December 2023

The Rise Of A Unified Future Of Business Communication And Collaboration

Navigating The Hybrid Era With Unified Interface And Coordination Platform

SmartGroups logo

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commisioned by SmartGroups

Table Of Contents

American historian T.J. Jackson Lears once said, “All history is the history of unintended consequences.”

In the past few years, the number and diversity of productivity tools have skyrocketed. Business leaders and knowledge workers expect these tools to continue to unlock productivity potentials of their employees, but it’s becoming more complicated and challenging than most of us realize.

According to Forrester’s research on business collaboration, companies are struggling with hybrid work mode, cognitive overload, and misalignment on tool use.1

In October 2023, smartgroups GmbH commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the challenges and needs related to the adoption of business communication and collaboration tools.

Through surveys and interviews with both knowledge workers and business decision-makers, Forrester found that while the number of digital tools proliferates with the hybrid work trend, email is the primary communication platform. We have further uncovered that knowledge workers are struggling with numerous notifications and endless context switching. There is a latent demand for solutions and processes to simplify and unify these different channels.

In this study, we also provide some recommendations for companies that are struggling with these challenges.

Project Team: Diane Deng, Senior Consultant
Christian Fischer, Principal Consultant
Alexis Ouelhadj, Consultant
Lara D’Armancourt, Associate Consultant

Contributing Research: Forrester’s Technology & Architecture research group

Key Findings

  • icon
    With the rise of hybrid work mode, the number of tools have multiplied — but emails remain crucial.

    Hybrid work has led to increased adoption of digital communication and collaboration tools. Despite the introduction of new tools, email continues to be the preferred tool for communication and collaboration among knowledge workers and decision-makers, with its importance expected to increase.

  • icon
    Knowledge workers are experiencing cognitive overload.

    The use of multiple productivity tools has contributed to cognitive overload, particularly for hybrid workers. This includes challenges in managing notifications, tracking information, and context switching.

  • icon
    There is a latent demand for a unified interface and coordination platform (UICP).

    There is a growing demand for a UICP that consolidates different communication channels and coordinates communication and tasks across core applications. With the aim to reduce cognitive overload and improve efficiency, knowledge workers with more complex collaboration requirements have a higher need for such platforms.

NEXT SECTION: Productivity Tools: A New Norm Forms, Yet Old-Fashioned Tools Stay

Shifting employee needs have been driving the growth of business communication and collaboration tools. Email, instant messaging (IM), video conferencing, intranet as a service, task management, and file-sharing solutions all fall under this category with increasingly blurry boundaries. The changing market landscape has fostered some new dynamics, while some trends have stayed consistent.

  • THE NEW NORM: THE NUMBER OF DIGITAL TOOLS PROLIFERATES WITH THE HYBRID WORK TREND

    In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work has become the norm. In this study, two-thirds (65%) of respondents are hybrid workers who are not required to work in an office five days a week. Solving the disconnects associated with hybrid work — as employees come and go and work from multiple, ever-shifting locations — has accelerated the adoption of digital communication and collaboration tools. In this study, we found that:

    • Companies on average use 4.6 digital productivity tools. Companies large and small have adopted multiple digital tools to manage their employees’ productivity, including email, IM, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM), among others. Our survey found that one employee uses 4.6 tools on average in a typical work week (see Figure 1).

      Typically, employees who work with customers directly need slightly more tools (4.8 on average) given their need to communicate frequently with both internal and external parties. Employees in IT or digital use close to six tools, which is the highest among all functions.

    Figure 1

    “To your best estimate, what percentage of your time do you spend on the following tools on a typical work week, on average?”

    figure

    Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
    Note: Showing the mean of number of tools that are being used for more than 5% of their time
    Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

    • Hybrid workers use even more tools to stay on track. Mastering hybrid work is messy and requires improved technological tools.2 Compared with full-time remote (3.87 tools) or full-time office workers (4.34 tools), hybrid workers on average use more tools to communicate and collaborate to keep them on top of tasks and team updates (5.10 tools). As hybrid work has become mainstream, the challenges of using multiple productivity tools became more pronounced.

  • OLD-FASHIONED BUT CRUCIAL: EMAIL IS HERE TO STAY

    While companies keep introducing new tools to boost productivity in a hybrid working environment, the relevance of email continues to increase. We found that:

    • Email remains the preferred communication and collaboration tool for knowledge workers and decision-makers. All knowledge workers (100%) and most decision-makers (96%) agree that email is the top technology they use to communicate in writing and sharing information with colleagues, external partners, and clients (see Figure 2).

    Figure 2

    Top Technologies Used To Communicate With Coworkers, External Partners, And Clients

    figure

    Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
    Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

    • The relevance of email is expected to increase. Fifty-six percent of decision-makers and 55% of knowledge workers expect the importance of email to increase in the next one to two years. Despite the growth of other channels, email continues to offer auditability, dependability, time-displacement, and ease of use when communicating with external partners and customers.

    • Instant messaging tools will not replace email for knowledge workers. Sixty-one percent of knowledge workers and 47% of decision-makers agree that instant messaging cannot replace email for them or their employees (see Figure 3). While the context for using instant messaging tools continues to evolve, this real-time, synchronous form of communication tends to interrupt the flow of work for colleagues and isn’t appropriate at all times.

“Every department or team uses different communication tools. There is no consolidation and standardization of tools.”

— Senior product manager, large collaboration tool provider

“Email is still the king for external communications.”

— Director of digital workplace architecture and innovation, electrical equipment firm

Figure 3

Email Remains More Important Than Instant Messaging

(Showing “Strongly agree” and “Agree”)

figure

Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

NEXT SECTION: Challenges: The Diminishing Return Of Productivity Tools

Knowledge workers — especially hybrid workers — now have to adapt to different environments, platforms, interfaces, and functionalities, physically and digitally. Once introduced to boost productivity, the efficiency benefit of new productivity tools have peaked as the number of tools have multiplied, while pressure on cognitive workload has become more pronounced.

In this study, we have identified two key areas where increasing adoption of multiple productivity tools contributed to cognitive overload of knowledge workers: information sharing and context switching.

  • INFORMATION OVERLOAD: KNOWLEDGE WORKERS ARE BURIED IN NOTIFICATIONS EACH WORKING DAY

    The first area contributing to cognitive overload is the amount of information that knowledge workers have to process every working day (see Figure 4). Each platform they use comes with its own set of notifications, updates, and messages, creating a constant stream of information that can be overwhelming and distracting. This information overload can make it difficult for workers to prioritize and focus on essential tasks, leading to decreased productivity and increased stress. At its worst, this situation can cause employee burnout, leading to attrition and lost productivity.3

Figure 4

A Typical Working Day For Knowledge Workers

figure

Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

  • CONTEXT OVERLOAD: SWITCHING TASKS AND CONTEXT ADDS MORE COMPLEXITY

    The need for constant context switching contributes to the second area of cognitive overload. Switching between multiple tools disrupts the flow, diverts attention away from core tasks, and contributes to inefficiency.4 Multiple tools means that employees are continually receiving communications from too many directions and channels. 5 This much context switching significantly harms focus.6

    In this study, we found several core scenarios that contributed to the context overload for knowledge workers (see Figure 5):

    • Keeping track of information. With multiple tools in place, knowledge workers must keep track of more documents, chats, and emails to make sure they are not missing any information. Challenges related to keeping track of information, such as keeping an overview and documenting relevant information across systems, managing different document versions, and categorizing mass inbound communications, are among the top challenges, especially for hybrid workers.

      As the director at an electrical equipment firm told us: “The fact that collaboration tools are in different chunks makes it more difficult to have one place to get information. Not having information in one place is the number one issue.”

      The chief technology leader at a tech company said: “We struggle with all the data that’s going through these tools to get the best information and make the best decisions. For instance, there is a lot of data going through [email] and the instant messages tools. How do we link up a certain topic with an email? With [traditional email clients,] it’s very difficult to do that.”

    • Keeping track of actions. Linking to the difficulty of tracking information, another group of notable challenges include tracking tasks and assigning actions. Decision-makers in organizations see tracking actions and assigning actions as a bigger challenge (52%) than knowledge workers (41%).

    • Completing tasks. Sixty percent of decision-makers and 51% of knowledge workers find it challenging to work across multiple collaboration tools to complete a single task. About one-third of knowledge workers also find it challenging to select the right channel for business communication to complete a task. Asking colleagues to complete actions across a number of channels with no central way of tracking progress is a recipe for dropping the ball.

      An interviewed collaboration solution provider mentioned: “Workers typically have a window for email, another for calendar, their task management tool, then another for their instant message or chat tool. Employees constantly collaborate and communicate across at least five tabs and get pings from everywhere, so if they want to be able to focus, they need to mute all of these. The constant context switching is one of the major challenges.”

“I only put my phone down for an hour and by the time I get back [to it], I have 72 email and 15 [instant message] notifications. It can get overwhelming if you are not good at managing it.”

— CEO, education group

Figure 5

Top Challenges Knowledge Workers And Decision-Makers Face Daily

(Showing “Very challenging” and “Challenging”)

Keeping an overview and documenting relevant information that are distributed in different email threads and chats Managing different versions of documents, making changes and editing documents, and getting approvals of documents over email Categorizing, seperating, and keeping track of mass inbound communications, such as newsletters and company announcements Tracking and flagging time critical tasks with the email/chat platform(s) I use at work Tracking actions required and assigning actions to my colleagues with the email/chat platform(s) I use at work Selecting the right channel for business communications to get a specific task done Working across multiple collaboration tools to complete a task

Click to see data


Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023 Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023 Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

NEXT SECTION: The Path Forward: A Unified Interface And Coordination Platform

The increasingly complexity of business communication and collaboration presents a need for another coordination layer to reduce the burden of knowledge workers who struggle with multitasking and constant context switching. It also requires a unified interface to reduce communication complexity and drive higher user adoption.

In this study, we found that there is a latent demand for a unified interface and coordination platform (UICP).

  • THE LATENT DEMAND FOR UICP

    Current challenges resulting from the abundance of communication and collaboration tools are not going away without help. Amidst these challenges, there is a growing consensus among both knowledge workers and decision-makers about what that help might look like. They are eagerly anticipating a solution that can unify all communication channels and collaboration tools into a single interface. While the challenges posed by the proliferation of tools may persist, the call for a unified solution signals a readiness for change. Respondents said:

    • They wish to have just one tool to manage all communications. Two-thirds (67%) of knowledge workers and more than half (55%) of decision-makers wish they had just one tool to manage all communications and channels in one simple interface that prevents them from having to switch between different tabs (see Figure 6). By eliminating the confusion of multi- and cross-channel communications on the same project, employees would save time and frustration.

    • They are likely to adopt unified interface features. Seventy-one percent of knowledge worker respondents would be likely to adopt a unified interface for emails and other messaging channels if their organization made one available to them. Seventy percent of knowledge workers would adopt a tool that provides timelines and deadline clarity, while 67% would adopt a function that automatically groups emails and documents stored in different channels. In addition, 64% would adopt a tool that creates rules for grouping newsletters and other mass communications, 63% would adopt a tool that provides action and responsibility clarity, and 61% would adopt a tool that helps them create, see, and edit data from external systems in a unified platform and vice versa (see Figure 7).

  • OPTIMIZATION STARTS WITH A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF USER WORKPLACE COLLABORATION BEHAVIORS AND USE CASES

    To gain deeper insights, we segmented the knowledge workers into four distinct segments based on the volume of data they handle and the complexity of that data. By understanding these nuances, organizations can tailor their strategies and tools to better support the specific needs and challenges faced by each segment, ultimately fostering more efficient and effective internal and external collaborations.

    We segmented knowledge workers into the below segments (see Figure 8):

    • Power users: They are likely to be in complex roles or work in fast-paced environments, such as project managers and engineers.

    • Deep workers: They are likely to be in roles that require a lot of focus and concentration, such as researchers and software developers.

    • Communicators: They are likely to be in roles that require a lot of collaboration and communication, such as salespeople and customer support.

    • Occasional users: They may be in part-time roles or admin roles that do not require a lot of communication or collaboration.

  • Based on the analysis, we recommend business decision-makers prioritize user segments based on the challenges they face in business communication and collaboration, their attitudes towards UICP, and their intent to use such tools. The result indicates business decision-makers should:

    • Place power users as the highest priority. This segment demonstrates the strongest use intent among all segments. Based on their characteristics, identify these employees, what kind of use cases they have, and shortlist suitable solutions based on their needs. This segment will demonstrate the use case and prove out the business case.

    • Place deep workers as second priority. They will learn from power users and will benefit from limiting the cognitive overload of communications as they pursue thinking work.

    • Scale the success to the other two segments — communicators and occasional users — once the needs of the above segments have been addressed. By the time they adopt, they will be able to turn to power users and deep workers for peer assistance, inspiration, and tips.

A UICP brings together different communication channels into one interface and coordinates communication and tasks across different core applications (such as finance and customer service) used by enterprise users.

Figure 6

Employees and Decision-Makers Want a Single Communication Tool Thats Easy To Use

(Showing “Strongly agree” and “Agree”)

figure

Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and 218 decision-makers for business communication tools
Note: Showing top response
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

POLL

Which of the following features would knowledge workers employees in your organizations be likely to adopt if they are made available to them? (Select all that apply.)

POLL

Which of the following features would knowledge workers employees in your organizations be likely to adopt if they are made available to them? (Select all that apply.)
A unified interface of emails and other messaging channels A tool that provides timeline and deadline clarity A function that automatically groups incoming emails, conversations, and documents stored in different channels related to one topic into one A tool that automatically creates rules and groupings for newlsetters and mass communications A tool that provides action and responsibility clarity Create, see, and edit data from external systmes in a unified platform and vice versa

Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly
Note: Showing top response
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

POLL

Which of the following knowledge workers segment do you belong to?

POLL

How prepared is your organization to deliver on your industrial metaverse goals?
figure

Base: 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of smartgroups GmbH, October 2023

NEXT SECTION: Key Recommendations

As the current state of business communication and collaboration shows, knowledge workers face new challenges due to the plethora of channels and tools they use daily. These challenges are here to stay. However, there is a shared aspiration among knowledge workers and decision-makers for a single, unified tool that can revolutionize the way they work. By embracing this vision and investing in the development of integrated platforms, organizations can empower their workforce and unlock new levels of productivity and collaboration.

Forrester’s analysis yielded several recommendations:

NEXT SECTION: Appendix

Appendix A: Methodology

In this study, Forrester conducted a global online survey of 1,007 knowledge workers who use email and chat/meeting tools at least weekly and another survey of 218 collaboration and communication tools decision-makers who are directors, VPs, or C-level executives. Respondents from both surveys are based in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US. Questions in the knowledge workers’ survey asked about attitudes to communication and collaboration, challenges, and current and expected needs for collaboration. Questions in the decision-makers’ survey focused on their employees’ attitudes to communication and collaboration, challenges, current and expected needs for collaboration, and current and planned investments in collaboration and communication tools. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank-you for time spent on the survey. In addition, Forrester conducted five interviews with business communication and collaboration tools decision-makers and six interviews with product strategists from collaboration and communication providers. The study began in August 2023 and was completed in October 2023.

Appendix B: Knowledge Workers Demographics

GEOGRAPHY
Canada 20%
France 20%
Germany 20%
United Kingdom 20%
United States 20%
Age
18 to 24 2%
25 to 29 9%
30 to 34 19%
35 to 39 20%
40 to 44 15%
45 to 49 10%
50 to 54 11%
55 to 59 10%
60 to 64 4%
65+ 1%
Respondant Level
C-level executive 10%
Vice president 16%
Director 34%
Manager 40%
Project manager (manage ad hoc project teams) 14%
Junior or senior individual contributor 25%
Department
IT/digital 18%
Operations and supply chain 17%
Finance/accounting/controlling 13%
Sales/business development 12%
Human resources/training 11%
Other 10%
Product 6%
Marketing/advertising 5%
Procurement/strategic sourcing/vendor management 4%
Security and risk 3%
ROLE DESCRIPTION
Working directly with clients/customers 55%
Producing work that is delivered to clients/customers through someone else 24%
Producing/conducting work that supports other employees of the organization 21%
WORK DEVICES
Laptop 75%
Mobile phone 72%
Desktop 63%
Landline 60%
Tablet 22%
HOURS PER DAY SPENT ON EMAIL-RELATED ACTIVITIES AT WORK
More than 4 hours 19%
2 to 4 hours 33%
1 to 2 hours 48%
GENDER
Female 47%
Male 53%
TYPE OF ORGANIZATION
Local/domestic business 55%
International/global corporation 24%
Government 9%
Educational institution 5%
Nongovernmental organization (NGO) 4%
Other (political organization, armed forces, charities, not-for-profit corporation) 3%
INDUSTRY
Business or professional services 10%
Retail and wholesale 9%
Manufacturing and materials 9%
Technology and/or technology services 9%
Financial services and/or insurance 9%
Healthcare 9%
Construction 7%
Transportation and logistics 6%
Government 6%
Education and/or nonprofits 6%
Energy, utilities, and/or waste management 5%
Consumer product goods 5%
Travel and hospitality 4%
Telecommunications services 4%
Media and/or leisure 4%
WORK SETUP
Fully remote organization 3%
5 days of in-office work required 35%
4 days of in-office work required 136%
3 days of in-office work required 16%
1 to 2 days of in-office work required 17%
No required minimum number of days in-office 15%
COMPANY SIZE
20,000 or more employees 12%
5,000 to 19,999 employees 11%
1,000 to 4,999 employees 20%
500 to 999 employees 15%
100 to 499 employees 24%
2 to 99 employees 17%

Appendix C: Decision-Makers Demographics

GEOGRAPHY
Canada 15%
France 18%
Germany 15%
United Kingdom 26%
United States 27%
TITLE
C-level executive 46%
Vice president (in charge of one/several large departments) 17%
Director (manage a team of managers and high-level contributors) 37%
TYPE OF ORGANIZATION
Local/domestic business 59%
International/global corporation 30%
Educational institution 4%
Nongovernmental organization (NGO) 3%
Other (political organization, armed forces, charities, not-for-profit corporation) 2%
Government 1%
DEPARTMENT
IT/digital 25%
Operations and supply chain 15%
Finance/accounting/controlling 14%
Sales/business development 10%
Marketing/advertising 8%
Human resources/training 8%
Procurement/strategic sourcing/vendor management 6%
Security and risk 6%
Other 4%
Product 3%
COMPANY SIZE
20,000 or more employees 6%
5,000 to 19,999 employees 7%
1,000 to 4,999 employees 23%
500 to 999 employees 15%
100 to 499 employees 14%
2 to 99 employees 35%
COMPANY ANNUAL REVENUE
More than $5B 6%
$1B to $5B 13%
$500M to $999M 11%
$400M to $499M 5%
$300M to $399M 8%
$200M to $299M 5%
$100M to $199M 7%
$1M to $99M 18%
Less than $1M 26%
INDUSTRY
Technology and/or technology services 17%
Financial services and/or insurance 17%
Retail and wholesale 12%
Business or professional services 11%
Construction 10%
Manufacturing and materials 9%
Healthcare 7%
Education and/or nonprofits 4%
Transportation and logistics 3%
Media and/or leisure 3%
Telecommunications services 2%
Energy, utilities, and/or waste management 2%
Consumer product goods 2%
Government 1%
Travel and hospitality 0%

Appendix D: Endnotes

1 Source: “The Future Of Work Requires A Better Collaboration Model,” Forrester Research, Inc., July 17, 2023.

2 Source: “Master The Messy Middle Of Hybrid,” Forrester Research, Inc.

3 Source: “The People Leader’s Guide To Burnout,” Forrester Research, Inc., January 11, 2022.

4 Source: “Workgeist Report ’21,” Qatalog, 2021.

5 Source: “The Future Of Work Requires A Better Collaboration Model,” Forrester Research, Inc., July 17, 2023.

6 Source: “How To Make Hybrid Work,” Forrester Research, Inc., November 16, 2021.

This study was conducted by Forrester’s Custom Content Consulting Practice. Get in touch to discuss your custom content needs and goals. Learn more about all of Forrester's consulting capabilities.

About Forrester Consulting

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting.

© 2023, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to forrester.com.

Cookie Settings

Cookie Preferences

Accept Cookies

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions (data inputs, website navigation), so you don’t have to re-enter data when you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

Behavioral information collected by our web analytics vendor is used to analyze data pertaining to visitor trends, plan website enhancements, and measure overall website effectiveness. We may also use cookies or web beacons to help us offer you products, programs, or services that may be of interest to you and to deliver relevant advertising. We may use third-party advertising companies to help tailor website content to users or to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may also employ cookies and web beacons to measure advertising effectiveness.

Please accept cookies and the collection of behavioral information to receive full functionality and enhance your experience. If you decline cookies, some features of the website may not function normally.

Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.