Introducing Okta’s First EMEA Businesses @ Work Report

Businesses are at a tipping point. To survive and excel, we have to take advantage of the vast digital technologies available to move faster, to innovate better, to provide the best experiences for our customers. At the same time, we’re challenged more than ever to protect the people we work with and engage with on a daily basis — our employees, partners and customers — from threats to their sensitive information and data. Okta’s first Businesses @ Work EMEA report shows that while no two regions, organizations, or people work in the same way, businesses are investing in technologies to protect their people, and give them the tools they need to get their best work done.

Our Businesses @ Work EMEA report takes an in-depth look at how organizations and people work today using Okta’s dataset of anonymized customer data. We analyzed our network of companies, applications, custom integrations, and daily authentications and verifications, and here is what we learned about life at work in EMEA:

• Office 365 is the app to end all apps, but for how long? Office 365 has a significant lead as the number one application across our EMEA customer base. But we aren’t calling the race just yet. Usage of G Suite, the 3rd most popular app in EMEA today, grew 46% in the past six months, compared to Office 365, which only grew 27% in the same time period.

• To stack or not to stack: Our data shows customers with Office 365 and G Suite are employing different app strategies as they build out their cloud ecosystems. While G Suite customers use an average of 15 applications via Okta, Office 365 customers only use 11 — that’s 36% fewer. This is likely because Office 365 customers aren’t buying with email solely in mind. They’re investing in the entire Microsoft stack, while G Suite customers are employing a best-of-breed app strategy.

• Slack it to me! Slack, the 7th most popular app in our EMEA network, has more than three times the integrations of any other messaging or collaboration app. And they aren’t showing any signs of fatigue! Slack grew its EMEA customer base 33% in the last six months alone.

• Cloud video killed the conference call star. Cloud video conferencing hadn’t quite caught on in the region… until now! While it’s traditionally been the least popular app category in our EMEA network, it appears the tide is turning. Video conferencing application Zoom was the fastest growing app (by far) in EMEA the past six months, with 87.5% growth.

• Comply with all the things: With GDPR deadlines looming, an increasing number of people-based attacks, and credential phishing at an all-time high, organizations are taking action. Since GDPR was formally adopted in May 2016, the percentage of EMEA customers using Okta Lifecycle Management (which ensures accurate entitlement upon provisioning) has notably increased. Organizations are also investing more in key security apps like Mimecast, which grew 141% among our EMEA customer base year-over-year.

• Developers are the new pink. It’s no secret: to be competitive in today’s world, every organization needs to become a technology company. Increasingly, organizations are taking control of their digital transformation by using developer tools and building their own apps in-house. Nowhere is this more true than EMEA. Developer tools are the fastest growing app category in EMEA, with 44.1% growth in the past six months. Today, 47% of EMEA customers use at least one developer tool, more than in North America or APAC.

Check out the highlights of the report in the video below. To learn more about where the data comes from and the full report, visit the Businesses @ Work EMEA report here. And, for the most updated fastest growing apps and most popular apps charts, check out our Businesses @ Work dashboard here.