WORK FROM HOME REVOLUTION:
VIDEO-CONFERENCING IS ABOUT TO GET EXCITING
H
ealthcare, mobility, entertainment — since the coronavirus outbreak our daily lives and everyday rou nes have changed tremendously. Jeffrey Cole, a research professor at the University of Southern California noted that “Without prepara on or permission, we’re parcipa ng in the greatest social science experiment of all time. In the future, we’ll talk about ‘BC,’ before corona, and after.“ Governments, citizens, and companies have pooled all their collec ve resources to minimize the nega ve impacts of the pandemic while simultaneously working day in and day out to stop the spread. As we’re s ll learning to adapt to new habits — some physical, some digital — there are some aspects that we had to master faster than others and accept as the new normal, perhaps the biggest being telecommu ng. Tom Eagle, senior research director at Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company, believes that
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the COVID-19 crisis will be a “catalyst for transformative work cultures and prac ces that will be significantly characterized by remote work,” no ng that video-conferencing will become an indispensable tool for workforce collabora on and communica on. Inves ng in digital technologies has become a vital move for many businesses around the globe: since the lockdowns began, we have witnessed an emerging dependency on business conferencing tools, e-commerce, digital learning, VR-based training, and business apps supporting remote workers. Business Wire, a global leader in news release distribution and regulatory disclosure, pointed out that in March alone, video-conferencing apps — think Zoom, Slack, Microso Teams, Pexip, and others — saw a record 62 million downloads. When you think about it, the benefits of video-conferencing tools are mutual for both businesses and workers. According to independent market research
and analyst firms Wainhouse and Lifesize, companies save $11,000 annually per employee by using video-conferencing so ware, while employees save an average of $2,000-$7,000. Video-conferencing can also reduce travel costs by up to 30 percent and has reduced the need for business travel by as much as 47 percent. We have a few more impressive numbers for you right here. According to the ResearchandMarkets, the world’s leading source for interna onal market research reports and market data, the global video-conferencing market accounted for $3,85 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $9,65 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9,9 percent during the forecast period. The good news for today’s business leaders is that there are many op ons to choose from: Zoom Mee ngs, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts Meet, Cisco Webex Mee ngs, CyberLink U Mee ng, Lifesize, BlueJeans Meetings, Pexip, to name a few.
