Despite productivity concerns, only 23% currently use an independent tool to monitor the experience of remote workers using UC&C platforms

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC., a leading provider of performance management, cybersecurity, and DDoS protection solutions, released new research highlighting the ongoing importance of unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) platforms to the post-pandemic future of hybrid work.

In its third annual survey of 300 IT decision-makers at organizations with over $1 billion in revenue, NETSCOUT found that the vast majority (69%) increased the number of UC&C tools used, with 75% expected to support more platforms over the next 12 months. The need to take advantage of new features and functions (89%) or better support employee collaboration (67%) was cited most often in driving these decisions.

A majority (60%) of respondents say collaboration platforms, applications, and tools are critical to their organization’s current work environment, compared with 49% last year – a more than 20% increase year-over-year.

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Additional findings from the research include:

• Most enterprise-level organizations support 1-4 unified communication and collaboration tools and applications. Over one-third support 5-9 tools and applications, while 15% use ten or more.
• Microsoft Teams and Zoom remain the most commonly used platforms by 86% and 78% of those surveyed, respectively. Respondents were more likely to say that their organizations previously used Webex, Slack, or Google Meet.
• 52% said that multiple platforms used across different departments/teams in their organization negatively impacted their ability to respond to UC&C-related challenges.
• 29% of companies stated that UC&C-related issues continue to make up most IT help desk requests.
• 54% report that it still takes a few hours to resolve UC&C-related issues.
• Only 23% are using an independent tool leveraging packet analysis to monitor the performance and experience of remote workers.

Finally, examining the importance of UC&C platforms within call centers for the first time, this year’s survey found that 86% of enterprises are operating remote or hybrid call centers. However, over 70% of IT leaders feel that call quality, dropped calls, delayed connection times, and troubleshooting are challenging for their organization due to the remote work of contact center employees.

“Hybrid work models have added complexity to the UC&C platforms used by large enterprises and call centers,” said Michael Szabados, chief operating officer, NETSCOUT. “They have become reliant on these platforms to keep their businesses running. To keep ahead of these challenges, NETSCOUT continually invests in its solutions to address complexity and provide visibility across multiple platforms to ensure the best quality user experience.”

Using NETSCOUT nGenius Enterprise Performance Management, IT organizations can standardize operations around a single platform, foster greater productivity, address remote client edge blind spots, and minimize time to resolution as issues arise.

The survey was conducted in November 2022 among 300 IT decision-makers in the United States and Canada

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