufacturing, Logistics, Retail, Healthcare, Finance, and Services industries. A recent Eleviant webinar discussed PeopleOne, a communications platform, and how it can improve business processes and help coworkers work together.
“Many organizations are facing this problem right now. We’re all looking for the best way to keep our most important assets—our people—engaged and feeling like they’re part of its mission, business values, and goals,” said Raul Guerra, Sales Director at Eleviant. “Many organizations had a strong and high-performing culture before the pandemic, and we want to keep that. The pandemic has given many organizations new problems to solve if they want to elevate and scale.”
Chris O’Day, Director of Marketing at LGA, LLP added his thoughts on the problems with current communications platforms and some of the small details he thinks can make a big difference.
“It’s like using an all-Teams channel, but those don’t provide compelling interaction. People either turn off the notifications many times or don’t get to it, and it’s not as visually appealing,” said O’Day. “Yes, the mobile display is very visually appealing when you’re just posting things on MS Teams. But with these, you’re not getting that dedicated widget to people’s birthdays or dedicated to a news item as you’d wish.”
“As for the ‘Kudos’ feature, it’s great. Let’s say someone went the extra mile for you and stayed late, worked on a project, or did something great for a client, you can write them up and comment on it, and then everyone across your organization sees it and has access to it,” O’Day continued. “They can like it, comment on it, so it’s just giving some more appreciation for the people who deserve it.”
O’Day also quickly discussed the importance of having a communications platform for employees.
“Having a focused hub where we can interact as a firm has been great for us and our culture, in all the things we’re doing. The application enables people to come and see it, feel a little bit of comradery, and then also digest it on their own time,” said O’Day. “We have people in other states and people working interesting hours so they can consume it at their own time. With PeopleOne, they can see the things the firm is doing and get a little bit more connection. Especially as we’re coming out of the pandemic, it’s been great as we’re still transitioning back to the office and seeing people again. It’s another great touchpoint where people can see the things in the firm, be reminded, and have a little bit of connection as well.”
Finally, O’Day wrapped up the session with some advice on making sure communications platforms promote collaboration among employees.
“With engagement, we measure with our likes and comments in a way that helps us keep the wheel turning using a content schedule, making sure that we have fresh things every day,” said O’Day. “If someone comes to the Intranet every day and sees the same thing repeatedly, they’re not going to inspire to interact. The team wants to see new things. It’s important to update your widgets and update your content weekly, at the minimum.”
Be part of the conversation about how companies are leveraging the latest technologies to navigate the evolving workplace at Future of Work Expo 2022. The conference focuses on key elements of today's re-imagined workplace, not just for improving productivity, but also providing a better customer experience, through the intersection of technology and the human element. Future of Work Expo is part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW experience, taking place June 21-24, 2022 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Edited by
Erik Linask
