Two years ago, the entire cloud communications landscape got a kickstart when investors poured money into “work-from-home stocks,” which included the UCaaS and CCaaS providers. For example, Zoom, Five9 and RingCentral had peak market caps of $161 billion, $14 billion and $40 billion, respectively, compared to $28 billion, $6.8 billion and $6.4 billion today.
COVID-19 created a reset in the workforce, decoupling work from the traditional office location. This was the start of the Great Resignation, where an unprecedented amount of people moved on from their jobs in favor of better opportunities. Now more than two years into the pandemic, employee churn is at an all-time high.
Sustainability has been a major societal topic for years, but the pandemic thrust it into the business world. The “Great Reset” that we have been experiencing over the past two years has caused every person, city, country, and company to look at the way they operate, thrusting sustainability to the forefront. Almost all large tech companies now have sustainability programs to make the world a better place today but also for generations to come.
Customer experience (CX) has become the overwhelming top initiative for business leaders. CX is now the top brand differentiator; those that deliver an excellent CX thrive, while those that do not eventually fail. It outweighs the price, product quality, and every other factor when customers choose a brand. Loyalty can be fleeting though. In 2021, 67% of millennials dropped a brand because of a single bad experience, per my research.
Enterprise Connect is back! One of the highlights I always look forward to are the keynotes, particularly Cisco’s as the speakers generally —but not always — deliver a good mix of vision and product. This year, Collaboration and Contact Center General Manager, Javed Khan, took the stage with appearances by SVP and GM Snorre Kjesbu and VP and GM of Cisco Calling, Lorrissa Horton, to discuss the upcoming wave of hybrid work, the problems companies might face, and how Webex has been evolved to meet those challenges.