If you’re heading into 2022 with a sense of deja vu, you’re not alone. The start of 2022 may feel eerily similar to how we began 2021, but business priorities have changed.
Last year, it was clear that remote and hybrid work would become permanent fixtures of the workplace rather than temporary solutions to the pandemic. As a result, leaders began to focus on bringing teams together in digital spaces and investing in tools and platforms that empower the remote workforce.
Most of us are now acclimatized to remote work, and with lingering uncertainty around the pandemic, leaders are focusing on further optimizing the digital workspace in 2022. Ongoing digital transformation involves purging unnecessary time or energy-draining tasks and platforms, embracing automation, and focusing on the tools and processes that provide remote workers with autonomy while cultivating community and collaboration.
In 2021, Wrike focused on the technology and initiatives that would drive ongoing digital optimization to empower teams for the year ahead. Here are our key takeaways from 2021 and how you can use them to propel growth and productivity in 2022.
Cultivating the digital experience
Employees are spending more time than ever within digital tools and virtual platforms. The digital workspace is no longer an added benefit for teams but the primary space where work occurs. Therefore, the digital workplace needs to be clean, enjoyable, and accessible for everyone.
To prioritize work satisfaction, Wrike launched our New Experience in 2022 to enable any Wrike user to effortlessly maneuver through the platform, be productive, and — most importantly — enjoy the digital workspace.
The New Wrike Experience aims to make the user experience more satisfying and entirely customizable for enhanced productivity and effective collaboration. As we move into 2022, employee experience within digital tools will become more critical as businesses implement and refine remote and hybrid work models.
Providing essential tools for everyone
In a challenging year, we realized that every business needed tools to be productive, no matter their size, industry, or budget. To accommodate the budgetary and functionality needs of different teams, we transformed our packages into several powerful plans in 2021, offering simpler Wrike pricing and better value for every customer. We also launched our new Wrike Free plan, which offers unlimited users and subtask management for any team.
As we head into 2022, it’s time to think about tools you may not have considered before that will enhance your digital workspace. Every team needs flexibility and the capacity to be their most productive. The tools you invest in today will help teams achieve this now and in the future.
Bringing teams together virtually
A new focus on flexibility and hybrid work strategies is becoming synonymous with the post-pandemic workplace. That’s why we decided to bring together thousands of people to explore the future of work management at our virtual Collaborate conference.
Whether it was a one-person team or a global enterprise, we took the time to come together and debrief on what it means to be collaborative, digital, and agile in the future of work. This idea of moving Forward Together really resonated with you, and we had 5000+ registrants for the event. Further to that, our sessions were streamed on more than 1900 devices across North America and Europe.
If we learned anything from Collaborate, it was discovering how we could enact positive change in an evolving work environment by focusing on productivity and collaboration from anywhere. You can still enjoy these unmissable Collaborate sessions here.
Speaking the language of teams
As teams are now working in predominantly digital spaces, the tools they use must be versatile enough to allow them to work their way. To increase the customizability of the Wrike platform, we launched Work Models in 2021.
Work Models use Work Templates to allow customizable work types with configurable item views and layouts, a dynamic set of system and custom fields, and automation rules. Increased customization enables teams to adapt their workspace to suit their way of working instead of the other way around.
In 2022, focus on the tools that best allow your teams to work whatever way that enables them to be the most productive.
Focusing on meaningful collaboration
Our collaboration tools have become critical to many employees working from home throughout 2021. However, spending hours on digital tools can also lead to burnout and fatigue. To combat this, Wrike sought to minimize the need to work with several opposing platforms by integrating with the most popular collaboration tools on the market.
Actionable Meetings by Wrike offers a seamless collaboration experience that removes the noise and frustration of competing tools and ensures employees can focus their efforts to drive successful initiatives and business outcomes. For example, Zoom meeting participants can now collaborate live during meetings and share essential action items in Wrike without screen share or switching applications, ensuring meeting outcomes are captured against initiatives.
Going into 2022, think about how you can consolidate the number of tools and platforms your team uses to create a simplified digital workspace.
Putting security top of mind
Ninety percent of businesses reported increased cyberattacks in 2021 due to companies failing to apply stringent remote work standards or neglecting to adapt work processes. Reports have also identified a surge in cloud breaches, surpassing phishing as the most frequent type of attack. Perhaps it’s no surprise that security remains a top priority for business leaders.
At Wrike, our top priority is to deliver the most secure and robust product to our users. This year, we’ve expanded our security features with customizable User Types and introduced the Space Level Delegation model to go even further in our efforts to make Wrike the most versatile and secure collaborative work management platform on the market.
While tools that enhance collaboration and productivity are desirable, ensure that any tool you choose meets the prerequisite security standards needed to protect your business in 2022. These platforms should have enterprise-grade security built-in and include enhanced features such as two-factor authentication and unique permissions.
Working together for success
Wrike reached a huge milestone in 2021 by becoming a part of the Citrix family. Under a shared mission to remove the complexity of today’s hybrid and distributed work environments, we’re excited to work together so employees and organizations can perform at their best.
By harnessing the power of Citrix’s unified workspace infrastructure and our collaborative work management platform, organizations can enable employees to focus on the work that matters and accelerate business results. Wrike and Citrix’s common priorities for 2022 include concentrating on customer needs in the current climate, working together to improve digital experiences, and driving growth to support even more teams.
We believe these priorities apply to every business, and we hope to support our users in achieving digital optimization in 2022 and beyond.
Envisioning a brighter year
While 2021 did not pan out exactly as many of us had envisioned, celebrating the wins is still essential. Wrike welcomed over 15 million users to our platform in 2021, including 800,000+ brand new customers.
We’re excited to continue to support even more teams to achieve their full potential in 2022, no matter what the year has in store. To get a leg up on your 2022 priorities, try Wrike for free now.
