Dropbox Global Channel Chief Simon Aldous said that next year will see the hype of emerging technologies fall away and the channel better able to use and demonstrate their value.
He said that artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to grab headlines and drive discussion, but many people are still unclear about what these will actually mean for their business.
“We all too often talk about amazing new technologies without framing them in the context of what it actually means for the user – be they a SoHo, SMB or large enterprise. Do they need voice assistants in the business before they have effectively installed more basic communications tools? Are they ready to leverage newer solutions that are increasingly being called for by customers? These are important assessments for businesses to make, and it will be those organisations and partners that take this approach to technology investments that will likely see success”, Aldous said.He said other buzz phrases of 2019, such as flexible working could be further capitalised on by the Channel next year.
“The way we currently work is disparate and distracting, and the wealth of productivity tools we have make this even harder. The channel has the opportunity to fix the way we are working by bringing these siloed tools together and offering customers a simpler way of looking at IT decision making. This is a forcing factor in channel organisations needing to truly understand what the customer wants and how they can cater to this new focus on flexibility,”, he said.
He thinks that 2020 will see unified comms and collaboration finally come to fruition after many years of talking about it.
” UCC brings together all of the communication services that people often use into a single interface. These are services like email, instant messaging, voice, videoconferencing and so on, that we all use each day. When these tools are brought together in one place, they will not just be used to drive greater business efficiency and to support flexible working, but also as a key driver to attracting the next generation of top talent into businesses ,”Aldous said.
