Collaboration Tools Enable Remote Work and Distance Learning Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Last Updated April 7, 2020

As part of our continued coverage of the COVID-19 impact to business continuity, Vyopta reports a 3X increase in the number of meeting participants who have joined meetings when compared to January of this year. With 74% of companies reporting to Gartner that they are likely to continue to move some employees to remote-work full-time once the crisis is over, it will be interesting to see whether this metric continues to grow at these rates or if it will plateau when the stay at home orders begin to be lifted.

For now, we’ll continue watching this and other metrics of interest about how the business community is adapting to deal with the new normal. For our part, we are offering access to our UC Monitoring and Analytics solutions free to qualifying enterprises and institutions.

For more information on Vyopta’s free trials, visit:

Last Updated March 19, 2020

In the last two weeks, there has been a massive expansion in the use of video conferencing within almost all types of institutions. The vast majority of large enterprises require their employees to work remotely and use video to improve team collaboration. Similarly, almost all higher education and K-12 organizations have sent students home and are using video to provide distance learning programs. Finally, healthcare organizations have shifted quickly to expand video-based telehealth services to support patients while reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread.

Operating large scale video collaboration environments can be challenging. IT teams need analytics to support operational and compliance reporting requirements. In addition, monitoring and tracking video call quality is critical to ensure successful remote work, distance learning, and telehealth programs. Vyopta’s CPM product is used today to operate large scale video collaboration environments at several of the world’s largest enterprise, education, and healthcare organizations.  

“During this challenging and unprecedented situation, the Vyopta team has been working around the clock to make our solution available to help enterprise, education, and healthcare organizations effectively scale up their video collaboration,” said Alfredo Ramirez, CEO of

Vyopta. “We take our position in the local and larger global community seriously and are committed to doing everything we can to help our customers use video to minimize disruption to their employees, students, patients, and customers.”

For more information on Vyopta’s free trials, visit:

Last updated March 16, 2020

With numbers of COVID-19 cases changing constantly, we recommend bookmarking the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center which is tracking global cases as well as the number of cases that are fully recovered.

We’re updating these lists as news breaks but plan to keep it as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible This is an evolving story. Please check back for updates.


Social-distancing, the act of limiting person-to-person contact has been prescribed as a key driver in limiting the spread of COVID-19. This is the list as of this writing of businesses promoting remote work, universities moving to distance learning, and conferences that have canceled out of an abundance of caution.

This is an evolving story and will be updated regularly.

Jump to list of businesses promoting or requiring remote work.

Jump to list of Colleges and Universities with cancelled classes or classes moved online via a distance learning program.

Jump to list of K-12 schools with cancelled classes or classes moved online via a distance learning program.

Jump to list of Technology Conferences that have been canceled or postponed.

With confirmed cases of COVID-19 mounting, organizations limiting non-essential travel,  encouraging remote work, and event organizers postponing or cancelling major events, it is clear that coronavirus is making a big impact on business as usual.

One of the ways enterprises are responding is to encourage remote work and the use of collaboration tools like video conferencing to get work done.   Companies like Twitter, Indeed, Amazon, and now Zoom have asked their employees to avoid coming into the office if they are able to work from home. While Twitter cites an abundance of caution and a desire to help slow the spread of the disease as the basis for this request, working remotely is mandatory in regions where government restrictions are still in place including Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea.

Tracking change in video conferencing usage

As a collaboration monitoring and analytics company, Vyopta has been in a unique position to observe usage of collaboration applications over the first few weeks of 2020 as companies respond to growing health concerns.   What stands out in our data is the growth in the number of participants in video conferencing meetings. After gradual increases in the first few weeks of January, growth accelerates to 20% more participants in a video meeting by the end of February.  As we hear of more  companies encouraging employees to work from home, we expect the average number of participants in a video meeting to likely grow even more in March.

We will continue to track how video conferencing usage grows in 2020 and provide updates as we see new developments.   In addition to Vyopta-specific updates, we will also track and share updates from other companies in the collaboration marketplace including Cisco Webex, BlueJeans, and Zoom.  

The importance of Collaboration Performance Management (CPM)

At Vyopta, we have a history of promoting and enabling remote work. With approximately 90% of our team working remote at least some of the time, we have employed a variety of collaboration applications and remote work policies that allow our teams to effectively communicate and collaborate with partners,  with customers, and across internal teams from practically anywhere in the world.

We are committed to improving how teams collaborate by helping IT organizations optimize the performance of their collaboration technology and spaces with Vyopta’s Collaboration Performance Management (CPM).   Prior to the events of 2020, video usage was already increasing at a rate of 3x every two years. This rapid shift to a video-first approach to support business continuity plans at most organizations amidst the COVID-19 outbreak is creating an even greater need for IT teams to deliver superior performance and support to their end users.

Alfredo Ramirez
CEO
Vyopta Incorporated

 

The following businesses have advised or required remote work in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Amazon
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Twitter
Square
Dell
Hitachi
Chevron
Indeed
Airbnb
Nike
OMD
Crossrail
Shiseido
Dentsu
NTT
DDD Online
Tuputech
Tencent
Industrial and Financial Systems
Coinbase
Insider Inc.
Box
LinkedIn
HP
Intel

Last Updated 3/12/2020

The following institutions have moved courses online, cancelled courses, or are considering either approach to help slow the spread of COVID-19. This list will be updated as new announcements are made.

California
Academy of Art University
City College of San Francisco
San Jose State
San Francisco State
Santa Clara
Sierra College
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
UC Santa Cruz
USC

Connecticut
Sacred Heart University
New Haven University
Yale University
University of New Haven
Quinnipiac University
Connecticut state community colleges
Central Connecticut State University
Eastern Connecticut State University
Southern Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University
Trinity College
Wesleyan University
Fairfield University
University of Connecticut

Florida
University of Florida (Recommendation not a requirement as of 3/10)

Illinois
University of Illinois System
Northwestern
Illinois State University
University of Chicago
Loyola

Kentucky
Berea College (Closing)

Nebraska
Midland University

New Jersey
Princeton
Monmouth University

New York
Barnard College
Columbia
Hoffstra
Fordham University
NYU
St. John’s University

Maryland
American University
Towson University
Bowie State University
Coppin State University
Frostburg State University
Salisbury University
Towson University
University of Baltimore
University of Maryland

Massachusetts
Amherst
Harvard
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ohio
Ohio State University

Tennessee
Vanderbildt

Texas
Rice University
University of Texas (Spring Break Extended by One Week)

Vermont
Middlebury College

Washington
Bellvue College
Bellingham Technical College
Cascadia College
Everett Community College
Lake Washington Institute of Technology
Seattle University
University of Washington
Washington State University (pending decision)