Looking Ahead to 2020

Now, no-one has a crystal ball but everyone likes to check their Mystic Meg powers once in a while, by seeing if they can predict what’s on the horizon. Every analyst report predicts increased investment in cloud services, but what sector in particular will fare the best, and why?

The best place to start is not by looking at competitors' features and functionality, but by taking a close look at the market and what users actually want. We now live in a mobile first world, with a whole generation of employees who have only ever known a world where they can always communicate on the go via voice, data and video - regardless of browser, device or app. This represents a huge opportunity for the channel. Businesses know that in order to stay competitive and retain staff, they must become more responsive to technology innovation and the needs of digitally-oriented employees. The vast majority of them are already on the journey of digital transformation to create a work environment that is flexible, interconnected and ubiquitous.

In 2020, we predict one of the biggest shifts will be in the increasing adoption of collaboration tools, especially in the SME market. Microsoft Teams is already used by 500,000 organisations across 181 markets and will be included as standard within the Office 365 suite in 2021. No wonder the number of companies using Microsoft Teams is expected to nearly double in the next two years. Slack has also just announced that its daily active user count is over 12 million, with users spending an average of 90 minutes a day actively using the app, such as sending messages, uploading files, searching, and more.

For the channel, this obviously means there is huge scope to sell cloud services with integrated collaboration tools, which are designed to be cost effective and scalable - after all, bespoke requests cost time, money, and productivity. Ultimately businesses know that in order to stay competitive and retain staff, they must become more responsive to technology innovation and create a work environment that is flexible, interconnected and ubiquitous.

That’s where we are placing our bets for this year – where's your money?