Saying goodbye to 2017 and welcoming in the new year

t seems unreal, but here we are nearing the end of 2017 and what a year it’s been. 2017 has been somewhat of a roller coaster, and I’d like to take a moment to be thankful to my wonderful colleagues who made 2017 awesome. Throughout this year Crugo has achieved some fantastic milestones, and none of it would have happened, without the team behind Crugo.

I understand that it’s easy to forget everything that has been achieved since January and I consider it incredibly important to reflect what we’ve accomplished. The team behind, Crugo understand that the customer’s time is incredibly valuable, every second counts, especially at work. We received excellent feedback from many of our customers and put this to great use.

In early 2017, we embarked on our most significant development project so far. Today, I’m excited to share the results to date of this ongoing effort from our development team. 2017 saw us start development on a shiny new version of Crugo, Crugo 2.0 if you will. The fresh, clean look made all the difference to navigation and adoption of the platform. Later followed Guest User privileges and Integrations with over 750 different apps and software solutions. The most common actions were the introduction of our New Mac App, Windows App, Kanban tasks boards, file directories and video/audio calling. The Crugo development team have worked tirelessly to create the ultimate collaboration, communication and project management tool for all team sizes to benefit from.

Lastly, we released a whole new pricing structure. Crugo is now available on three different pricing tiers, so there’s a package to suits your needs and budget.

Customer feedback is vital to us and massively guides product development. Along with this development journey, we learned many lessons, hit roadblocks and made breakthroughs. We fully appreciate our customer’s patience along the way, and we hope you’ve experienced these new improvements in your day to day work.

But it’s not just the development team who need honouring. 2017 saw our Customer Success and Customer Engagement teams complete 14 events from the IOT in February to The Business Show in November. Exhibiting at trade shows are a fantastic opportunity to meet new customers, vendors, consultants and other service providers who offer tremendous value for our business. However, we have learnt from our mistakes, from driving a van through London in rush hour traffic to loading a van efficiently to finding the most comfortable shoes and the best set-up and breakdown procedure.

Furthermore, the Customer Success and Customer Engagement teams have helped businesses across 55 countries on their journey to work better together. Outstanding customer service is at the heart of Crugo; we put the customer before all else. We firmly believe that a customer-centric approach from the onset is the only way forward. After all, a product will only ever be a good as the customer’s experience of it, from brand perception to purchase servicing.

So, what about 2018?

Predicting the future is hardly a precise science, but it’s possible to identify macro trends by paying close attention to what’s happening in specific industries.

Here are a few of my top predictions for 2018:

1. The internet has made it possible for people to communicate easily while slowly weakening personal connections. Technology has allowed companies to track productivity with monitoring software, at the same time reducing trust. Relationships have proven to be the way to increase sales and strengthen businesses. Organisations will strive to build these relationships through face-to-face interactions that are personal, meaningful and fun.

2. More than a decade ago, Salesforce used the subscription model to disrupt software. Netflix has done the same to disrupt TV and Spotify with music. In 2018, every company in the world will embark on the shift to subscriptions. Why? We now know that companies adopting the model are growing their revenue nine times faster than with traditional business models. Next year we’ll see more and more companies making the shift to subscriptions, and also subscribing to the services they need, from building energy, tractors to flooring.

3. The rapid adoption of voice as a human interface moves worldwide and mainstream as buyers shift from early adopters to consumers that demand and expect voice on everything from home appliances to personal digital assistants.

4. Complications turn people off. As technology advances, it affects our need for simplicity and immediacy. This simplification in life is apparent in personal fitness, health, and wellness industries. If you keep things simple and easy to manage with the tried and true basics of nutrition and exercise, more people will venture into a healthy lifestyle. Short workouts will become all the rage, as people are always on the go and don’t have a lot of time to commit to long workouts. There will be an emphasis on at-home services that lend conveniences, such as home workouts led through online programs and healthy home food delivery services.

As for Crugo, in 2018, we expect to be growing with our customers and listening to their needs. We have our ever-expanding development roadmap to continue with, and we plan release a variety of exciting new additions to Crugo. Like the eagerly anticipated advanced task functions, a shiny new website and file versioning on all platforms.

Crugo may not have the largest team in the world, but we have the best people, the experience, energy and passion, it’s what makes Crugo great. As always, the customer will continue to be our prime focus, the whole team is dedicated to helping businesses achieve more by working better together, saving time and money along the way.

So, from all of us here at Crugo, we wish you Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.