8×8, Inc, a leading integrated cloud communications platform, announced its findings from an analysis of usage trends across its more than one million global business users. Organizations shifting to remote work are driving new employee communications behaviors as app usage for business communication and collaboration has more than doubled, which is leading to nearly 2.5X more voice calls and 6X more video meetings.

In 2020, organizations around the world have realized that remote work is no longer a nice-to-have perk, but an operational pillar that enables employees to serve customers, generate revenue, reduce costs, and innovate at any time from anywhere using any device. IT leaders managing this vital transition have also recognized that long-term business survival cannot depend on quick fixes that result in siloed communications and associated high costs. Long-term success requires a more strategic approach to communications that optimizes productivity, ensures customer retention, maximizes revenue generation, and provides visibility throughout the organization.

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The first in a series of market and customer insights, the 8×8 Cloud Communications Pulse found the following trending dynamics during the period from January 1 to September 30, 2020:

• Desktop and Mobile Apps Enabling Employees to Operate from Anywhere:
  • As remote work became entrenched, using a single app for communications and collaboration, day in and day out, enhanced productivity and employee satisfaction. Usage of desktop and mobile apps for voice calls, video conferencing, team chat, and SMS increased by more than 107 percent.
  • Further signaling a shift away from traditional office environments to working remotely, customer usage of communications apps for MacOS and Microsoft Windows computers surged nearly 190 percent.

• Video Is Here to Stay:
  • Time spent in video meetings has experienced sustained high usage growing at a magnitude of more than 6X.

• Voice Calls Dialing Up:
  • As mobile, remote workforces have become the norm rather than the exception, and video conferencing continues to see sustained high usage, video fatigue could be attributed to the desire to use alternative channels on which to communicate.
  • Average daily call volumes using desktop and mobile communications apps are rising at a compound monthly growth rate of more than 11.5 percent and grew greater than 138 percent. In addition, employee-to-employee calling across multi-site organizations has also steadily grown in volume.

• One Platform, One App Makes Switching from Voice to Video Easy:
  • Desktop and mobile apps have enhanced multimodal communication at organizations, helping to mitigate the loss of in-person, in-office interactions. Switching from voice calls to a video meeting session at the click of a button has dramatically increased in monthly usage by more than 16X. This feature, unique to integrated communications apps, is allowing employees to easily extend a conversation to a multimedia shared workspace for enhanced collaboration.

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“The rapid shift to remote work has been truly transformational. It is forcing organizations to reassess how they communicate and collaborate as well as support current employees and customers while attracting new ones, all without physical connection,” said Dejan Deklich, Chief Product Officer at 8×8, Inc. “These findings clearly demonstrate they not only need to have the right technology platform to ensure business resilience, but that cloud communications, seamless collaboration, and holistic insights are critical for ongoing business growth and success.”

The 8×8 Open Communications Platform uniquely brings together essential digital workplace elements, combining voice, team chat, meetings, and contact center solutions fueled by shared intelligent communications services like AI-driven expert routing and predictive analytics. The 8×8 Open Communications Platform accelerates digital transformation initiatives and strengthens business responsiveness and resilience by providing secure, scalable, and extensible capabilities that are required for organizations to create unique employee and customer experiences at scale.

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