A third of retail brands are using at least four collaboration tools to communicate with staff—with some expecting employees to use as many as ten different apps, according to an industry poll from
The research, by business communications company Fuze, also found that more than half (57%) of the 150 retail tech teams polled think that the current collaboration approach is damaging their business’ ability to communicate.
Using so many applications forces workers to navigate between multiple tools and devices to share, connect and communicate, often complicated by not knowing which apps are favoured by which colleagues. This kind of application sprawl negatively impacts productivity and effectiveness when it serves to complicate the technology landscape of a business.
However, to solve this problem, 56% have plans to unify their communicationsby 2022.
Commenting on these findings, Jackie Groves, Regional VP UK at Fuze, says: “The use of so many communications apps has left IT leaders concerned about the complexity and management of their communications systems. This highlights a clear need for retail brands to reduce application sprawl and simplify IT—both for businesses and for individual members of staff.”
Groves continues: “When it comes to the retail space, the more seamless the communications platforms are for staff, the more likely workers will have positive and effective interactions with customers. As such, retailers should fight hard to minimize the number of apps required to enable their workforce to communicate and collaborate in an effective manner for them. They can achieve this by implementing unified communications solutions rather than standalone apps. The best communications apps are those that deliver consumer-like experiences, which help to improve productivity.”
