Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 02 | Page 44

CIOopinion CIO OPINION “ OVER THE LAST SIX MONTHS, THE ADOPTION CURVE FOR ONLINE COLLABORATION TOOLS HAS BEEN PROPELLED FORWARD. Rene Sugo, Chief Executive Officer for MNF Group How COVID-19 has shone a light on the importance of voice communication Remote working has become the ‘new normal’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, Rene Sugo, Chief Executive Officer for MNF Group, said there is still the need for human connection. He explains the different factors at play. The enforced change in working habits produced by the COVID-19 crisis has done more to fast-track Digital Transformation, particularly in the adoption of unified collaboration, than any lofty words or edicts from heads of business. Over the last six months, the adoption curve for online collaboration tools has been propelled forward. Usually it takes many years to move people from the ‘innovator’ category to ‘early majority’ according to technology adoption life cycle models such as Roger’s bell curve. In the case of online collaboration tools, this phase has been shortened by as much as three years due to the transition to working from home prompted by COVID-19. It has been the biggest (and most impromptu) ‘use case’ study for remote working and collaborative technology that we’ve ever seen. Without a doubt, it has created an environment which will inform and shape the ‘new normal’ of our working lives for the next decade. We would all agree that the last months have been an enforced learning curve – in many ways. Aside from anecdotal conversations MNF Group has been having with clients, the data from our voice network paints a clear picture of how businesses initially scrambled to adapt to working from home, initially working around the clock, but then a ‘new normal’ working cadence emerged. 44 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com