With all the twists and turns of 2020, the team at Aragon Research was happy to have something to celebrate this month. That being the success of our first-ever virtually held Transform 2020! After months of hard work coordinating, promoting, designing, and preparing, the event came together just how we’d hoped.
Whether you are one of our hundreds of attendees, or are here because you’d like to read up on what you missed, this blog will provide a recap of Day 1 of Transform 2020!
The Kickoff: 2 Insightful Panels
The event began on the morning of December 2nd with a 30-minute guest panel discussion! Our guest panelists, made up of Anand Eswaran (President and COO, at RingCentral), Whitney Bouck (COO of the HelloSign business at Dropbox), and Simon Harrison (SVP & CMO at Avaya), had a discussion on the hybrid work model and how to prepare for it.
COVID-19 has had a profound impact on businesses around the globe. There has been a huge increase in remote work which has caused companies to really reevaluate their processes. The panelists got the chance to speak on their experience with the “new normal” and even provide key tips to our Transform audience.
Panelist Whit Bouck shares insights on what her company is doing to stay connected and productive during the pandemic!
Key Takeaways:
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- Companies that already had mobile workers benefited heavily during the sudden shift to remote work. We can learn from this for the future and be better prepared.
- During COVID-19, it’s very important to support your employees from an emotional standpoint. Support their work-life balance, provide ways to connect, get inspired, and learn. Try fun team activities, or find ways to make them feel connected. Whit suggested small weekly check-ins with 2-3 people to check in on each other and provide support.
- Be honest with your employees about what the future of work at your company looks like. And emphasized the importance of clarity between you and your employees.
- Simon spoke about how collaboration is key. Meeting, messages, video, etc. Implement purpose-based ways for your employees to get engaged and collaborate. Fully embrace the tools that help your enterprise get there.
- Certain technologies have had mass adoption this year due to the effects of the pandemic, such as e-signatures. Pay close attention to those emerging technologies!
- Remote work CAN work. Even when the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, it is likely that many enterprises will still implement remote work for their employees to some degree.
- AI is key in productivity. Embrace it, and invest in it.
The next panel discussion was from our very own Aragon analysts who discussed the top 10 technologies that will matter in 2021. This topic is very timely as we enter the new year, and our analysts provided key insights for any enterprise wanting to succeed in 2021 and beyond. This discussion was packed with valuable insights, but I’ll give you a bit of a summary here:
Key Takeaways:
- AI is going to get even smarter in 2021. All product teams will need to understand AI and plan to incorporate it into their product roadmaps.
- Evaluate your providers based on their AI roadmaps–enterprises should carefully consider the providers they are using. Do they consider the importance of innovation with AI?
- Managing technology (through IT departments) and human labor (through HR departments) has always been separate–but now it’s time to combine the two.
The hybrid workforce is driven by four main things: the increase in remote work, the dramatic increase in information coming into enterprises, the increased focus on customer-context driven experience and engagement, and the fact that digital labor technologies are emerging and maturing.
After discussing these points, the panel dove into discussing the top 10 technologies that will matter in 2021. To listen to this discussion, register for the playback here.
The Hot Vendor Awards Ceremony
As soon as the two panel discussions ended, it was time to officially celebrate our 2020 Hot Vendor winners! Although we had to hold our awards ceremony virtually this year, we didn’t want to let that stop us from inviting our award winners to publicly accept their award and have the chance to speak in front of our Transform audience. So, there were many special guest appearances during our event!
The Hot Vendor ceremony also proved to be very helpful to our audience, who were introduced to many innovative and leading vendors in 11 different categories that are worth evaluating as we enter 2021.
P.S.–our 2021 Hot Vendor Award nominations are OPEN! Submit your nomination here.
We’ve decided to make Transform 2020 available for on-demand viewing, so that as many people as possible can benefit from our insights and celebrate our award winners. To view Transform 2020 on demand, visit this page.