WebProNews

Category: RemoteWorkingTrends

  • Coronavirus Relief Package Includes $7 Billion For Broadband

    Coronavirus Relief Package Includes $7 Billion For Broadband

    The upcoming coronavirus relief package Congress has been working on includes $7 billion for broadband at a time when it’s needed most.

    As a result of the pandemic, record numbers of people are working from home, relying on broadband internet more than ever before. Unfortunately, many families are struggling with reduced or lost work, making it hard to pay for the very internet access they need for work, school and socializing.

    According to Senator Ron Wyden, the $7 billion includes $3.2 billion set aside to help keep families connected, via $50 a month broadband fund for anyone who has been laid off or furloughed.

    Broadband connections are essential for Americans seeking to get new jobs, and to access school, health care and other government services. Ensuring working families can stay online will pay massive dividends for kids’ education, helping people find jobs and jump starting the economic recovery next year.

    The provision should help families struggling with staying connected, and will no doubt assist in the ongoing digital transformation.

  • Slack CEO: No Intention To Make Slack Free

    Slack CEO: No Intention To Make Slack Free

    “There is definitely no intention to make Slack free,” says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. “What we’ve seen in the last little while is the biggest telco in North America is wall-to-wall on Slack. The operator of the largest integrated health care system in the United States is on Slack. The single largest government contractor in the United States is wall-to-wall on Slack.”

    Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, says that both Slack and Salesforce have no intention of making Slack free for enterprises:

    Slack Connect Key To Value Unlock Of Salesforce Deal

    The simple version of the back story is this is a really unique combination. We believe we can accomplish in the next five years what might have taken us 20 years to do otherwise. That’s the heart of it and it’s a pretty big milestone for us. We’re excited. It wasn’t expected by the outside world but we have a lot of momentum now. We came out of this quarter and we announced our results and Salesforce announced their results. Then we announced the acquisition all at the same time.

    A little bit of this got lost but we added 12,000 new paying customers in that quarter. It’s up 140 percent from a year ago. It matches the crazy surge that we saw during the early days of the pandemic. That momentum is coming from product improvements and it’s coming from Slack Connect which allows two organizations to communicate across organizational boundaries. That’s actually going to be key to the value unlock over the next few years. Salesforce is all about CRM. It’s all about customers and Slack Connect is 95 percent customer-vendor relationships.

    Engagement Layer: Everyone Will See It Later

    This (acquisition) is 100% offense. There are some really unique aspects of this particular combination. We weren’t looking to sell the company. I have a great relationship with Brett Taylor, President, and COO of Salesforce. We’ve known each other for a couple of decades at this point. There’s a way in which we see the world that i think very few people see it today but everyone will see it later. One way to say that is to look at the engagement layer. That’s kind of a weird term but it is the place where the conversations are happening, the places where the decisions are being made, as the perfect place to bring together workflows across organizational boundaries.

    Salesforce has a really broad suite. But of course, we have 2,400 apps in the app directory for Slack. We have 700 000 custom integrations that were developed by customers. These are like unique little integrations, some of them very small, just sending notifications into Slack, and some of them are sophisticated workflows that run entire businesses. That’s something that we will see an increasing degree of sophistication in the messaging environment and an increasing degree of work getting done directly where the decisions are made.

    No Intention To Make Slack Free

    When Brett and I were talking we talked about the opportunity for something that’s one plus one equals seven. If you think back to the 90s and Cisco acquiring small hardware startups and then plugging it into their network of 20,000 salespeople and just selling a lot more of that thing. That’s not it. We will do that as well. We obviously have incredible distribution and incredible reach and incredible relationships across all industries and across all geographies. So we’ll sell more Slack.

    Salesforce recently announced their plan to get to $50 billion in revenue and we’ll play an important part in that. We’ll also be an accelerant for the adoption of Salesforce’s core products. There is definitely no intention to make Slack free. What we’ve seen in the last little while is the biggest telco in North America is wall-to-wall on Slack. The operator of the largest integrated health care system in the United States is on Slack. The single largest government contractor in the United States is wall-to-wall on Slack.

    We win in media and technology, kind of famously, but we also win in retail and apparel and industries that people don’t imagine seeing us. We have 142,000 customers right now. There’s going to be a lot of overlap with Salesforce but there’s also going to be 100,000 plus of those customers which are SMBs and kind of outside of Salesforce’s purview so far. We think there’s the opportunity to bring them into the fold and to connect them all together with Slack Connect.

    Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield: No Intention To Make Slack Free
  • RingCentral Takes On Zoom With Free RingCentral Glip Pro

    RingCentral Takes On Zoom With Free RingCentral Glip Pro

    RingCentral has introduced its free Glip Pro, in an effort to take on Zoom and address some of the challenges with digital collaboration.

    As the pandemic forced companies and employees to work remotely and collaborate digitally, “virtual meeting fatigue” has become a real concern. Many studies and surveys have shown that virtual meetings are more taxing for individuals than in-person meetings.

    RingCentral is trying to make a difference with its Glip Pro.

    “We’re excited to announce the launch of RingCentral Glip Pro, a free, unlimited, easy-to-use solution that offers high-quality video and audio conferencing, seamlessly integrated with team messaging, file sharing, contact, task, and calendar management — resulting in a Smart Video Meetings™ experience,” writes RingCentral’s William Lau.

    “Today’s employees work in hybrid environments—any combination of office, home, and anywhere in between. RingCentral Glip is designed to drive collaboration no matter where employees work from.”

    The platform is designed to combine the best of messaging and video calling. Users can start a video call directly from a chat with a single click, making it easier to collaborate across mediums. Glip Pro video meetings provide HD quality, up to 100 attendees and a 24-hour time limit, a major selling point compared to Zoom’s free tier.

  • Amazon Will Provide Free Cloud Training to 29 Million

    Amazon Will Provide Free Cloud Training to 29 Million

    Amazon has announced it will provide free cloud training to some 29 million people around the world by 2025.

    Amazon’s AWS is the leading cloud platform, with 31% of the market. In spite of its lead, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and IBM have been making headway in an effort to close the gap. At the same time, the cloud computing market as a whole is experiencing unprecedented growth as a result of the pandemic and companies’ reliance on remote work.

    To help with the latter, Amazon is investing hundreds of millions to provide free training to 29 million people around the world over the next several years. Teresa Carlson, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services, made the announcement at re:Invent 2020.

    As part of our efforts to continue supporting the future workforce, we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to provide free cloud computing skills training to people from all walks of life and all levels of knowledge, in more than 200 countries and territories. We will provide training opportunities through existing AWS-designed programs, as well as develop new courses to meet a wide variety of schedules and learning goals. The training ranges from self-paced online courses—designed to help individuals update their technical skills—to intensive upskilling programs that can lead to new jobs in the technology industry.

    Given the free training will be through “existing AWS-designed programs,” it’s a safe bet the training will also help Amazon maintain its lead in the cloud market. While the company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s hard to put a price on millions of people having their first serious exposure to cloud computing via Amazon’s platform.

  • Apple Extends Remote Work, Committed to In-Person Collaboration

    Apple Extends Remote Work, Committed to In-Person Collaboration

    Apple has extended its remote work deadline, with most employees not expected back in the office until June 2021.

    Apple, perhaps more than many companies, is known for its face-to-face collaboration. Steve Jobs famously helped rebuild a culture of face-to-face collaboration at Apple, built on teams brainstorming and building on ideas together.

    Despite its culture, like many companies, Apple sent employees home to work remotely as a result of the pandemic. According to Bloomberg, Apple has now pushed back the timeframe when employees will be expected back in the office to June of 2021, with CEO Tim Cook saying it “seems likely” employees will not return before then.

    At the same time, there is little hope Apple will embrace a fully remote option as some other companies, such as Twitter, have done. Cook made it clear he firmly believes in the face-to-face collaboration that has been one of the foundations of Apple’s success.

    “There’s no replacement for face-to-face collaboration, but we have also learned a great deal about how we can get our work done outside of the office without sacrificing productivity or results,” Cook told staff, according to Bloomberg’s sources. “All of these learnings are important. When we’re on the other side of this pandemic, we will preserve everything that is great about Apple while incorporating the best of our transformations this year.”

    There does appear to be a glimmer of hope for employees looking for more flexibility, however. The fact that Cook said the company will incorporate “the best of our transformations this year,” would seem to indicate the company is open to some flexibility — perhaps along the lines of the approach Google is taking — even if it’s not a fully remote option.

  • Google Extends Remote Work to September 2021

    Google Extends Remote Work to September 2021

    Google has moved back its return-to-office date from July to September 2021, and is looking to make flexible work a permanent option.

    Google was among the first companies to send its workers home at the outset of the pandemic. Like many companies that pivoted to remote work, Google has pushed back its return-to-office dates as the situation has evolved. The last date set was July, but the company is pushing that back to September, according to the New York Times.

    In an email to employees obtained by the NYT, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is also looking to introduce a flexible work week post-pandemic. Employees would be expected to be in the office three days a week for collaboration, but could work from home the rest of the week.

    “We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being,” wrote Pichai. “No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model — though a few are starting to test it — so it will be interesting to try.”

    Hopefully many more companies follow Google’s example and make remote or flexible work options a standard.

  • Tech Giants Form Modern Computing Alliance to Transform Cloud

    Tech Giants Form Modern Computing Alliance to Transform Cloud

    Some of the biggest names in tech have formed the Modern Computing Alliance, with the goal of transforming the cloud and its tools.

    Cloud computing has become one of the biggest, most important trends in modern computing. Already well under way, the migration to cloud computing went into overdrive as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies around the world are relying on cloud computing to manage remote employees, stay productive and adapt to a new reality.

    Unfortunately, migrating to the cloud is not always an easy task, especially for companies with decades of investment in legacy systems. The Modern Computing Alliance is aimed at “aligning standards and technologies to provide companies with the choice of high-performance, cloud-first computing solutions from the vendor of their choice who provide modern solutions for the modern era of business.”

    Google’s John Solomon, VP Chrome OS, outlined the alliance’s vision in a blog post:

    To drive ‘silicon-to-cloud’ innovation for the benefit of enterprise customers—fueling a differentiated modern computing platform and providing additional choice for integrated business solutions.

    Solomon emphasized that any strong alliance needs a strong diversity of members, to help bring unique perspectives to the table. The Modern Computing Alliance certainly meets that criteria with its founding members: Box, Citrix, Dell, Google, Imprivata, Intel, Okta, RingCentral, Slack, VMWare and Zoom.

    The Modern Computing Alliance members are specifically focused on four key areas:

    • Performance
    • Security and Identity
    • Remote, Collaboration and Productivity
    • Healthcare

    “The shared goal among the Modern Computing Alliance members is to fuel innovation in these key areas and provide customers with preferred choices without the tradeoffs they may face with a single vendor,” writes VMware’s Kenny Takahashi.

    “Customers will play an integral role in the Modern Computing Alliance through the Modern Computing IT Council, which will provide a forum for IT champions to make themselves heard. Customer IT Council participants will have exclusive lines of communication with Modern Computing Alliance members and help define the future of computing through research, advisory workshops, roadmap inputs, and solution testing.”

    The Modern Computing Alliance looks like a promising step in the right direction toward making cloud computing even easier.

  • Oracle Relocating to Texas

    Oracle Relocating to Texas

    Oracle has become the latest major company moving its headquarters from California to Texas.

    Wednesday, December 2, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HEP) announced it was moving its headquarters from California to Houston. Oracle is now the second major company in as many weeks to announce such a move, with plans to move its headquarters to Austin.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott broke the news via Twitter.

    “We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work,” Oracle told AFP News.

    “Depending on their role, this means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all the time.”

    As the pandemic has transformed the workforce, leading to widespread adoption of remote work, it’s a safe bet HPE and Oracle won’t be the last companies to move to greener pastures.

  • SpaceX Wins $885 Million In Subsidies to Expand Starlink

    SpaceX Wins $885 Million In Subsidies to Expand Starlink

    Elon Musk’s other company, SpaceX, has won $885 million in federal subsidies to help it expand its Starlink internet service.

    Starlink is the constellation of satellites SpaceX is using to provide internet access to underserved regions and communities. Unlike existing satellite options, such as HughesNet, Starlink satellites maintain a low-Earth orbit. This gives the service much lower ping and higher speeds than competing services.

    Starlink opened up beta access to customers in the latitudes currently covered by the constellation, and the results have been impressive. Customers have reported speeds in excess of 150 Mbps and ping as low as 39 ms.

    The company has now won an $885 million grant to extend its service. The Federal Communications Commission published the list of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction winners. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) features prominently on the list.

    SpaceX initially plans on sending 12,000 satellites into orbit, with the constellation eventually including as many as 42,000. Given the expense of launching those satellites, the federal subsidies will likely go quickly.

  • Apple Releases AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones

    Apple Releases AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones

    As expected, Apple released new hardware today, introducing the AirPods Max over-ear headphones.

    Apple issued a memo last week, telling technicians to be prepared for changes to AppleCare, along with new SKUs and product descriptions. The memo indicated the company was preparing to release new hardware, likely something that would take advantage of the holiday buying season.

    The company announced the AirPods Max today, its next evolution of the popular line headphones.

    “AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world, beloved for their effortless setup, incredible sound quality, and iconic design. With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear design with high-fidelity audio,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The custom acoustic design, combined with powerful H1 chips, and advanced software enable AirPods Max to use computational audio to wirelessly deliver the ultimate personal listening experience.”

    AirPods Max Exploded View
    AirPods Max Exploded View

    The AirPods Max feature a wealth of high-end features, including “a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a breakthrough listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and spatial audio.”

    The headphones are available in five colors and can be ordered today, with availability starting next Tuesday, December 15.

  • Zoom the Most Downloaded iOS App of 2020

    Zoom the Most Downloaded iOS App of 2020

    Apple has released its yearly report of the most popular apps and, to no one’s surprise, Zoom was the most popular iOS app in 2020.

    Few apps have become synonymous with the pandemic as much as Zoom. As employees went home to work remotely, Zoom quickly rose to become one of the most common choices. It has also enjoyed wide use among schools, colleges and churches, as well as individuals and families looking to socialize virtually.

    As a result, Zoom quickly skyrocketed from 10 million daily users to 300 million. The company has also repeatedly beat analyst estimates for its quarterly earnings.

    Apple’s report is just the latest indication that Zoom is the company to beat among pandemic-fueled communication platforms.

  • EU Working On ‘Right to Disconnect’ Legislation For Remote Workers

    EU Working On ‘Right to Disconnect’ Legislation For Remote Workers

    With unprecedented numbers of employees working remotely, the EU is working on legislation that protects workers’ “right to disconnect.”

    As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, employees went home in record numbers to work remotely. While many employees have loved the opportunity and flexibility of working from home, doing so has come with its own challenges. Chief among those challenges has been increased blurring of the lines between home life and work, as well as the expectation employees are always available.

    The EU is looking to address the problem. According to Deutsche Welle, “lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution arguing that individuals have a fundamental ‘right to disconnect.’”

    “After months of teleworking, many workers are now suffering from negative side effects such as isolation, fatigue, depression, burnout, muscular or eye illnesses,” said Alex Agius Saliba, the Maltese politician who pushed the resolution. “The pressure to always be reachable, always available, is mounting, resulting in unpaid overtime and burnout.”

    The next step is for the full chamber to approve the measure. It can then be submitted to the commission and the individual EU member nations for a vote.

    It’s a safe bet this kind of legislation will become more common as remote work becomes the new status quo.

  • AWS Adds EC2 Mac Instances

    AWS Adds EC2 Mac Instances

    AWS has added EC2 Mac instances, providing a new way for developers to harness macOS for their workflows.

    Development for Apple’s devices is more popular than ever. The Mac was already on the rise, ever since Steve Jobs turned the company around, but the iPhone and the iPad led to a record number of developers flocking to Apple. Add in watchOS and tvOS and the opportunities are virtually endless.

    While it’s possible to develop apps using a variety of tools, a Mac is still needed for the final steps of building in Xcode and deploying to the App Store. As a result, AWS’ EC2 Mac Instances provides a viable alternative to investing in expensive hardware.

    “To all the thriving community of millions of developers worldwide building applications on Apple platforms, we at AWS bring you the first ever macOS based compute environments in the public cloud,” writes Harshitha Putta. “Yes, you read that right! You can now run macOS applications on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) while enjoying elasticity, scalability, reliability, security, and cost effectiveness. If you are running workloads in your on-premises data center on Apple platforms, you can now use macOS on AWS to achieve cloud benefits.”

    The AWS announcement represents an excellent opportunity for developers.

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise Moving Headquarters to Houston

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise Moving Headquarters to Houston

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is moving its headquarters to Houston, Texas, a reflection of the changes COVID-19 has brought.

    In 2015, Hewlett Packard split into two companies. The original PC and printer division continued on as HP, Inc. HPE, on the other hand, focused on cloud services, software and IT infrastructure.

    Antonio Neri, President and CEO, announced the plans to relocate headquarters from Silicon Valley to Houston, Texas. HPE already has a presence in Texas, with it being its largest employee site.

    As we look to the future, our business needs, opportunities for cost savings, and team members’ preferences about the future of work, we have made the decision to relocate HPE’s headquarters to the new campus under construction in Spring, Texas, just outside of Houston.

    The move is, at least in part, in response to the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. Employees have become more accustomed to working remotely, leading to HPE embracing more flexibility. This, in turn, has caused the company to reevaluate its real estate strategy.

    Houston fits in well with HPE’s long-term goals. As the fourth largest city, Houston is also the most diverse. This gives the company a broad pool from which to recruit. HPE is currently constructing a 440,000 square-foot campus that is expected to be operational in 2022. Neri emphasized relocation will be entirely voluntary, and there are no layoffs associated with this move.

    At the same time, the company will keep its presence in Silicon Valley:

    We aren’t leaving Silicon Valley, a region inextricably linked to our rich history and heritage since Bill and Dave founded Hewlett Packard. Our San Jose campus will remain a hub for technological talent and innovation.

    Notably, San Jose will become the new headquarters for our Aruba Intelligent Edge business. The explosion of devices, applications and data at the edge continues to drive demand for secure connectivity, and through our Aruba business, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the $39 billion edge market opportunity, which the pandemic has only accelerated with the need for digital workplace solutions.

    Neri is optimistic the decision was the right one, at the right time:

    Given our company’s long history in the region, this move makes sense for HPE. The world has changed, and we are changing with it for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.

  • Salesforce Plus Slack Equals a Battle Over the Cloud

    Salesforce Plus Slack Equals a Battle Over the Cloud

    Salesforce announced its much-anticipated acquisition of Slack earlier today, sparking nothing short of a battle over the cloud.

    Salesforce made headlines last week when news broke that it was looking to acquire Slack. Talks progressed rapidly, with the deal announced a few hours ago. In the statement announcing the deal, Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s CEO and Co-Founder, provided a clue about what’s at stake:

    Salesforce started the cloud revolution, and two decades later, we are still tapping into all the possibilities it offers to transform the way we work. The opportunity we see together is massive.

    Despite being responsible for starting the cloud revolution, Salesforce has come under increasing pressure from other companies, most notably Microsoft. The Redmond company has made no bones about its intention to unseat Salesforce as the dominant CRM company. Most recently, Microsoft partnered with C3.ai and Adobe to roll out an AI-based CRM.

    Similarly, Slack has been under increased pressure from Microsoft Teams. Teams doubled Slacks installed user base in November 2019 when it reached 20 million daily users. Its user base has exploded since then, reaching 115 million in October. Much of Teams’ growth has been the result of Microsoft’s bundling it with Office, a practice that prompted Slack to file an antitrust complaint with the EU.

    Butterfield’s comment about “the opportunity we see together is massive” is indicative of just how much both companies need this merger. Since its IPO, Slack has never turned a profit. To make matters worse, Slack has not experienced the same pandemic-fueled boon like Zoom and other cloud platforms. It’s experienced significant growth to be sure, but not to the same degree as competing companies.

    The combination of the two companies will help both fight Microsoft.

    “The core reason for this deal in our opinion is to keep pace with the cloud behemoth in Redmond,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors Tuesday, reports CNN. “Slack despite facing stiff competition from Microsoft has been a clearly successful solution set further penetrating enterprises and thus looks like the natural fit for Salesforce to beef up its collaboration and messaging footprint and keep pace with [Microsoft].”

    It remains to be seen if the two companies will be more effective together, but it’s a good start. The combination of the two platforms helps both provide a more complete offering to its customers.

  • Salesforce Buys Slack for $27.7 Billion

    Salesforce Buys Slack for $27.7 Billion

    Salesforce announced that it is buying Slack for $27.7 billion in cash and stock. The company says that combining Slack with Salesforce Customer 360 will be transformative for customers and the industry. They say that the combination will create the operating system for the new way to work, uniquely enabling companies to grow and succeed in the all-digital world.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $27.7 billion based on the closing price of Salesforce’s common stock on November 30, 2020. 

    The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2022, subject to approval by the Slack stockholders, the receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

    Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told the Wall Street Journal that he is joining Salesforce and will continue to run Slack as a unit of Salesforce after the deal’s close.

    “Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise software history, with an incredible ecosystem around it,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. I’m thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes.”

    “Salesforce started the cloud revolution, and two decades later, we are still tapping into all the possibilities it offers to transform the way we work. The opportunity we see together is massive,” said Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO and Co-Founder. “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility. Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going.”

    Slack to Become the New Interface for Salesforce Customer 360

    Salesforce:

    Salesforce is the #1 CRM that enables companies to sell, service, market and conduct commerce, from anywhere. Slack brings people, data and tools together so teams can collaborate and get work done, from anywhere. Slack Connect extends the benefits of Slack to enable communication and collaboration between a company’s employees and all its external partners, from vendors to customers.

    Slack will be deeply integrated into every Salesforce Cloud. As the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360, Slack will transform how people communicate, collaborate and take action on customer information across Salesforce as well as information from all of their other business apps and systems to be more productive, make smarter, faster decisions and create connected customer experiences.

  • Microsoft Teams Offers CarPlay Integration, Improves Calling

    Microsoft Teams Offers CarPlay Integration, Improves Calling

    Microsoft has announced significant improvements to Teams, adding CarPlay integration and improved calling features.

    Microsoft Teams is one of the company’s premier applications, and has been steadily dominating the corporate messaging market. The company is staking so much on Teams, that it sees it as “a platform that transcends operating systems that will be even bigger than Windows.”

    The latest announcement includes a number of significant improvements, including the ability to integrate with Apple’s CarPlay platform.

    CarPlay support: Placing and receiving calls in the car will soon be easier than ever, thanks to CarPlay support for Teams Calling. With CarPlay, you can use your vehicle’s built-in controls to operate Teams, including using Siri to place and answer calls.

    Microsoft is also improving the application’s calling features, helping Teams be a viable replacement for traditional phone options.

    Transfer calls between mobile and desktop: Teams makes it easy to place and receive calls from several different endpoints, including desktop and mobile devices, but sometimes you need to move locations or devices to finish your call. Starting in early 2021, you will be able to shift your calls between your mobile and desktop endpoints with an easy-to-use interface on the Teams app.

    Call merge: Calling users can bring multiple different one to one calls together to combine conversations and simplify multiple conversations. Call merge is now available for both PSTN calls and VoIP calls.

    Teams has long surpassed Slack’s user base, even as Microsoft continues to expand the platform’s ecosystem and abilities. These latest features continue to demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to the platform and should be welcome improvements for customers.

  • Video Gaming Increasing Across All Age Groups

    Video Gaming Increasing Across All Age Groups

    In further evidence of the impact the pandemic is having on everyday life, video gaming has seen a significant uptick across allage groups.

    With more people staying home and avoiding in-person contact, alternative forms of entertainment and socialization have been on the rise. Video gaming, in particular, has become a popular option. Rather than being a solo experience, modern video games often provide a high level of social interaction.

    According to Mat Piscatella, Video Game Industry Analyst, The NPD Group, video games are rising in popularity across age demographics, and specifically among middle-aged and older groups.

    https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1333452885422587912?s=20

    Interestingly, the biggest jump in video game usage was in the 45 to 54 year-old age group. This impact of the pandemic is sure to open up new opportunities for enterprising companies to better engage with potential customers.

  • Zoom Reports Q3 Results: Beats Estimates Again

    Zoom Reports Q3 Results: Beats Estimates Again

    Zoom has reported its Q3 results, beating estimates on strong demand amid a pandemic-fueled transition to remote work.

    Zoom quickly became a favorite of companies and individuals as the pandemic forced employees to work from home, children to learn remotely and families to socialize virtually. As a result, the company has seen explosive growth, helping it beat analysts estimates yet again.

    The company reported Q3 revenue of $777.2 million, an increase of 367% year-over-year. The number of customers spending more than $100,000 in revenue was up 136% year-over-year. This is an even bigger jump than last quarter, that saw an increase of 112% year-over-year. The number of customers with more than 10 employees reached 433,700, up 485% year-over-year.

    “We remain focused on the communication needs of our customers and communities as they navigate the current environment and adapt to a new world of work from anywhere using Zoom. We aspire to provide the most innovative, secure, reliable, and high-quality communications platform to help people connect, collaborate, build and learn on Zoom,” said Zoom founder and CEO, Eric S. Yuan. “Strong demand and execution led to revenue growth of 367% year-over-year with solid growth in non-GAAP operating income and cash flow in our third fiscal quarter. We expect to strengthen our market position as we finish the fiscal year with an increased total revenue outlook of approximately $2.575 billion to $2.580 billion for fiscal year 2021, or approximately 314% increase year-over-year.”

  • Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G ‘Is Entering the Next Phase’

    Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G ‘Is Entering the Next Phase’

    Ericsson has released the November 2020 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report and it contains good news for 5G.

    The Ericsson Mobility Report provides a snapshot of the mobile industry and can provide valuable insights into current technology and trends. Not surprisingly, recent reports have been dominated by the rollout of 5G. The November 2020 report(PDF) is no different, signaling that 5G rollout is marching on, impacting a number of industries.

    According to Ericsson, some 1 billion people — or 15% of the world’s population — will live within 5G coverage by the end of 2020. Equally impressive, some 3.5 billion 5G subscriptions are forecast by the end of 2026. Despite its slow start, in relation to Asian countries, North America is projected to account for 80% of 5G subscriptions in 2026.

    The report also demonstrates the impact 5G will have on related industries. For example, while there are currently 7.9 billion mobile subscriptions, Ericsson expects this to increase to 8.8 billion by the end of 2026. Significantly, some 91% of those will be for mobile broadband — not surprising given the speeds promised by 5G.

    It’s no secret companies are looking to 5G as the next evolution of broadband, providing fast speed, security and the possibility of high-speed connections in areas where traditional wired connections are prohibitive. According to Ericsson, “fixed wireless access (FWA) connections are forecast to grow more than threefold and reach over 180 million by the end of 2026, accounting for around 25 percent of total mobile network data traffic globally.”

    Ericsson emphasizes that 5G is no longer a novelty, and is beginning to live up to the transformational potential it has promised.

    “The fundamental need for good connectivity is a cornerstone for this change, clearly visible in this edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report as the demand for capacity and coverage of cellular networks continues to grow. 5G is no longer just a novelty. Instead it is entering the next phase, when many new devices and end-user applications make the most out of the technological benefits it provides, while communications service providers worldwide continue the build-out of 5G.”

  • Salesforce/Slack Deal Expected Tuesday

    Salesforce/Slack Deal Expected Tuesday

    Salesforce and Slack are expected to announce a sales agreement Tuesday, in what would be Salesforce’s biggest acquisition to date.

    The two companies made headlines Wednesday with news that Salesforce was looking to purchase the iconic corporate messaging app. At the time, talks were thought to still be in the preliminary stages, with no indication a deal was in sight. Within hours, however, outlets starting reporting the talks were in the advanced stages.

    Things have progressed quickly, as a new report from the Wall Street Journal says a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday after market close. CNBC’s David Faber reports the deal will be roughly half cash and half stock, although it may be slightly weighted toward the cash side.

    Similarly, while initial reports valued Slack at $17 billion, it appears Salesforce will be paying a significant premium. Faber said the deal is not expected to reach $30 billion, but may come close.

    Experts believe the acquisition will help Slack, as well as Salesforce, fend off Microsoft. Slack has been hurt by a number of factors, most significantly Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with Office. Microsoft’s tactics prompted Slack to file an antitrust claim with the EU, a claim Jim Cramer calls “strong.”

    At the same time, Microsoft continues to go after Salesforce’s core CRM market. Its most recent inroad was a partnership with C3.ai and Adobe to create AI-driven CRM.

    The combination of the two companies may ultimately help both compete with Microsoft more effectively.