01732 759725 40 PREDICTIONS knowledge sharing and problemsolving. Collaboration is required for a happy workforce, with the link between employee well-being and business performance well documented. Equality: the new imperative During the pandemic, it was all about business continuity, but companies will now need to adopt a people-first philosophy, based on choice. Choice is a great leveller and a catalyst for easy, meaningful and productive collaboration, enabling all workers to engage and perform at their very best. That approach presents a great opportunity for HR, IT, facilities management and the wider business to be more attuned to what employees want from their experience of work. Recent Stanford University research shows that over 40% of workers would actively look elsewhere if their employer failed to offer hybrid working. The main challenge of flexible, hybrid working is creating equity for all. Clarity and quality of image and sound are essential for better collaboration between colleagues. No matter where people choose to or have to work – their car, a meeting room or home – they will expect to be supported by devices and technologies that guarantee equal inclusivity. Access to reliable communications is key to ensuring people receive the same information, at the same time to avoid any inadvertent bias. www.Poly.com Telecoms, media and technology Analysys Mason highlights the top trends in 5G. 5G connection numbers limited by 5G handset upgrades Chipset shortages will worsen this limitation in 2022. Operators will continue the push for more 5G coverage and more networks will be launched but subscriber numbers will largely be determined by the pace of consumers acquiring 5G handsets. Reduced 5G handset shipments in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022 will result in 105 million fewer 5G handsets in use in 2022 than we previously forecast. Mobile operator strategies will diverge in 2022 Unlike previous generations of mobile networking, 5G will develop along two distinct tracks. Operators that are determined to offer new types of B2B and B2B2C services will press on with 5G standalone (SA) technology and will depend on cloud partnerships to make this work. Other mobile operators will stay with 5G non-standalone (NSA) technology and a business that is tied to consumer services. Private networks continue to proliferate, but edge computing lags behind At least 75% of new private networks in 2022 will be 5G, up from 31% at the end of 2020. However, the take-up of edge computing, a natural complement to 5G private networks, will continue to lag behind. We expect just 20% of private networks also to be using edge computing. Nevertheless, edge computing will be deployed more widely and more than half of private networks will be combined with edge computing by 2025. Operators (and vendors) need to prepare themselves for this shift. Operators focus attention on IT services We expect operators to strike more partnerships with vendors for security, SDWAN, edge and cloud in 2022 than we did in 2021. Operators will also be active in developing vertical solutions (e.g. in health and education), digital services for small businesses and even some niche cloud services (e.g. sovereign clouds). Many pilots but few 5G-related business services launched The features of 5G are well understood and, especially with the introduction of standalone networks, operators will have more capabilities to offer enterprises, such as low-latency services and service-level guarantees. Much more thinking is needed on how to price and package these services (e.g. how to price connectivity with guaranteed throughput or latency). Operators will work through these issues in 2022, but few products will be launched. www.analysysmason.com Paul Clark, Senior Vice President EMEA, Poly RIP 9-5. Long live ‘anytime’ working Like a genie that has been released from the bottle, the workers who relished the perks of hybrid and flexible working have no desire to return to corporate life full time. According to recent research by Poly, 80% of employees in EMEA prefer to spend some days working from home. They want flexibility, and with the economy picking up and the ‘great resignation’ underway they have more power to choose how and where they should work. People want work-life balance with flexibility to visit their dentist, attend a school play, or swap their working days around to be able to meet up with an old friend who’s in town. Rather than being an asset that requires managing, employees have adopted a customer persona; they know what they want, why, when and how and they’ll tell you. Ignore them and they’ll go elsewhere. Polymorphic offices supercharged by tools, not toys Offices will no longer necessarily be physical spaces with defined, individual spots. Future workplaces will be ecosystems of spaces and rooms that match the working habits or needs of different personae. People will no longer go into the office because they must, but because they want specific, personto-person interaction. This will lead to significant changes in architecture, real estate, room design and investment in collaboration devices and technologies in future office buildings, as all these disciplines collide to provide the very best work experiences. Organisations that fail to support a flexible workplace in 2022 will struggle to build a collaborative culture. During the pandemic, shrinking networks affected innovation and creativity. Informal chats or unscheduled meetups no longer happened, yet collaborative moments like these contribute to ...continued
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