Editor’s Note: With 2014 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
1. The workplace as we used to know has forever changed as remote and mobile workers become the norm, not the exception. Businesses will respond to this new breed of worker by empowering employees to take control of their communications needs – lifting a burden from IT, while immensely improving the user experience.
2. Interoperability between cloud apps will help content ecosystems finally flourish. These ecosystems will deliver integrated apps and tools that will enable workforces to achieve true business mobility away from the office. The world will move in the direction where applications on your mobile phone will be just as integrated as applications on your desktop.
3. Software, not new hardware developments, will make our “smart” devices smarter and will enable business users to enhance mobile productivity.
4. Developers will leave the desktop-centric world behind. Productivity and communications tools will now be brought to market with a mobility-first approach and functionality in mind, and not as an afterthought.
5. The “bring-your-own-device” power struggle between users and IT departments will come to an end and enterprises will finally reach a happy medium around device control.
6. As enterprises continue to evaluate the pros and cons of transitioning pieces of mission-critical infrastructure to the cloud, security, reliability and quality advancements will make it easier to answer the question, “If you can move your CRM to the cloud, why not your communications?”
David Berman is president of RingCentral where he provides leadership across the business to develop, communicate, and implement RingCentral’s vision, mission, and overall strategic direction. Prior to joining RingCentral, he served as president and CEO of Affectiva, the global standard for real-world accuracy and relevance in emotion analytics. Here Berman developed the Affex SaaS platform for facial coding based on innovative research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Along with his role at RingCentral, Berman is a member of the boards of directors at Affectiva, WatchDox and OoVoo. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of San Diego.
