Remote work leads to 'transformative' growth for virtual meeting solutions

Virtual meeting solution providers have never had as strong or as lucrative a market as they do right now as the world pivots towards remote working as the 'new normal'.

A recent market analysis from Frost - Sullivan suggests that the number of remote workers post-COVID-19 will be up to 500% greater than pre-pandemic, creating a huge demand for online meeting platforms.

Frost - Sullivan expects the number of video meeting licences to skyrocket to a 24.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2025, a larger revised target than the 17.2% originally predicted.

"The COVID-19 crisis has made remote work and hybrid work the new norm. During the pandemic and its immediate aftermath, in-office presence will be needs-based, and offices will transform from being productivity centres to being sites for employee engagement, collaboration, and building relationships," says Frost - Sullivan ICT senior industry director, Roopam Jain.

"The shift to remote work represents a transformative moment for the meetings market and unveils tremendous growth opportunities for vendors that can differentiate on better quality and more scalable, manageable, and secure cloud services and devices that ensure an optimal meeting experience, regardless of where users work.

Jain predicts that growth will primarily come from devices and service bundles for personal collaboration that are easy to use and all-in-one.

Frost - Sullivan also predicts that video meeting solution providers should:

Tap into the massive shift to remote work with easy-to-deploy and use devices and services at affordable price points.

Market players should refine usability while improving the organization's compliance and security and enhancing manageability and monitoring of work-from-home users and workflows.

High-growth sectors include healthcare, retail, and manufacturing, among others. Help customers address new video workflows and cope with the accelerated shift in mindset from technology to "outcomes.

IoT and AI-enabled technologies will bring in the next wave of disruptive innovations and enable safer and more intelligent meeting experiences.

Jain adds, "Revenue growth will be dependent on a confluence of factors, such as the conversion of free accounts to paid ones. Rampant free offerings during the pandemic will generate an immense base of free users, providing vendors the opportunity to convert them to paid accounts in the future.

Jain believes that market players should be able to 'gracefully' migrate users from free services to paid engagement. If they can do so, it would indicate that they may see sustained revenue impact from the upsurge in user demand.