Key business drivers for collaboration are changing.. and Video-enabled collaboration is the new imperative of innovative, high growth businesses

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2 Contents Executive Summary 3 Aligning mindset with opportunity 5 Connecting video collaboration with high-growth business attributes 6 Inmortance of F2F video in meetings' success 7 Addressing the alignment gap the four fictions 8 The collaboration discussion has evolved over time 9 Three personas of video collaboration adopters 10 Landing on a solution: Essential features of high-value, growth-enabling collaboration systems 11 Maximizing investment: Keys to collaboration ROI 12 Organization-wide keys to collaboration ROI 12 Keys to driving collaboration ROI within corporate functions 14 Conclusion 15 About Techaisle 16 Figures Figure 1: The business benefits of F2F video in highgrowth, innovative businesses 5 Figure 2: The connection between high-growth business attributes & F2F video benefits 6 Figure 3: Benefits realized through use of F2F video in meetings 7 Figure 4: Three personas, three approaches to advanced collaboration technologies 10 Figure 5: Important F2F video solution features 11 Figure 7: Keys to driving enterprise-wide ROI from videoenabled collaboration 12 Figure 8: Keys to driving video-enabled collaboration ROI within corporate functions 14 Key business drivers for collaboration are changing.. Specifically, within SMBs and midmarket businesses, future collaboration adoption efforts will be driven by demands for decision agility, speed of innovation, customer intimacy and faster time to market. Early SMBs & midmarket collaboration solution users tell Techaisle that they invested in these solutions because a lack of teamwork was impacting productivity. While the creation of a central information repository was the most important business driver for collaboration solutions adoption to the first wave of users, it is not so for the new buyers. New adopters are saying that they are having difficulty coordinating meetings (as a consequence of increased employee mobility, dispersed team members, ad hoc scheduling), and that they need to address slow decision-making within their organizations. and Video-enabled collaboration is the new imperative of innovative, high growth businesses A global Techaisle survey (commissioned by Cisco) of 1269 SMBs and midmarket businesses found that irrespective of the size of business, video-enabled collaboration is necessary for business agility decision agility, innovation agility. The survey found that for high-growth, innovative businesses, effective, efficient collaboration is in their organizational DNA and video-enabled collaboration solution is integral to success driving decision agility, participant trust because it leads to faster decision making, improved employee productivity, a more personal interaction experience and better teamwork. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 2

3 Executive Summary Video-enabled collaboration is necessary for business agility decision agility, innovation agility It is common knowledge that cloud is being adopted by SMBs and midmarket businesses for business agility. Techaisle s SMB & midmarket cloud adoption study data shows that 80 percent of SMBs consider cloud to be contributing to business growth and video-enabled collaboration is playing an ever-increasing role in contributing to business agility for high-growth and innovative businesses. Innovation happens best in collaboration and not in isolation High-growth, highly innovative SMBs and midmarket businesses differ greatly from low-growth firms in their use of advanced collaboration technologies. High-growth firms pursue a wide range of collaborationrelated benefits more rapid decision making capacity, improved employee productivity, richer engagement with customers, and better internal collaboration and make extensive use of face-to-face (F2F) video systems. Initial centricity of file sharing is giving way to rich in-person interactive communications in collaboration strategies What are the key elements of a collaboration framework that can help IT decision makers (ITDMs) and business decision makers (BDMs) come to a mutual understanding of how, where and why to use videoenabled collaboration solutions, in particular, F2F video? To answer this question, Techaisle conducted a survey of 1,269 ITDMs and BDMs with SMBs and midmarket businesses, across the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The survey was commissioned by Cisco. The survey findings provide guidance to SMBs and midmarket decision makers on how the nature of the collaboration discussion is changing, drive acceptance and use of F2F video throughout their organization to maximize business payback, and align objectives with the outcomes that shape the activities of highgrowth innovative firms who are the most successful users of advanced collaboration technology. Findings from the research are organized into four sections. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 3

4 Section 1: Aligning mindset with opportunity examines the connections between organizational approaches to collaboration technologies and the outcomes that separate high-performing businesses from less successful competitors; this section also drills into the importance of (and methods of) optimizing meetings, and identifies the four fictions that constrain collaboration initiatives. Section 2: Framing the discussion details the evolution of collaboration adoption drivers, showing how firms that are just beginning to invest in collaboration are primarily reacting to market gaps created by lead adopters. Section 3: Landing on a solution probes key video-enabled collaboration solution attributes, and illustrates the differences between regions and between ITDM and BDM perspectives. Section 4: Maximizing ROI highlights the need to couple an understanding of cross-company ROI drivers (increased numbers of users, increased sessions per user) with a focus on the specific benefits gained through deployment of F2F video in HR, sales, marketing, facilities and customer service. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 4

5 Aligning mindset with opportunity The most important factor in building a framework for collaboration is to ensure that the discussion begins with business objectives, and considers technology in the context of its ability to support those objectives. These discussions revolve around opportunities for improvement for SMBs and midmarket businesses that are: 1. trailing competitors and want to catch up, 2. merely keeping pace with their markets and want to find new avenues for growth, 3. in high-growth mode and want to continue to innovate Techaisle s research identified key characteristics that distinguish these low-growth, moderate growth and high-growth/innovative businesses. As Figure 1 demonstrates, use of face-to-face video (F2F video) is correlated with important outcomes within their businesses. Collectively, these attributes align strongly with market success. Techaisle s research found that the high adopters of video grew nearly 2X faster than other low or non-adopters and they reported even more benefits from using video than slower growing businesses. By using video-enabled collaboration there are only upsides for businesses. Figure 1 WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 5

6 With an emphasis on speed of innovation high-growth and innovative businesses use modern collaboration solutions that connect people-to-people in a face-to-face setting by using video-enabled collaboration solutions. Connecting video collaboration with high-growth business attributes While these statistics are compelling, an even more telling trend emerges from the Techaisle research when the business attitudes of innovative, high-growth SMBs and midmarket businesses are compared with the benefits of video collaboration solutions. Figure 2 presents the perspectives. Listed on the left are the key attitudinal attributes of highly successful firms. As the findings highlighted in green illustrate, effective, efficient collaboration is part of these firms corporate DNA. As the right-hand side of Figure 2 shows, the benefits of video collaboration are integral to success in driving decision agility and the trust that underlies effective teamwork. High-performing firms report that they use F2F video to drive faster decision making, improved productivity, more personal interaction, better teamwork and seamless idea exchange and collaboration. Figure 2 WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 6

7 Importance of F2F video in meetings success Looking again at Figure 2, there is a strong connection between the emphasis on cross-functional teamwork and face to face meetings listed on the left and several of the attributes improved productivity, more personal interaction, better teamwork and seamless exchange of ideas highlighted as F2F video benefits. Data from the global survey finds that an important aspect of this connection is the impact that F2F video has on enhancing the success of meetings. Meetings are not an especially popular topic of discussion in corporate circles, unless the conversation focuses on how much time is spent on them. But it is exactly because meetings consume a great deal of time that optimizing their impact is essential! The survey found that respondents in SMBs and midmarket firms attend an average of 44.6 meetings per month. Framed with this data, the key business question becomes how do we get best payback on an activity that each of us engages in 1-2 times per workday? Findings from the survey demonstrate conclusively that F2F video helps businesses to drive greater utility from meetings. Figure 3 WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 7

8 SMBs and midmarket firms say that with F2F video there is a 50 percent reduction in time spent multitasking during a meeting which is very meaningful. And 85 percent of SMBs and midmarket firms using F2F video report better participant engagement and overall information retention increases by more than 60 percent as compared to audio-only meetings. Addressing the alignment gap the four fictions Despite the evidence supporting F2F video benefits, there is still a lack of alignment between corporate attitudes towards collaboration platforms and the business opportunities associated with F2F video in many SMBs and midmarket businesses. Techaisle research indicates that firms that are slow to embrace F2F video often fall victim to the four fictions of collaboration technology: 1. We do not need collaboration technology solutions to drive success in our business 2. Our existing technology (non-video collaboration) is sufficient to meet customer expectations 3. We do not have a role for F2F video; traditional approach to remote meetings is good enough 4. We do not see how collaboration technologies would foster innovation within our organization Techaisle refers to these as the four fictions because they are common misperceptions that are at odds with the reality of today s business environment. The information gathered through the survey shows that remote meetings (both internal and with customers) are improved by F2F video, and how F2F video supports innovation and success in high-growth businesses. Businesses that take steps to inform corporate perspectives with insight into the real benefits of advanced collaboration platforms can move past these fictitious perceptions and develop a fact-based strategic approach to collaboration technology that improves productivity, customer engagement, process efficiency and shareholder returns. What is the best way to overcome the four fictions, in order to capitalize on the business value of F2F video solutions? Techaisle s study finds that one of the key considerations in framing the F2F video discussion is to focus on the business outcomes associated with the technology. SMBs & midmarket firms that have not yet invested in advanced collaboration capabilities risk falling behind competitors, while those that are succeeding in their markets have developed a sophisticated understanding of how collaborative technologies like F2F video support growth and innovation WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 8

9 Framing the discussion: The collaboration discussion has evolved over time As businesses without modern collaboration solutions scramble to catch up with those that are already capitalizing on the benefits of virtual F2F and as new adopters have had an opportunity to learn from firms that made early investments in technology Techaisle has seen the reasons for launching collaboration initiatives evolve. A comparison of early adopters to firms that are just now embracing advanced collaboration systems finds that the pace set by early adopters is forcing other firms to invest in collaboration solutions to address market issues. This next generation of SMBs & midmarket business collaboration solution adopters is responding to specific pain points slow decision making, faster innovation more than their predecessors and videoenabled collaboration is figuring in their collaboration strategies, specifically because: They can t coordinate meetings involving employees in multiple locations Customer satisfaction is declining The pace of decision making is too slow is not an adequate means of connecting staff with each other and with customers Survey data finds that these firms have begun using video-enabled collaboration solutions as a reaction to business problems that are preventing them from achieving their business objectives of growth, productivity, faster time to market, customer retention and operating cost reduction. They are not chasing abstract improvements like a central repository or reacting only to leadership demands for new tools: they are turning to collaboration to build agility, innovation, customer intimacy and faster time to market. So how can businesses identify where they are in their video-collaboration adoption journey, what their business mindset is and how they can help themselves move up to a place where their business objectives are powered by collaboration technologies. How can they go on an adoption journey that not only transforms their mindsets but also pulls them out from the four fictions into reality. Techaisle survey research identified 3 key personas or profiles of businesses across the spectrum that can be considered as guidance as to how the peers are exploring/exploiting the link between collaboration technology and business outcomes for increased growth and innovation opportunities. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 9

10 Three personas of video-enabled collaboration adopters The differences between the three personas derived from the research illustrate how different attitudes and objectives are associated with different mindsets regarding the value of advanced collaboration technologies. The three personas are: 1. Least innovative SMB & midmarket firms with low revenue growth 2. SMB & midmarket firms with average growth that are on their path to become innovative, and 3. SMBs & midmarket firms that are very innovative and in high-growth mode Figure 4 Techaisle believes that an advanced approach to advanced collaboration technologies like F2F video demonstrated by the very innovative/high growth businesses is not merely a correlation but a reality that advanced collaboration tools play an important role in helping these businesses to outperform competitors Both low-growth/least-innovative firms and average-growth/emerging innovative businesses have relatively modest expectations of outcomes from advanced collaboration systems, while very innovative, high-growth enterprises have much greater expectations of positive business outcomes. Low-growth firms have a limited appreciation for how collaboration technologies can benefit their businesses (travel expense reduction) and prefer to use low-cost audio systems, while high-growth innovators use F2F video wherever possible, and realize a much wider range of system benefits. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 10

11 Landing on a solution: Essential attributes of high-value, growth-enabling collaboration systems Once the decision has been made to enable F2F video, though, the decision process needs to consider the question what are the key features that our organization will require from an F2F video system? Taking a lesson from the page of high-growth and innovative businesses, survey finds that there ten specific features, coalescing around security, simplicity and superiority, that drive a solution selection. Figure 5 The above feature set requirements and differences between innovative and less innovative businesses is consistent across all geographies as well as within SMBs and midmarket firms. When data is compared between ITDMs (IT decision makers) and BDMs (Business decision makers), there is consistency in importance of features although ITDMs list is topped by security and BDMs by ease of use and simplicity. Maximizing investment: Keys to collaboration ROI WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 11

12 The evidence gathered through the Techaisle global SMBs & midmarket video collaboration study demonstrates that businesses can derive tremendous benefits from deploying video-enabled collaboration solutions within their businesses. But the specific payback realized by each business isn t simply a matter of investing in video capabilities it increases as SMBs and midmarket firms align F2F video with corporate requirements. What are the keys to maximizing ROI from collaboration solutions? The research shows that the businesses that obtain the greatest return on investment will optimize use of collaboration in two ways across the entire enterprise, and within specific functions. Organization-wide keys to collaboration ROI At an enterprise level, there are two main imperatives to driving ROI from F2F video: driving use of the technology to enable collaboration across as many employees and as many sessions as possible. Consider the three sets of statistics shown below. Figure 6: Keys to driving enterprise-wide ROI from video-enabled collaboration The chart on the left shows that 75 percent of highgrowth businesses use video-enabled collaboration, a figure that is 1.3 times the use rate reported by lowgrowth businesses. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 12

13 The chart on the right shows that nearly 40 percent of employees within these high-growth firms are using video-enabled collaboration again, a rate that is 1.3 times higher than the proportion found in low-growth businesses. And finally, the last of the set of three statistics, on the left, shows that in high-growth businesses, 58 percent of employees with access to video-enabled collaboration tools use them many times a week, or even many times a day, while less than 1/3 rd of employees in low-growth businesses use F2F video a few times a month or less. High-growth businesses frequently use video-collaboration - a rate that is 1.9 times higher than the proportion found in low-growth businesses. The above three statistics combine to illustrate the most important method of driving cross-company ROI on F2F video: deploy the solutions, deploy them widely, and work with users to ensure that F2F video becomes an important part of each person s work routine WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 13

14 Keys to driving collaboration ROI within corporate functions In many cases, SMBs & midmarket businesses focus on enterprise-wide opportunities for enhancing collaboration ROI. The Techaisle research also found that individual corporate functions HR, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Facilities each derive unique benefits from F2F video. SMBs & midmarket leadership teams that dig beyond cross-company activities to initiatives targeted at these functions can obtain much higher overall ROI from their collaboration investments. As Figure 7 illustrates, employees in many different areas can deliver better performance when they are able to use F2F video technology to connect with current and prospective colleagues and customers. Figure 7: Keys to driving video-enabled collaboration ROI within corporate functions WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 14

15 Conclusion The data presented in this white paper delineates the ways in which different approaches to advanced collaboration technology (and specifically, F2F videos) are correlated with differences between low growth/least innovative businesses and high-growth/highly innovative firms. What does this mean to a business leader evaluating advanced collaboration systems? Techaisle offers the following guidance: - Understand that the nature of the collaboration discussion is changing. Collaboration isn t a means of satisfying abstract internal demands for information organization or generic upgrades. Advanced collaboration technologies like F2F video provide answers to real business issues issues that will become more pressing if they are not addressed before leading-edge competitors have permanently rewritten stakeholder expectations for productivity, innovation and customer interaction. - Be proactive in building traction for collaboration solutions across the organization. The data clearly shows that when it comes to use of collaboration systems, more (more users, more use) is better. The data also demonstrates that different functions can obtain unique benefits from F2F video. Businesses that are effective in building traction will enjoy better business results and superior collaboration solution ROI. Pursue the outcomes associated with high-growth, highly innovative businesses. Don t settle for the outcomes, objectives and technologies targeted by low-growth firms. If collaboration is important to business success and the data presented here clearly shows that it is it s important to align collaboration strategy, activities and investments with the best case outcomes of high levels of business growth and innovation WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 15

16 About Techaisle Techaisle is a global SMB IT Market Research and Industry Analyst organization. Techaisle was founded on the premise that go-to-market strategies require insightful research, flexible data, and deeper analysis. Understanding the value of data consistency across markets to inform strategic planning, Techaisle has remained holistic in its approach to insights and provides globally consistent SMB and Channels analysis across geographies. To achieve its objectives Techaisle conducts surveys with SMBs and channels to understand market trends, opportunities, buying behavior, purchase intent, and IT priorities. Besides covering emerging technologies such as SMB cloud computing, managed services, mobility, social media usage, virtualization, business intelligence, big data, analytics, collaboration, networking, security, buyers journey, decision making, converged infrastructure; its channel research coverage provides in-depth understanding of resellers and channel partners globally. Techaisle s insights are built on a strong datadriven foundation and its analysts are conversant with both primary research and industry knowledge, which is a rare combination. Techaisle offers its clients: Syndicated Research, Subscription Service, Custom Primary Research, Consulting Engagement, Competitive Intelligence and Segmentation. Techaisle s global panel of over 900,000 B2B decision makers and database of over 200,000 IT Channel Partners (VAR, SI, ISV, IT Consultant, MSP, SP & IT Retailer) is leveraged by clients for custom research and data driven insights. For more information, visit This white paper is a property of Techaisle LLC and is provided for information purposes only and unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited. Techaisle does not make, and expressly disclaims to the fullest extent under applicable laws, warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to this white paper and the accuracy or completeness of its content. Techaisle LLC shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this white paper or any information herein, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. WHITE PAPER Video-enable Collaboration and Business Growth: the Winning Connection 16