CBM: What kinds of lasting impacts do you think we will see from our lockdown?
Matt Worboys (MW): Remote working technologies will have far reaching and lasting effects on the way we work from here on. Most businesses have more or less been forced into remote working which has seen a demand in Gamma’s own collaboration and UC services increase tenfold.
As these businesses begin to use remote working technology, they are becoming more comfortable and the realisation that business can continue in a near normal fashion. For example meetings do not have to be cancelled but instead achieved via a video call, real-time communication is now over instant messaging and not just confined to WhatsApp, customer information held within CRM platforms can be integrated into the telephony solution, payments can still be taken to PCI compliant standards whilst working from home helping to keep the SMB retail sector going and desktop sharing promotes the notion that colleagues can still work collaboratively together on projects. This not so gentle push into using remote technologies has resulted in the customer being forced in to seeing the value of it, which, coupled with all businesses now wanting to ensure a long term emergency remote working plan is now part of their IT stack, will ensure longer term retention of such technologies once we are through the other side of the current situation. Try taking these technologies they have become heavily reliant on away from them once they get back into the office!
CBM: How has the mix of communication technologies out there helping Gamma maintain relationships?
MW: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and so on have all helped in promoting relationships both personally and professionally. How many of us have found ourselves in WhatsApp groups with customers sharing banter that inadvertently develops those relationships (can go the other way mind!). Introduce video and audio to the mix for regular meetings, desktop and file sharing for conducting business, webinars for the likes of product launches and training to their teams, and all done from your home office, then yes, key relationships have and will continue to develop in the digital realm. That said, still no substitute for a post meeting face to face beer!
CBM: Everyone is focused on the Coronavirus right now, but what part is Climate Change playing in these changes in technology adoption?
MW: As a global population the climate concerns are indeed a priority for us all, be it forced on us through political agendas, congestion charges or environmental taxes, to consciously wanting to contribute and make a difference through recycling, choosing an electric car or reducing your own environmental impact through using technology such as collaboration and UC.
At Gamma, who ourselves are carbon neutral certified, this latter point is very much high up on our own agenda when demonstrating flexible solutions with a digital first approach through UC technologies, by providing ROI calculators that not only outline commercial and employee productivity and efficiency gains, but also environmental impact through carbon emissions saved by not making that journey to the customer or office, which is increasingly become a more important factor in the customers decision making process. This is mainly because climate concerns are very much at the forefront of today’s news and therefore peoples agendas across all generations, from David Attenborough highlighting plastic pollution and deforestation, to Greta Thunberg championing the political stage, we are all very conscious of it and want to do our part. Video and audio conferencing has been around for decades, but as it’s become easier to consumer and we are now more comfortable is using this technology, have we been to fully realise the impact that it can have. So rather than read about climate change, we can do something about it and that is indeed increasingly driving uptake prior to the current situation.
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