People-Centric Collaboration: A Fireside Chat with Neha Mirchandani

by Jim Lundy

Making communication and collaboration less complex and more seamless is part of the impetus behind people-centric collaboration.

I recently had a fireside chat with Neha Mirchandani, VP of Corporate Marketing at RingCentral, to discuss the challenges facing enterprises when it comes to enabling a better communications and collaboration experience in their workplace, and the new technologies making it easier.

This blog post recaps key points of our discussion, and will introduce you to people-centric collaboration as well as some of the new technologies that you should consider as part of your enterprise communications and collaboration strategy.

What Is People-Centric Collaboration?

People-centric collaboration focuses on the needs of people first, rather than the channel of communication or collaboration, which has often been the focus of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC).

People-centric collaboration technology takes a “people-first” approach to create a frictionless communications and collaboration experience. It does this by allowing for calls that are both voice-based and video-based, enabling meetings with users and rooms, and prioritizing mobile messaging.

The Need for People-Centric Collaboration Stems from Too Many Applications

Another important component of people-centric collaboration is the need for a platform or “work hub” that consolidates disparate apps into one, go-to solution. During our conversation, Neha and I discussed the growing proliferation of collaboration and communication apps and the increasing frustration users are experiencing from having to switch from app to app.

App switching is a huge hindrance to productivity. It can also be frustrating when apps don’t “talk” to one another, because it makes it harder to get work done. The good news for enterprises is that RingCentral and other providers are on a mission to mediate user frustration by offering a unified platform.

RingCentral’s Unified Communications and Collaboration platform features Glip, its mobile messaging offering. As messaging begins to challenge email as the primary work communications tool, including mobile messaging in a people-centric collaboration platform is going to be key.

Bottom Line

Communications and collaboration applications are beginning to consolidate to offer a better user experience, and that’s something enterprises can be happy about.

To learn more about the ins and outs of how this market is changing, and why putting people at the center of collaboration is key, listen to the podcast.