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Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications Inc., center, responds by ringing the opening bell during the company’s IPO on the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, United States on Thursday, April 18 2019. Zoom reported net income of $ 7.6 million on revenue of $ 331 million for the fiscal year ended January, and is now worth nine times the valuation of $ 1 billion it has obtained after a funding cycle two years ago.
Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Zoom on Tuesday said he had found a way to allow people visiting the offices to check in with a receptionist without physical contact. This involves making a Zoom call, of course.
The development shows Zoom recognizes that it needs to ensure its products remain valuable after people return to the office, after months of working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new feature, kiosk mode, is part of Zoom Rooms, one of the company’s corporate offerings. Unlike the standard Zoom video calling service, which people use on their own PCs and mobile devices, Zoom Rooms is aimed at meeting venues such as conference rooms, and it starts at $ 499 per year per room.
Here’s how the system works: Once an office visitor walks into a lobby, they go to the touchscreen with a camera and speaker and press a button to start a call with a receptionist. The visitor chats with the receptionist via Zoom, and the receptionist can allow the visitor to enter the office space, for example by unlocking a door remotely.
“The receptionist does not need to be on duty,” Harry Moseley, chief information officer of Zoom, told CNBC Monday. “They can be at home. They can be anywhere. They may actually be in a different country and can support multiple buildings.
Kiosk mode can also help businesses reduce the number of receptionists on each floor of their buildings, Moseley said.
The pandemic has shown that employees can be effective when working remotely, and Mosely expects companies to embrace a mix of remote and in-person working even after the pandemic has ended. This scenario would benefit Zoom, which provides a popular way for colleagues to meet virtually, as well as competitors such as Cisco, Google, and Microsoft.
But analysts expect Zoom’s growth to slow down from the hyper-growth it experienced at the start of the pandemic. For the quarter ending Jan. 31, analysts polled by Refinitiv are forecasting 331% annualized revenue growth. For the April quarter, they call for 153% growth and for the year ending January 2022, they only forecast 38% growth.
So Zoom continues to build. In addition to kiosk mode, it gives employees a way to connect their Android and iOS devices to Zoom rooms, so employees don’t need to touch a common device in a conference room. Zoom is also adding Amazon’s Alexa for Business service to Zoom Rooms, so joining a call is as easy as saying “Alexa, join my meeting”.
There is a possibility that Zoom may add support for other voice assistants, Moseley said.
“This is the first iteration, if you will, of a lot of these things,” he said.
Nominations are open for 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50, a list of private start-ups using cutting edge technology to become the next generation of large public enterprises. Submit by Friday, Feb.12 at 3 p.m. EST.
WATCH: Trading Nation: Two analysts wonder if Zoom still has room for growth in 2021
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