News & Trends

Workplace Transformation Trends to Watch

This story first appeared in Xperience, the official publication of AVIXA. For more articles, take a look inside.

By Krystle Murphy

Credit: AVI-SPL

It’s not a revelation that the corporate workplace is transforming. CEOs demand speed. They want products and solutions to hit the marketplace faster to be competitive. There are also high stakes for attracting and retaining a talented workforce, and professionals seek flexibility to work when and where they want. These factors are leading companies to invest in pro-AV products and services. In 2019, corporations are expected to spend $40 billion globally on pro AV, according to the AVIXA Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA).

Jean Rosauer, CMO Consultant for Fuel Growth Group, works with technology CEOs to accelerate company growth. She sees personalized collaboration as a major workplace trend.  

“This is the ability for people to choose the collaboration app or device that fits their needs and enables them to join in with their team,” says Rosauer. “Having devices that work with mobile applications provides even greater flexibility. Remote workers and office workers are able to have a similar user experience, pressing the same green button to join a meeting, regardless of whether it is in the meeting app or on the device.”

The ability to create uninterrupted workstreams is another big trend, according to Sandeep Mehra, Vice President of WebEx Devices for Cisco.

“By combining collaboration and productivity tools into one experience, teams can reduce the time it takes to gather information and share it,” he says. “Time can be spent on making decisions instead. For example, a team that works in Salesforce for most of the day can open an online space to message, share files, and conduct video meetings.”

Another trend in the corporate workplace is creating smart spaces that are accessible to everyone. Mehra says that to be more agile, companies are moving from hierarchies to small, empowered teams. They work together more informally, less scheduled. Team members can be co-located or work from any location. This new flexible work style has led to the surge in huddle spaces: small offices and rooms and open spaces where teams can quickly and informally gather to get work done.

Huddle space devices need to enable teams to connect with each other, share content, and co-create, he adds. For example, there’s no more huddling around a laptop screen — having a wireless share device that can be connected to a monitor makes it easy for anyone entering a meeting room to instantly share content on a big screen.

At InfoComm 2019, June 8-14 in Orlando, Fla., Cisco’s Sandeep Mehra will present a session titled Workplace Transformation Trends to Watch.