Jabra MD EMEA North, Nigel Dunn, spoke to CRN about the vendor's growth strategy for 2023, emphasising the ongoing demand in technology that can facilitate hybrid and collaborative working.
We also asked him to share some of the highlights from the vendor's partners that have shaped the last 12 months.
What have been your highlights for Jabra from a business perspective this year?
This year we have truly diversified and strengthened our portfolio, bringing new products to market that are built for collaboration and hybrid working.
We have had successful product launches across multiple sectors that have received positive reviews, expanding our video solutions with the Jabra PanaCast 50 Room System, and introducing new professional, true wireless earbuds with the Evolve2 Buds.
We have developed Jabra's Engage line with a new generation of contact centre headsets. And we recently launched Engage AI; unique software that uses powerful artificial intelligence technology to analyse sentiment and tone of voice in real time to enhance the customer and agent experience.
How has your business performed during and after the Covid pandemic?
The global pandemic placed unprecedented demand on Jabra and the channel. While it is difficult to anticipate the full impact of a pandemic, to some extent Jabra foresaw the challenges and prepared partners to take increased stock into the channel.
The ability to manufacture and supply products to satisfy demand was our biggest challenge. Despite this, Jabra was able to deliver growth and strong sales by being agile and making products available in the face of increased demand across the industry.
Jabra's growth over the last couple of years reflects the strength of our product portfolio in combination with strong execution in the supply chain in a challenging environment. This has led to market share gains and growth opportunities for channel partners.
This year, there has been solid demand in the enterprise market, driven by flexible working and significant uptake of unified communications platforms and solutions.
What have been the biggest challenges for your partners this year, and how are you helping to overcome them?
The global components shortage has been the biggest challenge for our resellers. To mitigate this we had several initiatives in place, including sourcing alternative manufacturers and re-engineering of certain high-volume products to ensure more flexibility on available components. Now all distributors have good stocks across our full range of products.
Another challenge for our resellers has been to understand the dynamics of changing working habits. Jabra undertook extensive research into the behaviours and preferences of employees, and the impact of autonomy on well-being and job satisfaction.
The data we compiled was extremely insightful. We were able to share this with our partners to give them more knowledge and credibility in discussing the benefits of technology for hybrid Working and helping customers to navigate this complex area.
What are the biggest opportunities for Jabra and your partners in 2023?
2023 will hopefully be a year where the world gets back to some kind of new normality. Hybrid working is still at the forefront of companies' minds and Jabra will continue helping organisations to digitally transform their businesses and adapt to a hybrid working world.
87 per cent of all meetings that take place are now either fully virtual or hybrid, Jabra's research shows. While staff working at home have focused on creating workspaces to suit their needs, offices are still undergoing significant change to optimise space and create environments for better collaboration.
Video is critical to enabling collaboration, and Jabra's Evolve headset range and award-winning PanaCast cameras support this digital and physical transformation in the workplace.
Healthcare, logistics and retail are exciting areas with great potential. We have a unique advantage and opportunity to transform communication for frontline workers across sectors with products such as Jabra Perform and BlueParrott headsets with a Push-to-Talk button that works with platforms like Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie.
Which Jabra products and services should your partners invest in in 2023?
Partners should invest in video conferencing and collaboration technologies that deliver greater meeting equity and inclusivity and enhance productivity for everyone.
Video can have a positive impact on employees' wellbeing and productivity levels; 62 per cent of employees saying they feel more included and present in meetings when everyone attending has their camera turned on, according to Jabra's research.
To add to this, 68 per cent of workers say that standardised professional video cameras would help everyone participate equally in hybrid meetings.
In the contact centre, customer experience has emerged as the number one priority. Jabra Engage AI is unique sentiment analysis software that uses powerful artificial intelligence technology to analyse customers' and agents' tone of voice in real time.
This analyses sentiment and engagement levels, providing real-time insights and feedback to improve the customer and agent experience. The ability to measure sentiment in real time combined with Jabra's newest range of Engage headsets is a significant development for customer service and improving customer retention in contact centres.
What are your goals for Jabra's UK partner business in 2023 and beyond?
The new hybrid-working world is posing new questions particularly around the return to the office and the ability for everyone who needs to collaborate to be able to participate and contribute on an equal footing, whether in person or virtually.
Jabra has conducted extensive research into the impact of technologies and autonomy in hybrid work, the design of workspaces and how to improve meeting equity and well-being in a digital, globalised world.
Our goal at Jabra is to equip our partners with this knowledge to help them work with their customers to advise on best practice and implementation of workspace designs and technology that complement the new ways of how, when and where we work. They now have the unique opportunity to become expert advisers to their customers.
Jabra will continue to innovate across all sectors with new productivity-enhancing products and opportunities for partners to support the digital transition for organisations, from frontline workers to building real-time intelligent analytics into contact centre services - transforming communication and driving customer satisfaction.
This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Jabra.
