Thousands of Australian workers have shifted from the office to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are enjoying the change and considering the possibility of making it permanent. According to research by OnePoll, 78% of Australian office workers believe remote working will become the new normal when the country emerges from the pandemic.
This will have downstream impacts for other industries from property and retail to technology. Tools that enable remote working will be in ever higher demand as use of office space falters. Technology that allows for digital collaboration is likely to experience increased usage while city-centre retailers could see trade stall. Here, we take a look at three ASX tech shares that are leveraged to the shift to remote working.
3 ASX tech shares leveraged to remote working
Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP)
Whisper provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) communications workflow platform which automates interactions between businesses and people. The company has more than 500 enterprise clients, including Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) which uses the platform to interact with Victorians about coronavirus.
Demand for this ASX tech share's products has been strong throughout the pandemic thanks to increasing requirements for communications software. A record 72 new customers were added during the June quarter. Many Whispir customers are utilising the platform to activate and coordinate their COVID-19 business continuity plans.
Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)
Megaport operates in the network-as-a-service (NaaS) sector. The company provides bandwidth which allows users to connect to cloud services and data centres almost instantly. Businesses are able to create a network without complex configuration tasks, quickly building and deploying connections to the services they run on.
Megaport has been growing its footprint into new markets and deepening its reach into existing markets. In 4Q FY20 the company established a presence in Denmark and Spain. This makes the Megaport platform available in 23 countries and 128 cities globally. In June, Megaport reported 1,842 customers including Amazon, Microsoft, eBay and Facebook.
LiveTiles Ltd (ASX: LVT)
LiveTiles supplies tools to create dashboards, employee portals, and corporate intranets. Its technologies can be used to extend underlying Microsoft platforms such as Office 365, SharePoint, and Azure. The ASX tech share creates value-adds and enhancements to the underlying platforms that address common business needs and priorities.
LiveTiles' annualised recurring revenue (ARR) reached $55.2 million at 31 March 2020, up from $52.7 million at 31 December 2019. ARR was up 60% over the year to March and 4.9x in two years. The company is well positioned in the current environment as a leader in internet software which is critical to remote working.
