businessinfomag.uk
magazine
28
Changing working practices are driving demand for more
effective collaboration tools. Tayla Ansell reports
Collaboration and teamwork are two
of the defining characteristics of the
modern workplace. Yet, according to a
new report by Mitel, most businesses
are struggling with ineffective
communication tools and outdated
working practices.
In its new study, the
2017Workplace
Productivity and Communications
Technology Report
, Mitel reveals that
nearly 15% of employees’ total work time
is wasted on inefficient communications,
at a cost to UK businesses of £8,800 per
employee, per year.
In particular, it found that employees
spend most of their communications
time reading and replying to email,
suggesting that email remains widely
used in business despite declining use
amongst consumers.
Mitel Networks UK Vice President
Simon Skellon said: “In businesses,
email remains the default tool used by
employees, despite the fact that new
enterprise applications that combine
collaboration, chat, video and voice in a
consistent workflow are prevalent. Real-
time, single app interfaces that work
seamlessly across all multiple devices
are the future.”
Kornelius Brunner, chief innovation
officer at TeamViewer, expects the take-
up of collaboration solutions to keep
growing as more and more are launched.
He said: “The fact that a number of
major players have recently announced
or launched collaboration tools is
certainly a clear indicator that this
market is growing. According to a recent
‘Apps Run theWorld’ report, the market
for these tools is expected to reach $8.4
billion by 2020, compared with $7.1
billion in 2015 at a compound annual
growth rate of 3.4%.”
Microsoft is one of these major
players. It launched Microsoft Teams
towards the end of last year to capitalise
on the popularity of chat services.
A company spokesperson said:
“According to a survey by the Austin-
based IT network Spiceworks, 42% of
people are using chat rooms to get work
done and more enterprises are looking
to adopt a chat service in the future.
Specifically, the survey noted that 17%
of companies plan to deploy Microsoft
Teams in the next two years. For the most
active organisations, the number of users
is growing by 30% a month, with message
usage doubling every two months.”
Two-year old team messenger
Flock has benefited first hand from
accelerating demand for team
collaboration tools. CEO Bhavin Turakhia
said: “Since Flock entered the market,
we’ve experienced significant global
traction and 200% growth.”
On this basis, Turakhia plans to invest
a further $25 million in the company
to meet global demand and to enhance
product innovation – Flock is rolling out
new features in the US, the UK, India
and Spain, and expanding into Brazil and
Russia.
Working as a team
Culture of collaboration
Chris Farinacci, Head of Business at
Asana, says the growing market for
team collaboration tools can be put
down to changing ways of working,
which are more dependent on effective
collaboration.
He points out that all teams,
departments and companies rely on
effective collaboration and coordination,
and that this requirement is growing as
knowledge work becomes more complex
and distributed.
Brunner of TeamViewer makes the
same point. “Technology, societal change,
the rise of flexible, remote working and
hot-desking are just some of the things
challenging traditional office culture.
This is resulting in a fundamental shift
in many of the ways of working that
society has taken for granted, such as
taking weekends off, working nine-to-five
and commuting to an office,” he said.
Further acknowledgement of the shift
in working culture comes from Microsoft.
A spokesperson said: “Within the
workplace, teams are increasingly diverse
and dynamic, involving people working
from different locations, with varied
workstyles and expectations for how
to communicate and collaborate. They
thrive when information is open and
transparent, when content is accessible
and easily discoverable. Microsoft Teams
was built with this in mind, to provide a
hub for teamwork where everyone can
stay in the know and easily collaborate.”
Why switch?
Of course, organisations and teams
worked together long before the boom
in collaboration tools, sharing thoughts
and files via email and perhaps even
using instant messaging services like
Whatsapp. So why should they switch
to a dedicated team messaging and
collaboration platform?
One reason is that solutions from
Chris Farinacci,
Head of Business,
Asana
Asana Project Calendar
Flock Teams
Cisco Spark
Microsoft Teams
COLLABORATION
