A perfect storm of innovation occurs when unforeseen events or circumstances challenge human nature. Fall into a hole and you’ll find your way out. Take a truckload of lemons and go into the lemonade business. The English language is certainly peppered with colloquialisms that reflect this: “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” “It takes a village.” “Necessity is the mother of invention.” That perfect storm of innovation in 2020 and 2021 triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating trends that we are seeing today. The fuel for the storm included many long-simmering ingredients of ICT advancements, including: · The rise of cloud development and storage; · Advancements in automation and AI; · Improvements in omnichannel service delivery; · Cross-organizational support for the customer experience (CX); · Digital transformation; · Intelligent self-service; · The blending of unified communication and collaboration and the contact center; · The development of agent tools to improve CX and customer satisfaction; and · A focus on the solutions that improve the employee/agent experience and engagement. Seemingly in a flash, the COVID-19 pandemic changed all aspects of customer care and acted as an accelerant to digital transformation across the UCC and contact center landscape. Suddenly, back-burnered disaster recovery and business continuity plans looked appealing as millions of agents moved to work-from-home in rapid order. More capable and intelligent self-service solutions already in play in response to demand from younger consumers became generationless. Agents no longer under the watchful eye of supervisors initiated the desire to find new ways to monitor, manage, measure, and engage remote employees. This Growth Opportunity report delves into the most impactful trends for 2022. It details why they are beneficial for solution providers and businesses and explores important subthemes that are driving customer adoption. Author: Nancy Jamison