The coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way companies all around the world are doing business. Rather than heading to the office every day to meet with stakeholders, employees, vendors, and others, more people than ever before are running entire enterprise-level companies digitally and virtually. As a result, the technology trends that we see in 2021 are slightly different from years past, but each one has an important place. Below are some of the biggest trends and what they might mean for you in the coming years.
Video Conferencing Tools
Though Zoom has been around since 2011 (and it went public in 2019), nobody knew it existed until last year. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing, which led to shutdowns, social distancing, quarantine, and people being forced to stay home due to the risk of exposing loved ones. People needed a way to meet with one another safely and effectively, so Zoom became the platform of choice.
Now, Zoom is a household name, and it has experienced incredible growth since the pandemic began. Other options include Google Hangouts (now known as Meets, which are even being used in public school systems across the nation), Facebook’s Rooms feature, and plenty of others.
Platforms like Zoom will continue to play a massive role in business regardless of the industry for the foreseeable future. In addition to video conferencing, they include other features to support team engagement. Now that people have discovered how easy it is to connect to others from home, getting them to go back to an hour-long commute in the morning and the afternoon will be tough – if not impossible. Video conferencing technology is here to stay, and you can expect it to continue to improve as time goes on, too.
Increased 5G Development and Infrastructure
Aside from 5G benefiting businesses and homes, it’s also vital for the development of smart cities across the globe – and you can think of these as entire cities that become part of the Internet of Things. It’s all about convenience and autonomy, and to do these things, 5G is a must.
Privacy-Enhancing Computing
One of the biggest IT concerns of all is privacy, so it should come as no surprise that several trends are all about improving privacy for companies, for individuals, for groups – for everyone. According to Gartner, privacy-enhancing computation will feature three technologies that protect in-use data. One of these provides a secure environment where the data can be used. The next is all about secure processing and analysis. The third is an encryption technology that keeps data safe before it is either processed or analyzed. Such security measures would be a tremendous boon, especially to significant enterprises with a lot of information at stake. It will allow them to share data without compromising that data’s security.
Virtual Office Space
The pandemic has helped companies of all sizes realize that their employees can be just as productive – if not more productive – when they work from home. Nothing is exciting about a three-hour round-trip commute every day when it is possible to achieve everything they need to do from home with the right technology. As such, virtual office technology is expected to continue to grow in 2021 and the coming years. This technology will encompass things like video conferencing and virtual meetings as well as privacy-enhancing computing mentioned above. Still, it will also likely expand to include shifting to entirely new (and better) core systems that make it easier, faster, and more secure to share data with those who need it regardless of where they are.
Work-from-Home Apps
Per a recent article from Entrepreneur, restrictions caused by the pandemic have led companies in new directions when it comes to their communication apps. On average, they use six different platforms just for communication, and that means an extra six passwords for employees – and an additional six apps on their devices, too. Fortunately, the wheel of innovation continues to give the world new technologies to simplify communication (and more!) and help remote workers improve their productivity.
In the future, platforms designed to simplify employees’ access to the tools they need to work and communicate will be the top priority. Things like Google Meet, Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more are phenomenal for keeping people connected, and they integrate very well with other popular productivity tools, too. Even integration with digital whiteboards like Miro or Mural has increased to provide collaboration pathways for educators and online learners; these apps can also benefit companies looking for a simple yet effective collaboration platform.
Another vital facet of remote work that employees and employers alike must consider has to do with time tracking, GPS monitoring, and even activity monitoring. These all keep track of employees’ productivity in different ways. Such tools ensure that employees are fairly compensated, but they also play an important role in resource allocation. It’s easier to see where overstaffing and understaffing occur within a physical office space; with remote work, however, it’s apps like these that give you a sense of your employees’ productivity.
More and More Automation
Operational efficiency is still going to be a massive focus throughout 2021. Despite the pandemic, the technologies designed to gather, process, and analyze data continue to improve. That means that enterprise-level companies, especially, will have mountains of data to sort through and research to boost their efficiency and productivity as much as possible. Many of these enterprises are looking into new opportunities for automation – processes that work independently with very little input from people – to accurately gather, sort, and analyze data according to that company’s specific needs. Simply put, the more processes a company can automate safely (and securely), the more time their employees will have to focus on company growth and success.
Of course, other technology trends will include smartphones with better cameras and software, more integration built into smart cars, and even more smart home hardware that makes life even more comfortable. However, the above technology trends are the most important for your business because they’ll have the most significant impact on your operations.
