Three-quarters of enterprise plan to grow their use of unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) platforms in 2023 as organizations continue to adopt hybrid work environments and want to deploy new technologies to support those efforts, according to a new study from NETSCOUT.
The Westford, Mass.-based provider of performance management and cybersecurity solutions’ annual survey of IT decision-makers are organizations with over $1 billion in revenue found that nearly 70% have increased the number of UC&C tools used, and 75% plan to support more platforms over the next 12 months.
Respondents cited the need to take advantage of new features and functions (89%) or better support employee collaboration (67%), above all other factors.
Even as some organizations mandate in-office work and the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer keeping employees at home, 60% of respondents say collaboration platforms, applications and tools have become critical to their organization’s current work environment, which is up from 49% who said the same thing last year.
Most-used platforms
While Zoom became a household name over the course of the pandemic, NETSCOUT’s research suggests that Microsoft Teams may be becoming more popular, as 86% of organizations say they currently use Microsoft’s collaboration app, compared to 78% who say they use Zoom.
Google Meet came in third with 50% saying they currently use the platform, followed by Webex at 45% and Slack at 37%.
When asked what platforms IT feels are best suited for their organization’s needs, respondents again said Microsoft Teams and Zoom, in that order. However, Webex was third, followed by Google Meet and Slack.
Organizations are still using multiple UC&C tools and apps, as just 3% say they only use one app or tool. In fact, the most popular response was saying their organization uses three platforms (24%). However, a majority of respondents told NETSCOUT they support between one and four tools and applications, while over a third now support between five and 9 tools and applications. On the extreme, 15% say they have deployed at least 10 UC&C tools throughout their organization.
UC&C helpdesk strain decreasing
NETSCOUT’s previous research into the proliferation of UC&C apps had found that the increasing use of these platforms to support distributed work was straining the IT helpdesk, but this year’s study discovered that the strain is decreasing.
According to last year’s NETSCOUT study, half of those surveyed reported receiving at least one UC&C-related ticket per day, and 79% reported multiple requests per week. Overall, help desk tickets were responsible for a majority of IT help desk problems for over 40% of those polled.
This year, helpdesks are getting fewer UC&C-related tickets, ostensibly because workers are returning to corporate offices where these platforms are easier to manage for IT professionals. According to the research, 29% say a majority of their helpdesk tickets were related to UC&C issues, which is down considerably from 42% in 2021.
Additionally, IT leaders believe that, on average, 82% of UC&C-related requests are at least somewhat easy to resolve. However, for most IT leaders surveyed, their help desks take at least a few hours to resolve these challenges. For others, issues can take up to a day or even a week to fix, according to the study.
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