1. Changing communication preferences

Now years into the COVID-19 pandemic and with much of the workforce successfully conducting business from home, it’s safe to say that remote work is here to stay. Our Future of Remote Work study revealed that one quarter of workers expect to remain at least partially remote once the pandemic is finally behind us.

Importantly, perceptions of workplace communications have evolved during the pandemic. Our research reveals that we’re currently at an inflection point where email — with its many problems like spam which still haven’t been resolved in 50 years — has lost its status as the preferred communication medium of choice.

For the first time, a slim majority of IT professionals (51%) report that employees now prefer real-time messaging apps (such as Teams and Slack) over email for internal communications. 

Additionally, the current state of communications technologies is a bit disjointed, with many organizations now using separate vendors for video conferencing, instant messaging, email, and VoIP solutions. As workplace communications evolve, it’s important for vendors to know that there’s now a desire among most organizations (51%) to consolidate functionality into fewer, more all-encompassing solutions.

IT professionals in Spiceworks share thoughts on using email vs. instant messaging:

2. Evolving communications beliefs

As chat and video conferencing solutions such as Slack, Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet have competed with each other to attract more customers, they’ve steadily improved their offerings. Our data indicates that with each passing year, more IT professionals believe their organizations’ needs are being met by these tools.Currently, 77% of respondents believe communications solutions effectively meet business demands, up from 67% in 2019.

It also appears that over time, more IT professionals have come to trust the level of security offered by these communications solutions  — despite some snafus in the early days of the pandemic. For example, in response to an outcry among users, Zoom added end-to-end encryption to their service in the second half of 2020.

Currently, 63% of companies believe their communications tools offer adequate encryption to secure both internal and external communications, up from 49% in 2019.

3. Growing challenges

In recent years, businesses have also experienced some pain caused by communications solutions. From a security standpoint, survey respondents reported employees increasingly using unapproved communications tools outside of IT control (currently 37%, up from 31% in 2019).

Additionally, one-third of IT professionals report that employees in their organization regularly experience technical difficulties with communications tools, up from 28% in 2019.

4. Changes in technology adoption

In August of 2020, we reported significant YoY growth in the usage of workplace communications tools, due to the pandemic-driven shift to remote work. At the time, approximately 4 out of 5 businesses were using web conferencing tools, and that number has held steady since.

While new usage of these tools isn’t necessarily growing, there is now a desire to improve the functionality of these tools by making them more secure by strengthening encryption or making them easier to use by consolidating multiple vendors’ solutions. 

For example, a majority of IT professionals (51%) said their organization prefers to work with vendors that offer an “all-encompassing suite of communications solutions,” and we’ve seen increased adoption of unified communications platforms that merge multiple communications tools within a single platform. 

• 32% of businesses now use unified communications solutions, up from 22% in 2019
• 39% of businesses now use secure communications platforms, up from 32% in 2019

Over the same time period, analog voice has followed a downward trend as the technology is being replaced by more modern digital technologies.

Within these categories, the biggest opportunities for vendors are among large companies. Not only are enterprises (500+ employees) more likely to use modern communications technologies, they plan to adopt them at higher rates in the future.

For example, 39% of enterprises currently use unified communications solutions, and an additional 37% of enterprises plan to start using them within the next two years.

Similarly, 52% of enterprises have adopted secure communications platforms, and an additional 28% plan to start using them within the next two years.

5. Opportunities

In conclusion, the use of communications solutions rapidly proliferated during the rush to remote work. Now that businesses and users are accustomed to using these tools, preferences have shifted.

Already, many workers have a preference for chat apps over email, and as communications technologies continue to evolve, they will likely displace legacy solutions.

Going forward, businesses will increasingly look to protect data and consolidate communication functionality into fewer tools. Opportunities for vendors will include adding secure messaging functionality to their platforms, and offering unified communications solutions.

As usual, enterprises will lead the way in adoption of newer technologies, with smaller business (which typically have access to fewer resources) following suit a few years later. During this transition to newer solutions, IT professionals have experienced some pain while users work from home. Finally, rising reports of technical difficulties and employees going around approved communications channels could suggest there’s room for improvement in the usability and manageability of these tools.