At the start of the year, Simplus identified four key trends for the comms, media, and tech (CMT) space in 2022. These included the ongoing shift to remote work models, the explosion of Web 3.0 innovations, increased emphasis on customer engagement, and a rise in the democratization of digital transformation tools. For tech-heavy companies like those in the CMT industries, these trends continue to dominate strategic decisions and determine key IT investments. Halfway through 2022, we wanted to take a moment to check on how these trends have evolved: 

Remote work

The onslaught of remote work after COVID-19 hit our economy is old news, but the ripple effects of this fundamental shift in work environments continue to shape a new work future, especially for CMT businesses who are often on the cutting-edge of technological advances. For example, more than 15 percent of all six-figure-salary jobs in North America were entirely remote as of the end of 2021, and that figure is expected to jump to 25 percent by the end of 2022. This shift in how work gets done is making many customer interactions faster, more proactive, and more informed than ever before as more organizations adopt collaborative, cloud-based tools to cover the gap left in the absence of in-person work. We see CMT companies and their visionary leaders continuing to lead the charge toward greater remote work opportunities—complete with seamless digital experiences—in their own industry and beyond. 

Web 3.0

At the start of the year, we defined Web 3.0 as an umbrella term for several next-gen advances quickly enlarging their place in the global market, namely predictive analytics, AI, and the IoT. These technologies are decentralizing data and providing incredible real-time insights into just about every interaction a business could wish for. In the first half of 2022 alone, we’ve seen a high-profile manifestation of Web 3.0 in the sudden explosive popularity of NFTs (non-fungible tokens or financial securities consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger​​), which are supported entirely by Web 3.0 technologies and concepts like blockchain and decentralized transactions. Enabled by 5G internet, the Web 3.0 ecosystem has really started to blossom in 2022 and is perhaps the most obvious trend to take off this year for CMT organizations. This means integrating IoT sensors in the field for telecommunications or leveraging more AR and VR on high tech platforms is no longer a far-fetched future—it’s happening now, and CMT companies must get on board to stay in demand. 

Customer experience and engagement

We’ve covered the spread of “Amazon experience” expectations among customers many times before—seamless self-service and instant gratification are at the heart of this model. However, this standard is becoming more easily achieved by many CMT organizations as a foundational shift in operations takes hold: CMT organizations no longer see themselves as mere service or product providers. CMT companies are experience creators. This means businesses are turning more and more towards creative, highly curated advertising with a mobile-first approach. Engagement on social media channels, ads on streaming services, and more customer-centric strategies are the new name of the game for truly reaching customers and delivering value they’ll remember. For example, TikTok users are 1.3 times more likely to feel excited or euphoric about a product they purchased as a result of seeing it on TikTok, according to a 2022 study by Material. Excited customers are engaged customers, and engagement translates to long-lasting relationships and recurring revenue for your bottom line. CMT organizations must build out the data architecture and security protocols to support this shift to more involved marketing and service. 

Democratization of digital transformation tools

Finally, at the core of all these trends are the digital transformation tools that make it happen and cleanly house such large swaths of data. Salesforce has been the platform of choice for many large CMT organizations for years, and it continues to prove itself as the best option for enterprise-grade automation and smart operations. It’s no longer just a nicety for the big players in CMT—more than half of small- and medium-sized businesses report they’re accelerating their investments in sales and customer service technologies, according to 2022 Salesforce research. As more and more organizations take advantage of the powerful digital transformation tools available, strategic investments in a digital-first future rise. This means it will only become more accessible and affordable for any organization to leverage enterprise-level tools in their digital transformations. Using Salesforce as your CRM foundation is no longer enough to keep your business on the cutting edge—you must leverage it in a customer, industry-tailored way to come out on top. That’s where Simplus comes in. 

Simplus is a long-time partner of many CMT organizations navigating various digital transformation efforts. With our expansive expertise across Salesforce clouds and integrations, we help companies analyze their current state and envision a future state down to every last API before moving towards the implementation of a holistic digital transformation (DX) solution. Reach out to our team today if you’d like to increase profitability and agility for your organization through a smart implementation of DX tools.