Original Post By Dennis Collins
The Shift Towards Video Conferencing
Today’s enterprise workforce is more geographically diverse and technology-centric than ever before. A growing number of employees and clients are located remotely, working from all over the globe. This reality has dramatically changed the nature of workplace communication and collaboration.
To address this shift in enterprise operations and communication, companies must adopt new technologies and approaches to facilitate collaboration, strengthen teams and boost productivity. And one particular technology is poised to take the enterprise by storm—video conferencing.
Video communication gaining traction in the enterprise
Video chatting may be wildly popular among consumers thanks to Skype, FaceTime and other platforms, but it has been slow to take hold in the enterprise space until now. This is largely in part because the quality of mainstream, consumer video chat applications was simply not up to par for most business, investor and client meetings.
Recently, however, as the demand for video throughout the enterprise has increased, key industry players are making it their mission to develop quality, flexible and affordable solutions. We’ve already seen the growth of these tools take hold in the enterprise, a trend that’s only going to continue as more businesses recognize the opportunity and benefits of video-conferencing capabilities.
In fact, a recent study by Wainhouse showed a 100% increase (17% to 34%) in respondents suggesting they will support mobile video conferencing outside of their UC deployment.
Here are some of the key benefits of video conferencing that will make it the preferred communication tool for the enterprise space:
1. Builds rapport with remote staff and clients
Video conferencing is one of the most effective ways to connect with teams and clients in different regions. It helps workers develop more personal, meaningful connections with colleagues and clients by improving collaboration and personalization.
In audio-only conference calls, you lose much of the personal interaction that establishes rapport between team members and rallies everyone around the same goal. With video, meeting attendees in any location can easily join a video conference call and feel as if they’re in the room with the rest of the team. They’re able to read the body language cues of other team members and supervisors, while feeling more invested in the success of the team.
2. Limits distractions
A recent study showed that analyzed mobile conferencing behavior and employee perceptions uncovered some surprising insights about conference call engagement. Twenty-seven percent of people surveyed said they’ve fallen asleep during a conference call, while 65 percent admitted to doing other work during a conference call and 25 percent admitted to playing video games during a call.
As the study shows, most employees would rather be doing many other things than sitting on a conference call. Part of this is probably due to the fact that their presence isn’t really necessary. The other factor is that most conference calls are an audio-only experience. Make meetings more engaging and productive with video conferencing. Participants will find it easier to focus and stay on task when a visual component is added.
3. Improves efficiency
The upfront investment required to set up video conferencing capabilities is well worth the return in efficiency and productivity gains, particularly if your organization opts for a cloud-based, desktop platform like Blue Jeans Network. With video conferencing, remote and in-office employees are more engaged and work collaboratively together—moving through projects faster and at a higher quality level.
4. Reduces costs
Adoption of video collaboration and conferencing tools lowers total costs in the long run for enterprises, especially when it comes to travel, time and personnel expenditures. In fact, our research has shown that conferencing services are less than 4% of the total cost of a meeting.
Video might be more expensive than audio-only calls, but it is minuscule compared to the cost of wasted time and lost opportunity from non-engaged employees stuck on long conferences.
With more enterprises realizing the benefits of video conferencing, video is quickly becoming the go-to form of communication. Companies that prioritize the implementation of more effective collaboration tools like video conferencing will reap enormous benefits, especially as our global workforce continues to become more diverse and flexible.
What has your experience been with video conferencing? Have you seen an increase in adoption of it within your organization?
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