At many companies, connected workspace applications are playing a pivotal role in helping individual end users and teams collaborate on, manage, and complete work tasks, as shown in Metrigy’s recently published Connected Workspace & Collaborative Work Management: 2024-25 research study with 157 companies in North America. But with initial use for most companies starting at the team or departmental level, IT hasn’t often been in the loop… but that is starting to change.
Of companies already using connected workspace technology, less than 40% started with a companywide deployment, whereas nearly 53% started with one or more teams or departments. Today, however, 68% of companies report companywide use, with a pattern having emerged: As employees on different teams or in departments get exposed to these tools through joint work, use grows and IT gets more involved.
Use is widespread, even if not entirely across a company: Nearly 80% of companies still using at the team level have seen an increase in the number of teams using a connected workspace app. Additionally, 68.1% of a company’s employees, on average, are using a connected workspace app. There is a gotcha, however: Tool choice may vary team by team. In fact, nearly 58% of companies report having more than one of these apps in use.
Nearly 56% of companies that haven’t implemented a connected workspace app companywide attribute their more limited deployments to budgeting. For these companies, connected workspace apps are funded at the team or departmental level, rather than IT—a situation that can lead to less than optimal spending overall. In part to optimize costs, most companies that have multiple connected workspace apps are looking to standardize on a single one while also putting IT in control.
Further exploring budgeting, a significant majority of organizations (87.5%) have allocated a dedicated budget for connected workspace technology. This budget is either fully dedicated (54.4%) or allows for some ad-hoc spending (33.1%). When it comes to managing a dedicated budget, IT is typically at the helm—particularly if deployed companywide—assuring that investment in connected workspace apps align with overall IT strategies. When IT doesn’t control the dedicated budget, the project management office does for 22.9% of companies and department heads for 18.6%.
An impetus for elevating budgeting out of departments or eliminating ad-hoc spending on these apps is a projected upward spending trajectory through 2025, expected for over half of the companies using connected workspace apps today. This increase is primarily driven by the anticipated need to purchase additional licenses and price hikes, each cited by two-thirds of companies.
Additionally, slightly more than 28% of organizations are planning to upgrade to higher-tier licenses. The top reason for this shift, for nearly 67% of companies, is to gain access to advanced AI functionality. Already, AI has become an integral part of connected workspace technology budgets, with 65.3% of companies including AI-related expenditures in their monthly budgets.
As companies continue to broaden their use of connected workspace apps, understanding these trends and planning accordingly will be crucial for optimizing investment and maximizing the benefits of these essential tools.
