The pandemic has helped the industry to significantly expand its share of the communications market and increase its popularity among users by an order of magnitude. It is important to note that 2020 managed to change the opinion of users about videoconferencing as a technology that requires a lot of resources, complex devices and long training.
In 2021, the pandemic footprint will continue to have a big impact:
- to develop new equipment for videoconferencing at all levels (from home to professional devices);
- to change the concept of content for digital signage;
- to create new visualization tools for virtual events;
- even changes in clothing design (today, fashion designers place their company logos on shirt collars to increase brand awareness).
Demand for video conferencing solutions will remain high, forcing manufacturers to quickly develop and bring to market more products that take into account the different needs of users.
Part 1. Evolution of the structure of business processes
Reduced availability of physical meeting and conference rooms
The shift to telecommuting has significantly reduced the number of face-to-face meetings. In addition, the development of videoconferencing technologies and the reduction in the cost of videoconferencing solutions allow you to do business from almost anywhere in the world and reduce the need to organize a large number of meeting rooms.
Today, many companies are rethinking their approach to business infrastructure, focusing on virtual communications services. The business was able to reduce costs by reducing the number of office premises, changing their specialization, as well as reducing the number of business trips.
Companies that are able to work with clients online are ready not only to transfer a significant part of their employees to remote mode, but also to “change registration”, changing the location to a more profitable one in terms of rental cost and volume of other expenses. This process is already being seen in the United States, where IT companies are moving headquarters from Silicon Valley to Florida or Texas.
Before the pandemic, only a third of conference rooms and less than half of desktops could be videoconferencing, according to a study by Nemertes. Since in the near future the composition of the conference participants will remain mixed (i.e., it will include both those present in the office and remote employees), the classic meeting and conference rooms will be refurbished:
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A striking example of quick adaptation to new trends and user needs is Yealink, a videoconferencing solutions manufacturer from China. Thanks to the wide range of videoconferencing products presented by the company to the global market, Yealink is ready to implement any scenario - from personal communication tools to solutions for large meeting and conference rooms. Devices from this vendor support various standards and platforms: classic video conferencing solutions (H.323 | SIP), specialized video terminals for Microsoft Teams Room and Zoom Room, personal BYOD solutions.
Data protection
With the unprecedented load on the Internet, as well as the widespread use of video conferencing in industries that require a special approach to privacy (healthcare or law), the degree of data protection during transmission should also grow. Vendors will pay more and more attention to analytical functions, development of multilayer encryption systems, multifactor authentication, vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection tools.
Partnerships between hardware and software vendors will grow and deepen as business owners choose to implement workflow in a single interface rather than switching between systems.
This trend is interesting even for manufacturers of traditional VoIP solutions who are trying to include video conferencing in the standard set of functions (for example, in the new line of Yeastar P-series IP PBXs) or continue to develop their own web meeting services (as the 3CX company does ).
As a professional communication platform for business and call centers, 3CX offers its users and functionality for online meetings. If before the pandemic this service could be considered additional, now web meetings have become one of the main advantages of the platform. The 3CX solution includes both free (up to 25 participants) and fairly inexpensive packages (263 euros per year - up to 100 participants; 319 euros per year - up to 250 participants).
In addition, 3CX does not limit the length of web meetings, unlike the free version of Zoom, which forced small businesses, startups and, for example, private educators to reduce meetings to 40 minutes. Do not forget about the main tasks of the 3CX platform as a professional cloud IP-PBX: in addition to the web meeting service, the user receives a backup office IP-PBX for 4 simultaneous calls.
Free or low-cost solutions like this clearly compete with industry leaders. Although their functionality is somewhat inferior to large players, the presence of a large number of regularly working and in-demand tools (rights management, recording, chat, content and screen sharing, whiteboard mode, polls, etc.) significantly reduces these disadvantages.
Nevertheless, despite some disorganization, the simultaneous use of solutions from several providers allows smaller players in the industry to assert themselves. In the field of teleworking solutions, many promising startups have emerged (Bluescape, Eloops, Figma, Slab, Tandem) offering solutions for collaboration, content creation and sharing, project tracking and employee training.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms are capable of efficiently detecting and filtering background noise. Thus, software solutions can minimize any interference, enabling more productive communication.
Through the development of features such as object detection and face recognition, artificial intelligence can improve the quality of video conferencing, for example, by correcting the participants' illumination. Intelligent camera control and auto-framing makes each speaker's presentation available to the rest of the participants, regardless of their number and location.
Significant advances in data mining allow even the mood of participants to be monitored and feedback sent to the organizer, which, if used correctly, can significantly increase employee engagement.
Improving video quality and audio performance
The geographical distribution of personnel requires videoconferencing solutions to effectively and realistically reproduce personal interactions between employees. The latest technology can dramatically improve video quality with HD displays and 4K support. However, studies have shown that when the sound quality decreases, people prefer to turn off the cameras and continue to communicate only in voice mode. This proves the need to maintain high performance audio channels.
Package offers
When transferring employees to teleworking mode, many companies are faced with the lack of proven templates and algorithms for organizing the workplace. This forces manufacturers to think ahead about the solution by creating BYOD kits or including related products, such as a router, which is configured by technicians to meet company security standards. In addition, this approach allows you to solve the problem of compatibility of hardware components and technical support of the solution.
Part 2. The evolution of user experience
Mobility
Employees today need tools to work from different locations, which often differ greatly in their technical characteristics (for example, in terms of data transfer speed). At the same time, the ability to stay connected should be maintained even when moving from one point to another. The use of cloud and hybrid solutions with a high degree of fault tolerance and data loss protection helps to solve this problem, which allows not only videoconferencing solutions providers to develop, but also hosting companies.
Increasing requirements for the capabilities of user devices
Custom-grade PCs, laptops, headsets, and cameras are generally not designed to be the primary means of communication, especially when an employee has to share a workspace with other family members. The technical requirements for terminal devices will increase significantly in 2021, bringing home devices closer to the professional level.
In addition, the advent of powerful, affordable and reliable smartphones has drawn global attention to the increased use of mobile devices in the business environment. According to some videoconferencing service providers, users of mobile conferencing applications make up 60% of their customer base, which makes the further development of smart devices a powerful driver for the industry's growth.
Collaboration opportunities
With an average meeting time of about an hour, ineffective meetings are costly for the company. Poor organization can lead not only to wasted time and slower project progress, but also to weaken the relationship between the customer and the supplier.
Today, one of the key factors that determines the quality of any communication system is the availability of additional opportunities for collaboration: screen sharing, whiteboards, real-time translation, basic video processing, content sharing, etc.
Simplification of the interface and user experience
Videoconferencing vendors are experiencing strong pressure from the developers of various video chats, which in 2020 have become very popular even in the business environment (for example, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, and others). This is largely due to the ease of use of such services, which allow you to connect to a video conferencing session with the click of a button. The focus on user experience is becoming significant for the professional segment as well.
This also applies to that part of the videoconferencing systems interface that is used to deploy the workplace. Users want to spend as little time as possible setting up and solving technical issues, given the fact that in a remote environment, contacting technicians can be associated with certain restrictions. Video conferencing tools should be simple and understandable even for inexperienced users.
Thus, the very model of consumption of communication services is changing: now the consumer takes a full-fledged prosumer position, forcing manufacturers to take into account his individual preferences regarding functionality and convenience of solutions.
Using WebRTC
WebRTC technology allows users to interact in real time using only the browser. This solution provides tremendous flexibility in the choice of terminal devices - from PCs to smartphones, and also saves the user from installing additional plugins, widgets and clients.
Personalization
One of the trends that can be considered secondary, but no less important, is the possibility of customizing jobs. Now video conference participants want and can not only design the appearance of the workplace (for example, change the video background), but also adapt the display of information about themselves to various scenarios.
This allows you to realize the creative nature of a person, which is especially important in conditions of isolation. In addition to the virtual backgrounds that gained popularity in 2020, custom information (such as name and title), company logo and other graphics can now be added to the video stream. During a meeting, employees can even switch between completely different layouts.
Typically, this now requires third-party plugins, but as part of this trend, videoconferencing companies will add these features to their core offerings.
Development of telemedicine and distance education
In an effort to reduce the risk of infection for employees and patients, many private and public clinics have begun offering telemedicine services. The doctor and the patient communicate via video chat, artificial intelligence conducts diagnostics using photographs, and medicines are delivered contactlessly.
In the US, the number of "telepatients" has increased by 50% compared to the level that existed before the pandemic. According to Forrester Research experts, in the first half of 2021 the number of remote receptions will reach one billion.
A number of telemedicine services have also appeared on the Russian market: for example, the joint project Health Mail.ru and ONDOC, SberZdorovye, a solution for remote health monitoring from Megafon.
The pandemic has also spurred the development of online education. Over the past year, schools and universities have been closed in 190 countries, forcing about 1.6 billion people to adapt to the new reality. Schools, colleges and even sports centers have organized videoconferencing classes. Many schools are advised to maintain partial telecommuting even after opening. Quarantine has contributed to the growth in popularity of various online educational platforms (for example, Udacity, Coursera, etc.), which also widely use various videoconferencing services and platforms for hosting webinars.
Conclusion
According to Frost & Sullivan, the video conferencing services market will grow by 23% by the end of 2021, which will amount to $ 138.6 million in annual revenue. The exponential growth of the industry will be driven by the following factors:
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The rapidly increasing number of users is forcing manufacturers to reconsider the classification of their solutions, which is gradually narrowing the technological gap between SMBs and large corporations.
The pandemic has forced businesses to develop a new mindset. Now work is not an office building, but a matter of access to the right work tools. Obviously, in the long term, the winners are those companies that can quickly adapt to future challenges, continuing to work from any location. Therefore, in 2021, business expects from the videoconferencing industry the emergence of universal and even more user-friendly tools.