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The complexion of work has gone through significant changes in recent decades, as a wave of technological advancements coupled with an increasing specialization of individual tasks has ushered in the era of a decentralized workplace and interdisciplinary teams. For many organizations, these changes have made collaborative work an essential prerequisite not just for their success but also for their survival. In fact, 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.
However, with innovative devices and applications spreading out workforces further than ever before, enterprises are finding it more challenging to reach the desired levels of collaboration.
About 16 percent of remote workers cite difficulties in collaboration and communication as one of their biggest challenges. On top of this, 97 percent of business executives feel that lack of alignment within a team due to remote work has a major negative impact on project or task results.
To now attain the collaboration levels they desire, enterprises are increasingly turning to technology to solve a problem technology has created. Today, 80 percent of businesses apply some form of collaboration tools to optimize their business operations. The most notable tool being leveraged by enterprises to drive collaboration levels are collaboration platforms, also known as collaboration software.
“Productivity applications, especially real-time collaboration applications designed to maximize teamwork effectiveness by providing a central platform where employees can openly share knowledge, data, and documents to solve specific business problems or complete creative projects together have never been more vital,” said Robert Belgrave, Chief People Officer at Pax8, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing Cloud Marketplaces supporting Managed Service Providers and their business customers. “They help enable team members to interact from any location on the cloud, sparking innovation and driving progress to boost profits and company growth, regardless of where they happen to be physically located.”
Amidst the remote work revolution, collaboration software is swiftly becoming commonplace within enterprises. The global team collaboration software market size was valued at $21.69 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 percent from 2022 to 2030, putting the expected market size to $17.9 billion by 2025.
“Organizations must be sure that the technology actually improves collaboration levels, otherwise forcing people to use an ineffective application is simply money down the drain,” Belgrave said. “When it comes to measuring collaboration success, there are three main goals, quantifying collaboration, collecting data used to measure collaboration, and the effective use of data collected.”
Belgrave explained that the most popular productivity and collaboration applications on the Pax8 marketplace help track these types of metrics, making it easy to see the benefits of leveraging one. “Apart from the usual self-reported employee impressions, data collected by the collaboration applications by monitoring online and in-person activities, helps organizations track progress, including a range of KPIs. However, not every enterprise has the same KPIs, or is collaborating in the same way, meaning each organization needs a collaboration software that fits their unique needs.”
To find such a platform, many enterprises are turning to cloud marketplaces in order to find the solution to the current collaboration problems.
A cloud marketplace is a type of application marketplace and is synonymous with a SaaS marketplace. At a cloud marketplace, customers can go to an online storefront to find, purchase, and manage cloud-based applications. These marketplaces can offer varying degrees of functionality, from simple listings where customers can compare SaaS (News - Alert) products and be referred to a vendor to complete their purchases, to a full digital commerce experience that allows customers to buy and immediately provision software.
While cloud marketplaces are still young compared to other digital innovations today, they are already booming in terms of both vendors and customers. In fact, a survey found that 77 percent of buyer respondents have some enterprise cloud agreement (EA) in place, and of those,?90 percent say they plan to purchase via Marketplace in the future. The growth can be attributed to the advantages provided to both the buyers and sellers, but also to the sheer number of options that cloud marketplaces offer.
For example, on the cloud marketplace of Pax8, there are a variety of communication offerings to choose from, including:
- airSlate: A global SaaS technology company that serves over a hundred million innovators worldwide with its no-code workflow automation, electronic signature, and document management solutions
- Enlyft: Built with AI at the core, Enlyft provides access to real-time company profiles, including firmographic information, technology usage, buying intent, and more. The result is insight that enables them to identify, prioritize, and engage prospective accounts more effectively.
- Exclaimer: Provides centralized email signature management solutions for Office 365 (now Microsoft (News - Alert) 365), G Suite (now Google Workspace), and Microsoft Exchange, that enables companies to manage their employees’ email signatures efficiently and deliver consistent branding, promotions, disclaimers, and compliance statements, while substantially cutting admin overheads.
- Microsoft: The leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more
“Collaboration is always going to be a crucial part of enterprise productivity, making it essential to the survival and success of an organization in any industry,” Belgrave summarized. “With technological innovation only expected to continue, and even ramp up, efficiently collaborating across screens is going to become more and more common for employees and executives. This makes finding a proper collaboration software critical to remaining competitive in the digital age, and a cloud marketplace is just the place for an enterprise to find the right platform fit.”
Edited by Greg Tavarez
