At first, Zoom was a meeting solution. Then, it added Zoom Phone and Zoom Chat to become a UCaaS leader.
From there, it launched the Zoom Contact Center, Virtual Agent, and WEM. Calendar and Email are now even part of its communications portfolio.
Last week, it expanded even further, acquiring WorkVivo.
WorkVivo is an employee app with a social intranet and several other engagement solutions. These include forums, directories, recognition features, live video streams, and even podcast creation tools.
An analytics solution overlays these, assessing how employees adopt and interact with the app.
In a post announcing the news, Zoom noted:
With this acquisition, Zoom continues its evolution to provide the best end-to-end collaboration platform focused on enabling modern work and powering the digital-first workplace.
This transition to “modern work” has proven tricky. While most people are happy to attend meetings remotely, routines to improve employee development, culture propagation, and off-the-cuff communications are – in many cases – stuck in the mud.
For these reasons – amongst others – many businesses are mandating that staff return to the office.
Yet, as Business Insider reports: “Employees are rejecting the mandates and don’t appear ready to back down.”
As such, many businesses must look for an alternative, which Zoom aims to provide with WorkVivo.
Zoom Huddles – formerly known as “Zoom Spots” – and Zoom Clips saw it take similar strides. Nevertheless, this acquisition is perhaps the clearest step yet that it wants to become the hybrid work enabler with the most comprehensive communications portfolio.
From colleague to customer, in-office to remote, voice to video, scheduled to ad-hoc, human to virtual – it is paving over the communication pitfalls that scupper hybrid working experiences.
In a time where system convergence is front of mind, this is more of a differentiator for Zoom.
After all, UCaaS has become somewhat commoditized. Meanwhile, its CCaaS platform – while gaining momentum – lacks the breadth and depth of a NICE, Genesys, or AWS.
With WorkVivo it can leverage “enterprise social” to cover more bases than its competitors.
Some have previously attempted this. Google Community, Yammer (the predecessor to Viva Engage), and Salesforce Chatter are all excellent examples. Yet, WorkVivo is a deeper offering.
As John Goulding, CEO and Co-Founder at WorkVivo, stated:
Our platform replaces outdated, clunky, internal communications tools with a vibrant, familiar social experience, and has a proven history of unparalleled levels of adoption.
These adopters include Amazon, Bupa, and Ryanair, amongst many other recognizable names.
Thanks to such wins, Workvivo has enjoyed triple-digit growth in the last three years. Such momentum will likely continue as remote work remains the norm.
Indeed, the troubles outlined previously emphasize the need for remote tooling.
However, it is also fascinating to consider how Zoom may integrate Workvivo with its broader portfolio. Seemingly, there are many possibilities.
Consider Zoom WEM. It collates quality scores, uncovering the best-performing agents. With an integration, leaders may offer public praise to high ranking team members.
Staying in the contact center, coaches can leverage podcasts, video, and survey software to share knowledge in new ways.
These are two of the many possibilities, as Zoom may take the same approach as it did with Solvvy: acquiring differentiated features and pulling them together through internal R&D.
In doing so, Zoom plays to its strengths. Yet, is enhancing hybrid work a compelling enough differentiator? That remains the overriding question.
