Q&A
Magnet vs Mandate After years of hybrid working strategies, how have businesses built a policy around working from home?
Have you picked up any trends so far in 2023? From a collaboration product perspective we’re seeing the mass adoption of native Microsoft Teams rooms, but also Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), collaboration bars and the all-in-one products. Looking forward, I think we’re going to see an interesting dynamic around Zoom and Cisco as they build out compelling suites for the collaborative room space. Everyone is talking about AI at the moment but it’s still very early days. With that being said, so many vendors in the Unified Communication and Collaborations space have built artificial intelligence into their products now, so it will be interesting to see how the adoption progresses and what use cases are going to spike trends in 2023. To accompany all of this, I think we’ll also see a continual trend of mergers and acquisitions in the UCC space this year. Do you think businesses have settled into hybrid working yet? I believe we’re still at an intersection of hybrid work, but it’s something that’s not going away anytime soon. I’ve heard a term used by some vendors ‘Magnet vs Mandate’ which is an interesting term for the challenge of the office space. Essentially this is the choice between asking ‘How do we create an attractive environment or experience for users to come into the office?’, the magnet, or introducing a mandate where the executives mandate that ‘you must be in the office’. I believe many of the businesses that are thriving are embracing the magnet approach. There are lots of examples out there where the business is seeing an improvement in productivity, as well as happy and empowered employees. Business owners are embracing the idea of removing the friction for people to find each other and giving them a reason to come into the office. From a technology
As we move past the end of the 2023 financial year, it’s time to plot out strategies for the coming twelve months. Hybrid working has now become a staple of the working culture, with working from home being seen as a red line that potential employees won’t move past. As a result, the collaboration platforms have been working for years now on ways to make this shift as painless as possible. So as we move into the fourth year of dealing with this challenge, how have businesses adapted to the change? And what does the future workplace hold for the everyday employee? With executive and employee opinion converging on this matter, Greg Bennett, Business Manager at Midwich, shares his thoughts on the state of collaborations, and how businesses are coping with this change, with UC Advanced. What are you focussing on at the moment? Our focus is on offering our customers solutions, expertise and guidance in the UC&C space. We have a comprehensive set of vendors and alliance partners, combined with our value-added services allow our customers to deliver great experiences for end users.
Greg Bennett Business Manager
midwich.com
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