Earlier this year, 8x8 published a number of trend reports including Unified Communications Trends to Watch, Contact Center Trends to Watch, and Creating Digital DNA with Microsoft Teams (an attitude study).

Can you believe that we are already halfway thrrough the year?! To see how those trends are holding up, I interviewed a few 8x8 technical experts who speak with customers and partners daily, including Oisin Glynn, Global Solutions Architect and Jamaal Savwoir, Director of Sales Engineering working exclusively with channel partners.

In our reports and Essentials Guides, ( Check out 2021 Definitive Guide to CCaaS) we argued that organizations would apply what they learned from the pandemic experience in 2020 to be more strategic in 2021 about deploying a modern communications platform built for the long term and the new world of work.

Glynn: I see organizations doubling down on the things they have learned in 2020. They 're trying to figure out how to make them part of the permanent way forward with a hybrid work model. IT executives have had time to think about their needs and are proactively making plans to set themselves up for success down the line.

Savwoir: While many businesses pivoted easily to the cloud and work-from-home programs, lots of others did not. So I am definitely seeing increasing numbers of transformation initiatives that grew out of 2020. 8x8 is working closely with its partners to meet these customers where they are. That could mean showing customers how new services can build on their successes or how struggling organizations can turn it around.

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Microsoft Teams growth is another trends topic we explored. Earlier this week, the company announced Teams has 250 million active users so it is obviously a continuing big trend. 8x8 customers want to understand how 8x8 Voice for Teams and MS Teams work together. One executive said the Teams integration is driving partners to lead with 8x8 more frequently because of Teams’ popularity and the Voice for Teams’ ease of use.

Glynn: Enabling hybrid work is much more complex than allowing employees to work from home. Take contact center representatives, for example. If they were all physically located in the same place, things like training and performance management would be easier than if some were in the office and others were spread out in their homes. How do you ensure that workers get the same levels of training and monitoring regardless of physical location? We’re spending lots of time helping customers understand the plumbing of hybrid work, the things that may not be obvious but are required to make a distributed workforce efficient and effective.

Savwoir: Having a hybrid workforce means a house, a coffee shop, and even the beach can be a branch office. We are having lots of security-related conversations because customers want peace of mind that they can protect privacy and prevent data loss. This is resulting in an uptick in discussions about services such as multi-factor authentication and secure access service edge (SASE) that can enhance security and increase performance.

Amelia Generalis, 8x8’s Chief People Officer, authored an essay in our UCaaS trends report that highlighted the growing importance of HR and IT working together to address the challenges of hybrid work. One area for collaboration is tool adoption. If you are investing in chat apps, video conferencing, etc., you want employees to use them. Also, you want HR policies to drive IT policy, not the reverse. This is another area where HR and IT are collaborating.

It is interesting that as the hybrid work model emerges, facilities executives are getting a bigger seat at the table when it comes to corporate strategy. Colin Carmichael, 8x8 SVP & CIO, describes this as a tripod alliance with facilities, IT, and HR as the legs connoting the importance of the three departments working together.

IT Services Trends

Savwoir: Deployment services, staff augmentation, and adoption are areas where there are great partner opportunities to offer services on top of UCaaS and CCaaS. I know of a company that helps customers install cloud communication services that spun out that team into a new company because they were growing so fast.

Oisin: Organizations, especially large ones, are doing cost-benefit analyses of hiring specialists to perform installation and related services versus doing it themselves. I am starting to see a shift in thinking where companies are more frequently feeling like it makes sense to have a cloud communications expert, who does this stuff every day, do the work rather than an IT staff that is already overburdened.

Quick Hits:

  • One of our partners at CDW advises his clients to consider networking services to optimize UCaaS/CCaaS performance.
  • With offices around the world opening up, Oisin says that interest in video solutions for conference rooms is starting to return.
  • Our experts say self-service applications are the most popular AI application and that trend ought to continue.

2022 Trends

Be sure to read our 2021 trend reports and help us compile our trends for 2022. The research process begins next month. We will be seeking thoughts from our partners as to what they see as the big trends, plus we'll have slots available for individuals to author their own trend essays to be featured in our 2022 trends reports and promotional campaigns. Stay tuned for more details.