Digital Disruptors Changing the 2021 Work Landscape

As Theodore Levitt said, “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” If there was ever a time for both creativity and innovation, it is now. As we shift into yet another phase of the work world, one not clearly defined by remote work but not entirely transitioned back to the physical office—many efforts have been made to help innovate the workplace. Depending on a business’s industry, there have been varying levels of adaptation, and some companies have even come to find that the alterations they made in operations were for the better. 

According to Gartner, digital disruption is an effect that changes the fundamental expectations and behaviors in a culture, market, industry, or process caused by, or expressed through, digital capabilities, channels, or assets. Technology has significantly advanced the digital workplace in recent years, especially since the pandemic on account of need, and there are some shining examples of where digital innovation has stepped up to the plate. 

The Webby Awards are awarded for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. These awards have been dubbed as “the Oscars of the Internet” and are the longest standing and highest honor to all things Internet-oriented. Drawing from the winners and honorees this year, here are some of the top disrupting technologies manifested in 2021. 

Krisp

Maybe as things have opened up, you decided to start changing up your remote work environment and began working from coffee shops. Mixing up your scenery is good, but the issue with coffee shops is you never know how many people are going to be there and thereby how loud it might be. Depending on your work and how you as an individual operate, this may or may not be conducive for your efficiency. Well, whether it’s your home with your children running around, a noisy coffee shop, or overlapping video calls in the workplace—Webby winner Krisp is here to help. 

Krisp’s mission is to empower people to become effective remote communicators by removing the background noise on video calls. User-friendly, it works bi-directionally, which means that you won't hear the noise coming from other call participants, and they won't hear the noise coming from you, while still picking up on participant’s voices. Running as an extension from your computer, this app will allow for clearer communication no matter where workers are—allowing for a flexible workplace.

InVision

In their own words. Digital platform InVision says that “Every company in the world is becoming a digital product company.” InVision is an interface designed for inclusive collaboration within digital product design and development. Their platform has four customizable elements that companies use to build a system that adapts directly to their needs. 

One of the more revolutionary capacities on the InVision platform is its virtual whiteboard. This whiteboard is completely customizable and helps incubate varying kinds of collaboration that different teams engage with depending on the business and departmental workflows. Known as “Freehand,” this digital space gives everyone a voice, opening new doors for sharing ideas. On this interface, you can perform journey mapping, visual diagramming, and templates for sketching out marketing details for more task-based plans—helping to connect a company’s overarching goals. Furthermore, a business can integrate this digital whiteboard within team channels or share the freehand plug-in during a live video meeting.

Companies like Xbox, Asana, and Amazon that have partnered with InVision have seen an estimated 475% increase in ROI over a three-year period and an average saving of five hours for each collaborator. This platform is an excellent example of how with digital innovation and human-powered collaboration, the workplace can continue to be much more efficient for years to come. 

Web Insights

With many people routing their business to be online to navigate a pandemic economy, global e-commerce jumped to $26.7 trillion. Knowing what your consumer is thinking is a strict advantage when it comes to any business. In this recognition, Webby winner Web Insights created a product that plugs directly into a business’s existing systems, providing high-speed insight to their web page visitors combined with automation that integrates seamlessly. 

By identifying your website visitors whilst they are still on your website, this innovation can provide data in real-time on which businesses are visiting your website, where they have come from, what they have looked at, and what has interested those parties the most. With this data, the plug-in then helps to segment the information by stages in your sales funnel, automatically routing identified website visitors by behavior, interest, or demographic. The powerful automation capabilities of WebInsights enable a business to put the most highly engaged prospects directly and immediately into the hands of a company’s team, fueling new business opportunities.

When a company automatically routes the visitor information to the right team or person within the business, they can proactively engage and create an instantly positive rapport. What is more is that If it is quite the right time to chat, Web Insights also offers the capacity to automatically enter your customer into marketing automation workflows, providing them with additional insight to help with their buying journey—adding up to capitalizing more on every lead generated.


Do you have an idea that you think could change the work world as we know it? Digitalization expands the capacity of any business because it gives what they are offering a digital identity—something of escalating importance in modern times. Tune in for next week’s blog, where we will go over the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for startups to help your idea grow in its potential success and maybe even become a digital disruptor itself. 

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