For collaboration software providers, 2020 was year to remember, according to a new report from digital experience management company Aternity.
Between February 17 and December 20 last year, the usage of collaboration platform Microsoft Teams grew by a whopping 3,891 percent. During the same time period, Zoom usage grew by 1,788 percent.
Overall, the usage of Microsoft’s collaboration apps grew by 391 percent, although the usage share of these apps dropped from 93 percent to 83 percent. Zoom’s usage share tripled to 6.9 percent, while Slack and Webex more than doubled theirs, to 4.9 percent each.
The success of Teams came partially at the expense of Skype for Business, the usage of which declined by 63 percent.
The obvious driver of success for these platforms was the pandemic and remote working explosion. In North America, 79 percent of the workforce was operating remotely by late December, with 75 percent of Europeans also working from home.
According to Aternity, in order to ensure a positive employee digital experience, businesses should clearly define flexible work policies, analyze current collaboration app usage and performance, reassess their collaboration app portfolio and eliminate redundant tools and abilities.
Further, the report states, businesses should make collaboration apps part of their mission-critical technology stack and track the impact of IT performance on the remote employee experience.