Moving Beyond the Online Meeting

Companies are trying to reconnect hybrid workforces with digital office spaces

In presentations over two days in early November at the San Jose Convention Center, leaders from Zoom Video Communications Inc. unveiled a plan to transition from an online-meeting tool into an all-day business platform. Zoom Spots, coming in early 2023, will be a virtual-office watercooler of sorts, helping to re-create those casual conversations and quick pop-ins that fell victim to remote work.

"People, especially the ones who are working from home, they don't feel they're part of the group," Oded Gal, chief product officer, told Zoom investors. "We're missing all of these conversations that used to happen where you could talk about your personal life. And a lot of actual business decisions are made in the corridors." Call it the metaverse (if you must), but for the office. Earlier digital office ventures resembled video games or focused on hosting one-off online events; some have had to retrench or pivot.

The latest crop-created by a cadre of startups including Roam, Kosy and Teemyco for thousands of organizations worldwide-are for everyday work and have a more professional look and feel.

What they don't have is Zoom's entrenched position, with the technology being used by almost 210,000 large employers in its most recent quarter, up 14% from the same period last year. Zoom is counting on expanded offerings, including email and calendar tools, to make up for its recent decline in consumer and small-business customers. This year it began developing Spots. The aim, says group product manager Michael Lam, isn't "just to replicate spontaneous encounters but to elevate employee engagement."