In just a few short years, unified communications (UC) has changed the way that employees connect and collaborate. UC is not just improving employee productivity, but is transforming corporate culture and the physical workplace. In response to the need for increased flexibility, companies are tearing down walls and redesigning workplaces to deliver seamless mobility. Smaller, more open office spaces with more collaboration and huddle spaces are on the rise as business looks to support the changing, increasingly mobile workforce. The latest UC technologies are enabling remote working, on-the-fly meetings and mobility across all business functions.

IT departments are managing this transition at different speeds, and it is not always a smooth conversion. Indeed, when a company fails to adopt the latest mobile software, employees have tended to fill the gap themselves. While BYOD (bring your own device) has been the watchword for the last number of years, IT departments now have to contend with another emerging trend – BYOA (bring your own application). Employees, in particular millennials, are often self-organising, using applications that will give them the productivity boosts they require. Companies are evaluating how they can give their employees this same mobile, intuitive experience via their UC platforms.

Despite the constant intrusion of social interfaces, organisations should not dismiss employee training for video collaboration on different devices

Without doubt, the mobile app market and increased connectivity are writing the next chapter of enterprise UC, and it is quickly developing around us. IT departments will find that adopting this technology helps them better manage their workforces, who are increasingly finding the desk unit a productivity desert.

Inexorable progress
It is already easy to deploy UC applications via a mobile, with many available from all the leading collaboration vendors, such as Microsoft, Cisco and Zoom. Other players are investing in collaborative capabilities, primed for mobile devices. Mobile features in UC have now expanded to include such tools as whiteboarding and screen-sharing.

At present though, the main mobile UC adoption issue is connectivity, as office wi-fi and 3G/4G signals within the building still struggle to enable the full capabilities of modern technology. The UK government fully recognises this, and further investment in connectivity is on its way, with the promise that 95 percent of the UK population will have access to superfast broadband by 2017. As connectivity becomes less of an issue, companies will find that mobile applications work in the same way as desktop applications, with a seamless and easy-to-use experience for the user, regardless of location.

Organisations should not fear the plethora of different UC vendors. The cloud is permitting interoperability between different vendors, facilitated by system integrators. The promise of WebRTC will also drive an open and standards-based approach to both video and voice communication in the near future. Technology is maturing and companies are already widely adopting UC, rather than proprietary technology. For example, Logitech Collaboration products are certified for use with Cisco Jabber, WebEx and Skype for Business. This means that users can call customers or colleagues that are using different platforms to the one that their company is using, providing a seamless, integrated experience at a much lower price point than traditional room systems.

Dealing diversely
All this tech means that employees just don’t need to be in the office as much in order to be connected and productive and, as a result, they’re not. In January 2015, a Wainhouse research paper looking at the collaborative enterprise found that over two thirds of respondents had initiated an audio or web conference from a mobile device, so the popularity of mobile video is clearly on the rise.

The trends towards UC, mobility, remote working and open offices is accelerating, and as more employees work remotely, companies don’t need as much space. Open offices can be smaller, are proven to increase space utilisation rates, and create a sense of collaboration and a more open culture. All open office spaces have one major downside though: the increased level of noise and distraction impacting employee concentration, which, in turn, is leading to another trend – a rise in the number of collaboration or conference spaces in these offices.

According to recent reports, there are over 55 million meeting or conference rooms worldwide, of which 24 million, or 40 percent, are medium-sized conference rooms. Companies are seeing huge demand for huddle rooms – smaller, dedicated collaboration spaces where employees can meet and collaborate with local and remote team members on the fly.

Many businesses are looking to take advantage of existing UC investments, and are looking for ways to utilise these in smaller spaces, in a way that is scalable and which won’t explode the budget. The new breed of video conferencing devices, including the award-winning ConferenceCam Connect from Logitech, makes it very quick to grab a laptop, find a space, and have a top-notch team meeting with great sound quality and video using the same UC solutions employees use at their desks.

Preparing for the future
For many companies, the cost savings from this way of working can be tremendous, yet adoption can still be challenging. Enterprises want to have seamless communication experiences with their employees, customers, suppliers and partners. It’s not far off to think of a world where, as a consumer, you will be able to connect with a business via instant message, voice call, or, if we dare to dream, video. Barclays, for example, has introduced video banking so that its Premier customers can initiate a face-to-face video call from their smartphone or tablet.

Despite the constant intrusion of social interfaces, organisations should not dismiss employee training for video collaboration on different devices. A clear strategy should be in place, so that users fully understand the benefits that their devices can bring to their work. The changing demographics of the workforce will play an important part in this delivery stage. Millennials will form 50 percent of the workforce in just a couple of years, while businesses today are distributed across multiple sites with remote workers forming part of the team, and 60 percent of meetings are now virtual.

The Wainhouse research paper on the collaborative enterprise confirmed this, noting that: “The way users get their work done is undergoing a dramatic, historic change. This new work environment is embraced by work-life harmony-seeking millennials and driven by highly collaborative interaction. Technology has transcended the ability to simply enable virtual collaboration, making it effective and desirable – with few barriers, anyone and everyone can instantly become engaged and help with the task at hand.”