Asked how much time they expect to work in the office once the current Corona crisis is over, a majority (72%) of the participants at the SmartCom Summit talk show chose two to three days per week.
The sudden changes in working habits were high on the agenda in the online talk show on June 30, moderated by Charles Groenhuijsen and Rob Kurver. “We are doing in thirty days what had been planned to take two or three years,” Marc Winthers (Group VP & GM, Worldwide Telecommunications at IDC) in New York (calling in from home) commented, referring to technology changes that enable work from home.
Scientific research in the USA suggests that 36% of the current workforce can work from home. A recent study of PWC in The Netherlands assumes that fifty per cent of the Dutch workforce can work from home, saving almost 4 billion euro in office rent and travel costs.
“The Corona outbreak accelerated us into the future,” Remco de Kramer (Product Marketing Manager Modern Work at Microsoft) added. “We went from a situation where Microsoft Teams was seen as ‘the future of smart communications’ to a business critical tool to keep your business running. In The Netherlands our statistics showed an increase of 14 times the number of active users in just four days.”
According to Stijn Nijhuis (CEO Enreach) there are more changes ahead. “We have scratched the surface in working from home. The tools we are using are rapidly evolving. Give us a few more months and we will start to see real progress.”
That progress does not only affect remote workers. It will also change office routines, Sebastiaan Hoogstadt (Sales Director Benelux at POLY) predicts. “Investments in video equipment did not slow down, as you would expect when offices are closed. Companies are now spending money to be prepared for a future where video conferencing will be more important.”
“It’s not only a rise of video technology but also a shift in the way we collaborate. Personal and professional life is more intertwined so we also see a rise in tools to support the necessary collaboration to stimulate culture and creativity,” added Florian Overkamp (Founder of Speakup).
The discussion on Work Anywhere from the recorded talk show can be viewed online at https://smartcomsummit.com/trends/3-work-anywhere/.
SmartCom Summit 2020 was webcasted on June 30 with hundreds of international participants. The recorded talk show can be viewed online here. The online talk show with its community aims to be a platform for smart communications technology suppliers and users to discuss current developments.
Follow ups are foreseen for this fall. For more information check the website.
