New Dialpad Report Reveals the Rise of the Anywhere Worker, Confirms Death of the Desk Phone

SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialpad, a pure-cloud modern business communications leader, today released the "2016 Report on Business Communications in the Era of the Anywhere Worker," a survey of 1,014 professionals, from end users to executives, on cloud communications adoption rates and expectations in the era of the anywhere worker. The survey, conducted by Dialpad and Lab42, explores business communications trends by business size, vertical, role and department, and confirms the imminent death of the nearly useless desk phone. The report found that both corporate and remote workers are increasingly away from their desks, with 65 percent saying they have a "desk phone optional" work environment and one third of workers believing the desk phone will disappear in two to three years. Download the report here.

"Our survey reveals that while the slow and painful death of the desk phone has clearly begun, it cannot happen fast enough for many workers," said Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad. "The anywhere worker movement is now evident in every segment of every industry. To enable these workers to connect and collaborate, high-performing companies are turning to productivity suites, such as Google Apps for Work and Microsoft Office 365, and a pure-cloud communications strategy that abandons the desk phone. This significant trend will only accelerate over the next few years."

The results of the 2016 State of Business Communications Adoption report are in line with other research findings. For example, a survey of Fortune 1000 companies found that employees were at their desks only 50 to 60 percent of the time, forcing a reconsideration of telephony and space strategies. Dialpad found that 59 percent of employees think the desk phone is outdated and nearly one-third think they won't exist three years from now, yet 66 percent of companies still provide employees with desk phones -- an average cost of $8.1 million for every enterprise according to an IDG survey.

"The rise of the anywhere worker is forcing the cloud communications market to evolve from delivering cumbersome and mostly useless desk phones to providing universal dialpads that enable you to communicate effectively from any device," said Morgan Norman, Vice President of Global Marketing at Dialpad. The '2016 Report on Business Communications in the Era of the Anywhere Worker' demonstrates that high-performing companies are already rapidly adopting technology that helps anywhere workers reach their colleagues, customers and partners in the way that works best for them – text, group messaging, voice calls, video calls and conferencing. This flexibility is critical."

Key Findings of the "2016 Report on Business Communications in the Era of the Anywhere Worker"

Businesses of all sizes are adapting to the "anywhere worker" movement
As employees increasingly rely exclusively on mobile technologies, the organizations they work for are quickly evolving to meet their mobility demands and prepare for more anywhere workers in the future.

• 84 percent of responding companies already have remote workers.
• 42 percent have a workforce that is 50 to 100 percent remote: 51 percent for SMBs, 32 percent for enterprises, and 31 percent for midmarket.
• 67 percent indicate that employees are allowed to work from home.
• 83 percent say their organization will increase their reliance on a remote workforce in the next three to five years.
• A slower moving industry such as education is more reluctant to rely on a remote workforce, with 74 percent stating they will increase their reliance on remote workers, compared to 83 percent for a faster moving industry such as technology.

The rise of the anywhere worker seals the fate of the desk phone
The anywhere worker movement is not limited to tech and media companies or to millennials and entry-level employees. The shift is occurring across every business size, industry, department, generation and role, yet a conflict still exists between the technologies employees want and the solutions employers are delivering.

• 66 percent of responding companies indicate their employers still provide desk phones to employees. For slower moving organizations in education and financial services, the rates are 62 percent and 67 percent respectively. For faster moving organizations in technology and media, the rates are 40 percent and 32 percent respectively.
• 59 percent believe the desk phone is outdated: 61 percent of executives, 59 percent of entry-level employees, 56 percent of managers.
• 26 percent think that in three to five years, the desk phone will be non-existent. 52 percent think it will be used only occasionally.
• 30 percent of sales, 29 percent of operations, 24 percent of marketing, 20 percent of customer success, and 18 percent of IT find the desk phone to be outdated for their role and position.

The value of voice remains high, but the perception of the phone has changed
Today's professionals still prefer to communicate via phone and email over video. For internal communications, the order of importance for communications tools, ranked highest to lowest, is email, voice, instant messaging, in-person, online meetings, text messaging, video. For external communications, the order is voice, email, in-person, online meetings, instant messaging, text messaging, video.

Yet employees want technology that offers increased flexibility and productivity. The desk phone ties them to a desk, while modern business communications enables them to work anywhere and offers native integration with business applications.

• 61 percent of respondents bring their own cell phones to work.
• Faster moving industries such as tech and media have a higher use of bring your own device to work, 62 percent and 64 percent respectively, compared to slower moving industries such as education and financial Services that sit at 58 percent and 57 percent respectively.
• 89 percent think their phone should integrate with Salesforce, Google Apps for Work, Microsoft Office 365 and other cloud software.
• 89 percent think their phone should be able to text mobile devices and external clientele.

These trends, which illuminate the gap between the technologies anywhere workers need and the solutions traditional telecom and cloud communications vendors have provided, scream for a new approach: a pure cloud modern business communications platform like Dialpad that is:

• Designed from the ground up to enable employees to work from anywhere using their device of choice.
• Integrated with the cloud-based productivity apps, such as Google Apps for Work and Microsoft Office 365, that highly agile companies are deploying.
• Rapidly deployed in minutes without any on-premises hardware and easily managed in one application, making it simple and cost effective for any company to transition to cloud communications.

Additional Resources
Learn more about Dialpad: http://www.dialpad.com
Learn more about UberConference by Dialpad: http://www.uberconference.com 
Follow us on Twitter @DialpadHQ
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Download the 2016 Report on Business Communications in the Era of the Anywhere Worker

About Dialpad
Dialpad is a Modern Business Communications (MBC) solution. Available on any device, anywhere, Dialpad includes voice, video, group messaging, SMS, MMS, conferencing, screen sharing, and document sharing, and is integrated with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps for Work. Dialpad customers include 60 percent of the Fortune 500, high-growth enterprises and forward thinking organizations including Uber, Vivint Solar, Fairchild Semiconductors, ClassPass, and Netflix. Formerly known as Switch.co, Dialpad is funded by Amasia, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Softbank and Work-Bench. For more information, visit dialpad.com and follow @DialpadHQ on Twitter.

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