West Monroe has conducted its quarterly survey of executives, and the results are good news for the job market.
According to West Monroe’s Quarterly Executive Poll—Q3 2021, a whopping 77% of executives plan on hiring additional people. In contrast, only 4% expect to lay off more people, while 19% expect little to no change.
Notably, this is a significant increase from the 60% that expected to hire more people in Q2, and the 49% in Q1.
Not surprisingly, the increased demand for workers is creating its own challenges, with 51% of executives citing a lack of people with the right skillset as the biggest challenge to hiring. The next biggest challenge was heightened competition from other employers, coming in at 16%.
Similarly, 49% of executives cite hiring and retaining a workforce as the biggest threat to their business in Q3. Cyber attacks came in second-place at 13%.
The survey is further evidence of how much the economy is rebounding, and showcases the increased challenges employers are facing.
Slack has introduced a new feature, one that brings lightweight audio communication to the platform.
As the pandemic forced individuals to work remotely, audio and video communication platforms surged in popularity and necessity. While Slack was the early leader in the corporate communication market, it has been eclipsed by Microsoft Teams and Zoom, both of which focus heavily on video and audio.
Slack Huddles is a new feature designed to bring a fast, lightweight approach to audio, within the context of a Slack channel or direct message.
Similar to the way you might drop by a colleague’s desk to solve a thorny problem or grab a few teammates on the way out of a meeting and debrief, huddles create a space to talk through work on the fly. Plus, everyone in that channel or DM is free to join or leave the conversation as they please.
Slack’s goal is to help make the transition from text to audio and back again as seamless and organic as possible, as opposed to having to schedule a video call as other platforms do.
The feature is already gaining support among companies using Slack.
“Slack Huddles provide an extremely low-friction way to transition from typing to talking and back again, whether you are brainstorming, chasing a bug, or just catching up with colleagues,” says Karl Owen, Senior Distinguished Engineer, Dell Technologies.
“Engineers who are interested and available will join, we accomplish our goal and the postmortem is handled back in the channel. We’re able to go from multitasking to focused work and back to multitasking with minimal friction.”
Uber has told staff it wants them in the office 50% of the time, as the company continues to adapt to a changed workplace.
Many companies are adding remote and hybrid work options permanently, an acknowledgment the workplace has been forever changed by COVID-19. Uber is unveiling one of the most flexible options yet, with employees being asked to work 50% of the time in the office.
What makes Uber’s stand so unique, however, is that the employees have control over how when and how they allocate that 50%, according to Reuters. For example, an employee could work one week in the office and not come in at all the following week. In contrast, many companies are requiring employees be in the office a set amount of days per week, in some cases even stipulating which days.
Uber is also encouraging employees to work away from their homes at least four weeks a year, giving employees the opportunity to experience a change of scenery.
Zoom has announced it is acquiring Kites GmbH, a firm specializing in real-time Machine Translation (MT).
As remote work and communication platforms have surged in popularity, so has the need for real-time translation. Virtually ever major platform has been working on adding translation features.
Zoom’s latest deal should give the company’s efforts a significant boost. Kites has its roots in the academic community, and has been working to apply AI and machine learning to real-time translation.
“We are continuously looking for new ways to deliver happiness to our users and improve meeting productivity, and MT solutions will be key in enhancing our platform for Zoom customers across the globe,” said Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at Zoom. “With our aligned missions to make collaboration frictionless – regardless of language, geographic location, or other barriers – we are confident Kites’ impressive team will fit right in with Zoom.”
“Kites emerged with the mission of breaking down language barriers and making seamless cross-language interaction a reality of everyday life, and we have long admired Zoom for its ability to easily connect people across the world,” said Dr. Waibel and Dr. Stüker. “We know Zoom is the best partner for Kites to help advance our mission and we are excited to see what comes next under Zoom’s incredible innovation engine.”
The Kites team will continue to be based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apple is working on an all-new iPad Pro design with an even larger screen, if reports are to be believed.
The largest iPad Pro has been the 12.9-inch model since its introduction in 2015. The screen size puts it roughly on par with the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (via AppleInsider), Apple is ready to expand the iPad Pro even more, with engineers working on a design that’s even larger. Users hoping to see it in the 2022 refresh will be disappointed, however, as the new models are “a couple of years down the road at the earliest.”
Many users have been clamoring for better multitasking on the iPad Pro, specifically requesting a multi-windowed interface, similar to macOS. The larger screen size would certainly make such a transition easier, and could pave the way for a whole new generation of iPadOS innovations.
Encrypted communication platform Telegram has finally added group video calls, roughly a year after originally announcing plans for the feature.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, video communication has achieved all new levels of importance, with businesses and individuals alike relying on the technology for everyday life. Virtually every major platform supports video communication in some form or another.
Telegram announced plans to add video calling over a year go, but in a recent blog post the company says the feature is finally here. Currently, while audio participants have no limit on numbers, only the first 30 to join a video chat may use video.
While audio-only participants are unlimited, video is currently available for the first 30 people who join the voice chat. This limit will increase soon as voice chats take on streaming games, live events and more.
While definitely late to the party, Telegram’s new feature is sure to be much appreciated by its users.
Google has unveiled a new tool designed to help employees decide where to work from and how it will affect their pay.
Like many companies, Google is trying to find the right balance between returning to the office and working with employees that have grown accustomed to working remotely. Earlier this year, CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company’s strategy:
Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home.
Different offices will not result in equal pay, however, as pay will be dependent on the region an employee is working in. The company has now released Work Location Tool for its employees, to help them clearly understand exactly how a proposed move will impact their pay, according to CNET.
“With our new hybrid workplace, more employees are considering where they live and how they work,” Google’s spokeswoman said in a statement. “To better equip people with the information they need to explore their options, we’ve built a tool that will allow all employees to request to move to a new location, or go remote.”
Telecom companies have won a last-minute injunction against New York’s Affordable Broadband Act, putting the law’s future in jeopardy.
Governor Cuomo signed the Affordable Broadband Act in April, with it slated to go into effect next week. New York’s Eastern District Judge Dennis R. Hurley has sided with the telecom industry, acknowledging the law could cause “irreparable harm if the injunction is not granted.”
When Cuomo signed the law in April, former Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt was present, lending his support. The law has been opposed from the very beginning, however, by some of the biggest names in the telecom industry, including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.
It remains to be seen if the law will survive the current challenge but, so far, it’s not looking good. Judge Hurley seemed especially concerned with the impact that law would have on smaller companies.
“While a telecommunications giant like Verizon may be able to absorb such a loss, others may not: the Champlain Telephone Company, for example, ‘estimates that nearly half [approximately 48%] of [its] existing broadband customers will qualify for discounted rates,” with each such customer ‘caus[ing] a monetary loss.’”
Salesforce is doubling down on its Slack acquisition, reworking its entire operations to be Slack-first.
Salesforce rocked the market when it announced it was purchasing Slack late last year. The move was seen as a way for both companies to better compete and fend off the pressure they were experiencing from Microsoft. In many ways, the Slack acquisition fits in with Salesforce’s overall approach, as it has been one of the biggest proponents of a permanent, flexible workflow post-pandemic.
CEO Mac Benioff emphasized Slack’s role in that future in an interview on Yahoo! Finance Live:
“We’re going to rebuild all of our technology, once again, to become Slack-first to help our customers have a harness to work in this new world — where you’re working at home; you’re working in the office; you’re working at events; you’re working anywhere.”
As the Motley Fool notes, the acquisition is not yet complete, but expected to close sometime in Q2. Similarly, Benioff doesn’t talk about how much the reworking of Salesforce operations will cost, but the company has done well in its latest quarterly reports, clearly benefiting from the overall transition to the cloud.
Apple is already experiencing pushback on its announced return-to-office plans, with employees writing a letter objecting and citing demands.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an email to employees last week outlining the company’s return-to-office policy. The company wants employees to be in the office Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the option to work remotely Wednesday and Friday. Employees whose roles require more collaboration would be required to be in the office four or five days a week.
In the email, Cook emphasized the value of in-person collaboration, saying “video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate.”
It appears some of Apple’s employees disagree, and are objecting to the company’s plans. In a letter seen by The Verge, Apple employees are framing the decision as something that could, and already has, force some to reconsider their employment.
“We would like to take the opportunity to communicate a growing concern among our colleagues,” the letter reads. “That Apple’s remote/location-flexible work policy, and the communication around it, have already forced some of our colleagues to quit. Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple.”
Adding to the issue is the claim that Apple has been tone-deaf over the last year, not listening to what the employees want.
“Over the last year we often felt not just unheard, but at times actively ignored,” the letter continues. “Messages like, ‘we know many of you are eager to reconnect in person with your colleagues back in the office,’ with no messaging acknowledging that there are directly contradictory feelings amongst us feels dismissive and invalidating…It feels like there is a disconnect between how the executive team thinks about remote / location-flexible work and the lived experiences of many of Apple’s employees.”
The employees are requesting a number of concessions, including remote work being left up to teams to decide, just as hiring decisions are. Other requests include clearer communication and survey/feedback options about remote work; better accommodation for disabilities, regardless of the work environment or location; a question added to exit surveys to determine if lack of remote work was a factor; and more information regarding the environmental impact of remote work versus returning to the office.
Given the blockbuster year Apple has experienced — including the introduction of the M1 chip, M1 Macs, the new M1-based iPad Pro, AirTags and more — the company may find it difficult to justify a hard line on in-office work when so much as been accomplished remotely.
“We’re seeing the rise of what we call the “revenue innovator, says Outreach CEO Manny Medina. “The revenue innovator is a different job description that has changed since the pandemic. The new job description is the revenue innovators, the digital-first, and the digital native. Those revenue innovators are the new revenue leaders.”
Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach, discusses the “rise of the revenue innovator” in an interview today on CNBC:
The Rise of the Revenue Innovator
We’re seeing the rise of what we call the “revenue innovator.” The revenue innovator is a different job description that has changed since the pandemic. It’s a data-driven digital-first predictable long-building trusting relationship kind of seller. What we are seeing is this influx and this growth in the type of seller that knows how to drive a digital conversation but is complemented with a hybrid approach of visiting your customer. It’s a very predictable, very data-driven kind of job description.
The growth happening across our customer base is the growth of that kind of seller. This is a seller and a customer-facing rep who is going to be very data-driven and very innovator-led. If we are going to think of the Salesforce numbers that just came out these are incredible signs of growth for the cloud platform. That’s an incredible sign of growth for us as well because what we are seeing is the system of action is taking place on top of the system of record that Salesforce is providing.
Second Wave of Digital Transformation
All of the companies that used to be in the mainstream economy are accelerating into the second wave of digital transformation. The first wave of digital transformation is to move all of the data into the cloud and that is happening but it’s not what companies are talking about. Companies are talking about how do you make me smarter? How do you make my teams more efficient? How do you make my teams digital-first?
How do I live and thrive in this new hybrid environment post-Covid in which the buyer is not ready to see sellers until post transaction until you are expanding not selling? All of these “before-laggers” are becoming early innovators and early adopters with new technology such as Outreach which is AI-driven and digital-first.
The new job description is the revenue innovators, the digital-first, and the digital native. They may not have them yet but they are coming online, they are getting these jobs. Those revenue innovators are the new revenue leaders. They are also hiring people of the same ilk that are looking to drive this innovation within their companies. That’s what you are seeing in this transformation. Transformations are always people first.
It’s this new wave of people that are coming into traditional companies that are driving this second digital transformation. They are forward thinkers and they are data-driven.
Outreach Doubling Headcount Again
Outreach is doubling its headcount again. We almost doubled from the beginning of the pandemic all the way to now and we expect to hit another double in terms of hiring. We expect another 600 to 700 people to come on board. Most importantly, what we are seeing is that our customers are growing as well. We sell seats ahead of sales demand and we are seeing sales seats being bought very quickly.
We are expecting our customers to be driving double-digit growth across the board. This is a great sign for the economy.
Outreach CEO Manny Medina: The Rise Of The Revenue Innovator
Apple CEO Tim Cook has emailed employees, telling them to expect a return to the office in early September.
Like most companies, Apple sent employees home to work remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many, the company’s work culture has been permanently changed by a year of remote work. As a result, Apple appears to be embracing a flexible work future, with Cook wanting employees in the office three days a week, while allowing them to continue working from home the remaining two.
“For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other,” he said in the email, seen by The Verge. “Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate.”
Employees will be asked to work from the office Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and be able to continue working remotely Wednesdays and Fridays. Teams that require more in-person collaboration may be required to work in the office four or five days a week.
In addition, employees will also have the option, with manager approval, of working remotely up to two weeks a year, “to be closer to family and loved ones, find a change of scenery, manage unexpected travel, or a different reason all your own,” according to the email.
Apple joins a long list of companies, including Salesforce, Ford and GM, who are embracing flexible and remote work options, providing further evidence of a permanent shift in the nature of the post-pandemic workforce.
Zoom reported its first quarter results, beating estimates amid strong growth in revenue and customers.
The company reported revenue of $956.2 million, an increase of 191% year over year. Customers contributing more than $100,000 in yearly revenue was up roughly 160%, at 1,999. Zoom also reported 497,000 with more than 10 employees, an increase of 87% from the year-ago quarter.
Analysts were expecting yearly revenue to come in at $3.8 billion and $3.77 a share. Instead, Zoom raised its revenue guidance to between $3.975 billion and $3.99 billion, and earnings per share between $4.56 and $4.61.
“We kicked off the fiscal year with a very strong first quarter, posting 191% total year-over-year revenue growth combined with strong profitability and cash flow. Our steadfast commitment to empowering customers to work and learn from anywhere with our expansive, innovative, and frictionless video communications platform continued to drive our results. With this solid start, we are pleased to raise our total guidance range to $3.975 billion to $3.990 billion for the full fiscal year,” said Zoom founder and CEO, Eric S. Yuan. “We have also opened our technology portfolio to developers through our powerful video SDK and to businesses to expand their reach through Zoom Events. Work is no longer a place, it’s a space where Zoom serves to empower your teams to connect and bring their best ideas to life. We are energized to help lead the evolution to hybrid work that allows greater flexibility, productivity, and happiness to both in-person and virtual connections.”
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has reiterated the company’s view that the semiconductor shortage could last several years.
Semiconductors are in short supply, thanks to the pandemic and resulting, complicating factors. Production was initially hurt as a result of lockdowns, and demand has been up significantly as more people rely on laptops and tablets for remote work. Gaming and cryptocurrency mining has also strained supply.
Two months ago, Gelsinger said the shortage would last for another couple of years. According to Reuters, Gelsinger is now saying it could take a couple of years just to address shortages in foundry capacity and components.
“But while the industry has taken steps to address near term constraints it could still take a couple of years for the ecosystem to address shortages of foundry capacity, substrates and components,” Gelsinger said in a virtual session at the Computex trade show in Taipei.
Gelsinger also credited the transition to remote work and remote learning as one of the single biggest drivers, saying it had led to a “cycle of explosive growth in semiconductors” that has placed huge strain on global supply chains.”
Salesforce has delivered its first quarter results, posting a record quarter on strong Customer 360 results.
Salesforce posted $5.96 billion in revenue, a 23% increase year-over-year. Subscription and support revenue accounted for $5.54 billion of that, an increase of 21%, with the professional services and other revenue sources making up $0.43 billion, an increase of 47%.
“We had the best first quarter in our company’s history,” said Marc Benioff, Chair & CEO, Salesforce. “We believe our Customer 360 platform is proving to be the most relevant technology for companies accelerating out of the pandemic. With incredible momentum throughout our core business, we’re raising our revenue guidance for this fiscal year by $250 million to approximately $26 billion and non-GAAP operating margin to 18 percent. We’re on our path to reach $50 billion in revenue in FY26.”
“Our performance in the first quarter was strong across all financial metrics,” said Amy Weaver, President and Chief Financial Officer, Salesforce. “We saw record levels of new business and strength across all products, regions, and customer sizes. Our impressive start to this year helps fuel our momentum for the rest of the year as we keep pace toward our goal of $50 billion in revenue in FY26.”
In addition to beating earnings estimates, Salesforce issued stronger guidance than analysts were expecting, predicting $0.91 to $0.92 per share for the second quarter, on $6.22 billion to $6.23 billion. In contrast, according to CNBC, analysts had been expecting $0.86 on $6.15 billion.
Zoom is releasing a major update to its iPad client, adding support for the iPad Pro’s Center Stage, as well as 48-person Gallery View.
While the move to the M1 processor and mini-LED display stole the show when Apple introduced the new iPad Pro, it was the Center Stage announcement that had many professionals ready to upgrade.
For individuals using an iPad Pro as their primary machine (such as yours truly) the offset camera is a constant irritation. It’s impossible to look at the camera without appearing to the other participants as if you’re staring offscreen.
Center Stage solves that problem, using a wide angle camera and machine learning, to keep you centered onscreen. Apple quickly announced the feature would not only work with FaceTime, but with third-party video apps as well.
Zoom’s latest release adopts the feature, bringing a welcome improvement to company meetings.
With support for Center Stage, you can participate more naturally in our Zoom video calls. Never again worry about whether you’re out of frame during a workout, teaching a class, or celebrating with friends and family over Zoom.
Another major new addition to this release is expanded Gallery View, with support for 48 video tiles, up from 25 in the previous version. While only the 2021 iPad Pro will increase to 48 tiles, Zoom says previous models will get an expanded Gallery View as well, although the number of added tiles will depend on the device and screen size.
“We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model,” says Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it. Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future.”
Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, discusses on CNBC and in their quarterly earnings call how customers absolutely believe that the hybrid work model is in their future:
Customers Are Preparing For Hybrid Work Environment
Over the last couple of quarters, we’ve seen significant investment in next-generation wireless infrastructure to be ready for their employees to come to the office. As you load these wireless networks they are going to need campus refresh underneath them, and we’ve seen exactly that. The Catalyst 9000 platform has had four consecutive quarters of increasing growth sequentially.
We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model. We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it.
Trusted Workplace of the Future
Let me now touch on Infrastructure Platforms. We saw strong demand across a majority of our portfolio, led by our next-generation Enterprise Networking and Service Provider solutions, as companies accelerate the modernization of their infrastructure. This modern infrastructure delivers higher performance and faster access to data while offering the best user experience in an increasingly distributed environment.
Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future, with Wi-Fi access points, video endpoints, cameras and IoT sensors feeding data into DNA Center and DNA spaces. We’re enabling operations teams to remotely monitor workplace conditions for a safe return to office.
We’re also working to provide visibility beyond corporate networks, which is increasingly critical as our customers accelerate their adoption of SaaS and cloud solutions for hybrid work. At Cisco Live, we launched the industry’s first enterprise-wide full stack observability offering by integrating ThousandEyes cloud intelligence with our Catalyst switching portfolio and AppDynamics. This provides IT with visibility and actionable insights across both external and internal networks to provide a seamless digital experience for users. And with users more distributed than ever, it is vital that they have the most efficient and secure connection to the cloud.
Building the Internet of the Future
Our deep partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft allow native connectivity from our SD-WAN fabric to each of these cloud offerings. With our technology, customers can reduce deployment times and connect branch offices to cloud workloads in minutes. In our Webscale business, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of strong order growth, which increased over 25% in the quarter, and over 50% on a trailing 12-month basis.
Our Webscale customers are starting their 400 gig upgrade cycles and aggressively pursuing long-haul build-outs while our Carrier customers are exploring new architectures to realize the full potential of 5G. We are building the internet for the future by creating breakthrough innovation with our routing, optical and automation technologies to deliver significant economic benefits.
Customers Consuming Cisco Technology In New Ways
Recently, we launched a new routed optical networking solution, integrating our scalable, high-performance routers and Acacia’s pluggable optics, which offers significant cost savings. Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Sedona Systems to extend our cross-work automation platform to build on these capabilities. We also expanded our Silicon One platform, from a routing-focused solution to one which addresses the Webscale switching market, offering 10 networking chips ranging from 3.2 terabits to 25.6 terabits per second, making it the highest performance programmable routing and switching silicon on the market. We know our customers increasingly want to consume Cisco’s technology in new and more flexible ways.
At Cisco Live, we launched our new As a Service portfolio, Cisco Plus, and our first offer, Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud, combining our data center compute, networking and storage portfolio. Cisco Plus includes our plans to deliver networking as a service, which will unify networking, Security, and observability across Access, WAN and Cloud domains to deliver an unparalleled experience for our customers.
Turning to Security, we had a record quarter, surpassing $875 million in revenue, up 13% as we expanded our reach with customers around the world. Our Security strategy is focused on delivering a simple and secure experience. We have an unrivaled ability to provide end-to-end Security capabilities across users, devices, applications and data, on any network or any cloud.
Powering Business Transformation
Wellbeing is top of mind for so many right now as we face a new way of working. This is why we launched People Insights to help people monitor and manage their wellbeing. These new features, devices and capabilities combined with Cloud Calling and Cloud Contact Center provide our customers with the most comprehensive and inclusive hybrid work platform.
Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Socio Labs. By integrating Slido and Socio Labs into our WebEx platform, we will also be able to provide the most comprehensive internal and external event management solution on the market. In summary, we had a very good quarter. I’m so proud of the continued success of the business transformation our teams are driving.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model
A new survey has qualified just how much employees want to continue working from home (WFM), to the tune of $30,000.
As restrictions lift and companies begin opening their doors, many employees are faced with the prospect of going back into the office for the first time in more than a year. While many companies are working on permanent remote or hybrid options, some are insisting on a complete return to in-office normality.
According to a new survey by Blind, an anonymous network of professionals, a Goldman Sachs professional posed the question: “Would you rather make $30k more switching to a new job that requires you to work in the office, or would you rather keep your current salary but WFH anywhere after covid?”
An average of 64% of professionals indicated they would prefer WFM, although the number for some specific companies was much higher. For example, 100% of Zillow, 70% of T-Mobile, 89% of Twitter, 71% of Walmart, 69% of Apple, 76% of Salesforce and 73% of Oracle employees would all choose WFM. In fact, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase and Qualcomm were the only companies that fell below the 50% mark.
The survey is just the latest, and most striking, indication of just how popular WFH really is.
Slack is experiencing an outage, with some users unable to send messages.
The problems first showed up shortly after 1:00 PM ET, with users having trouble loading Slack or sending message. Some users reached out on Twitter to check on the issue, which Slack acknowledged.
Slack is down for some users at the moment, and other users are unable to send messages. We're working hard to get things back up and running, sorry for the disruption! https://t.co/Adf57Dy1MK
On the company’s status page, it says it is still working on addressing the problem.
Some users may be experiencing issues loading Slack. We’re actively digging into this issue and will report back as soon as we have an update to share. We’re sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime.
We’re still working towards a fix, and users may still be facing errors when attempting to load Slack. We appreciate all your patience in the meantime and we’ll continue to keep you posted.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Frontier Communications, accusing the company of lying about its internet speeds.
Internet speeds have become more important than ever, as unprecedented numbers of individuals have worked from home during the pandemic. The US already lags behind other developed countries, in terms of high-speed broadband, and the Biden administration has made broadband improvement a major part of its agenda.
Given the current climate, it’s not surprising Frontier is under scrutiny. The FTC has filed a lawsuit, joined by Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, in addition to the district attorneys’ offices of Los Angeles County and Riverside County for the State of California.
In a complaint, the FTC and its state partners allege that Frontier advertised and sold Internet service in several plans, or tiers, based on download speed. Frontier has touted these tiers using a variety of methods, including mail and online ads, and has sold them to consumers over the phone and online.
In reality, the FTC alleges, Frontier did not provide many consumers with the maximum speeds they were promised and the speeds they actually received often fell far short of what was touted in the plans they purchased.
In a statement, Frontier says it “believes the lawsuit is without merit,” and “will present a vigorous defense.”
Zoom has announced it will release Zoom Events this summer, in an effort to help companies of all sizes tackle virtual events.
The virtualization of in-person events has been just one of the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything from big events — like Apple’s WWDC and Microsoft’s events — to smaller companies’ sales summits have gone virtual. For many companies, however, it can still be a challenge to successfully pull off a digital event.
Zoom hopes to change that with its upcoming Zoom Events platform.
Zoom Events offers something for a variety of use cases – from enabling large businesses to seamlessly manage and host internal events like all-hands and sales summits and external events like user conferences, to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs who have been using OnZoom to create, host, and monetize events including fitness and cooking classes, theatrical presentations, and more. As part of the launch of Zoom Events, OnZoom, currently in Beta, will be rebranded and folded into Zoom Events, and can be either private, or searched and explored publicly.
The company sees a future for the platform that extends far beyond the pandemic. In fact, Zoom cites research showing that 80% of people believe a virtual element will continue post-pandemic, with 52% of respondents planning on enjoying both in-person and virtual events.
“It’s an exciting time to be at Zoom where the pace of innovation continues to accelerate,” said Oded Gal, chief product officer at Zoom. “We know that people are looking for flexibility in how they attend events in the future. The hybrid model is here to stay, and Zoom Events is a perfect solution for our customers who are looking to produce and host customer, company, and public events with an easy, yet powerful solution. This is another way we’re helping customers scale to meet consumer demands and the evolving virtual and hybrid landscape.”
