The 2022 Business Landscape and Collaboration Software

With the year winding down and 2022 on the horizon, businesses worldwide are starting to reflect on the lessons learned over the past 12 months and look ahead to what the future holds.  

To many of us, 2021 has felt like an extension of the previous year, with days, weeks, months, and quarters sort of blending together. Despite feeling like we are just trudging through the year, losing track of time, the reality is that we’re in actually in the midst of one of the largest shakeups of the business landscape in recent memory.  

Because of the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we work has dramatically changed. Just two years ago, remote work was an exception — not a common occurrence. 

Now, 16% of companies around the world are fully remote. A whopping 62% of employees in the 25-65 age group claim to work remotely occasionally, or part-time, a far cry from the traditional business models left behind in the wake of the pandemic. 

However, it’s not just about COVID-19 and responding to mandated workplace health restrictions. For many businesses, offering remote or hybrid work is simply good practice. Some projections suggest that 2022 will see 31% of all workers worldwide shift to remote (or a hybrid model).  

The last two years have shown that people and businesses alike have an exceptional ability to adapt to change and overcome perseverance. 

This revelation has shown business leaders (and their employees) worldwide that the traditional ways of working don’t need to stick around. 

There is an opportunity to continue to grow and improve — and 2022 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years for business transition yet. 

What to Look for in 2022 

Predicting what the business world will look like at the end of any given year is enough of a challenge already — add in the rapid changes we have seen in recent years and the challenges of the ongoing pandemic, and most predictions start to feel about as certain as a coin toss.  

However, a few emerging trends across the business landscape are picking up steam as we near 2022, and will undoubtedly help shape the business landscape of the near future. 

#1. Fully-online and hybrid work models will continue to evolve and become more common — even becoming the standard for some industries. A recent Forrester report predicts than 10% of all companies will commit to a full remote workforce —  and those that don’t will struggle to find the right balance for their hybrid employees. 

#2. Digital transformation will take center stage in the new year, with employees advocating for change, and executives finding innovative ways to execute on new plans and approaches. The need for a digital transformation strategy will become increasingly obvious as the most innovative companies start to disrupt the traditional approaches and methodologies. 

#3. Digital marketing and public relations will gain even more momentum as companies look for ways to reach an increasingly remote audience. An increasingly competitive digital advertising market means that companies may need to shift their focus and try to dominate specific channels or risk spreading themselves too thin.  

#4. Digital-first collaboration will need to become a primary focus for businesses adapting to shifting workplace and an increasingly remote workforce. A well-defined digital-first strategy will focus on taking an approach that emphasizes going digital whenever, and wherever possible. 

How Collaboration Software Can Help Companies Grow in 2022 

In many ways, 2022 may feel like a make-or-break year for some companies. A number of factors are still contributing to the uncertainty, including economic instability, the ongoing evolution of the workplace model, and continuously increasing customer expectations. 

However, for those organizations that can overcome these challenges, 2022 presents an opportunity for growth not seen in the business world for several years. In the previous section, the trends we highlighted focused on going digital across various levels of an organization.  

The key to navigating this digital shift is recognizing — and leveraging — the power of collaboration within your business. Applying a digital-first approach to your team’s collaboration initiatives is about more than just adding a new program to your stack and calling it a strategy. 

Collaboration software enables an unprecedented  level of workplace and workspace flexibility. Looking at the trends for 2022, it’s easy to see how the application of collaboration software is the cornerstone of a successful business strategy.  

To adjust to and evolve with the shifting workplaces models seen around the world, employees must have access to tools they can efficiently use from wherever they may be on any given day. A true collaboration software provides agile and scalable infrastructure for remote and hybrid work models. Not to mention the added ability to efficiently collaborate across time zones as an added benefit for employers looking for flexibility in talent recruitment.  

Simply put, online collaboration tools are a cornerstone of modern digital transformation strategies. The practical applications are virtually limitless for employees, but for the executives thinking about the bottom line, investment in yet another platform can be a hard pill to swallow.  

Thanks in part to rising inflation and the economic uncertainty in most global markets, businesses need to maximize time and money, which at the end of the day means doing more with less. Unnecessary meetings have become a running joke for many of us, but the reality is that they remain a significant cost to many businesses.  

Collaboration software comes into play here as a catalyst for driving more productivity, sparking better ideas, and finally providing organizations with a true viable alternative to costly meetings.  

How Stormboard is the Perfect Collaboration Software Solution 

The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.  

Whether you are balancing a hybrid workforce, looking to eliminate (or at least reduce) unnecessary meetings, developing your first digital transformation strategy, or just looking for a new tool to kick 2022 off with a bang, Stormboard’s innovative digital whiteboard solution and shared workspace is an excellent place to start. 

Revolutionizing how your team interacts and collaborates is a logical first step in solving the challenges of distributed work, tight budgets, employee retention, and anything else 2022 might throw your way.  

If you’d like to see how Stormboard can help your business navigate the business landscape of 2022, Book a Demo with one of our experts today, or sign up for a free account now and see for yourself why over 1 million people around the globe are using us to Work Better Together.  

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