Reasons to start using video conferencing now!
Posted: June 14th, 2009 | Author: SD | Filed under: TechTalk | Tags: siemens, video conference | Comments OffYou think that video conferencing is still a luxury and not required by your organization. You find the cost of implementing video conferencing across your organization too high compared to the benefits.
Think again.
Face to face communication
The most effective mode of communication is that which happens in a face-to-face environment, video conferencing provides the ability to meet that goal while avoiding the inconvenience of travel, time and expense.
Save time
Video Conferencing is not just about cutting costs and increasing productivity. Just consider the “downtime” of your executives while they are traveling, increased “quality of life” of your executives and bonding between remote colleagues.
Summarizing in one sentence, time spent traveling is time wasted. Consider the hundreds of hours saved by your executives which they can now use to performing more crucial office work or even allow them to spend more time with their families. Happy employees often translate into more profits.
Save money
During this era of recession, economic instability, uncertainty and heightened competitiveness cutting costs is the most important concern faced by the management. Travel costs are still high and probably only next to salaries.How you manage the the skyrocketing traveling cost without affecting business will determine whether you are profitable or not at the end of the year.
Video teleconferencing is also helping smaller companies stay competitive with larger companies that can afford to send their employees on business trips.
Go green!
When used as an alternative to commuting and automobile or airline travel, video conferencing can help companies reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve their environmental records. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has released two reports that demonstrate how video conferencing dramatically reduces carbon emissions.
You may still not care a hoot about your responsibility to the environment. However, your prospective client may and nowadays companies prefer to work with organizations who are green, and employees would rather work for organizations who they perceive to be environmentally ethical.
TNT, Europe’s largest mail and express delivery services company, implemented video as part of its Planet Me program. In addition to environmental goals, it estimates cutting travel by 20% and saving €11 million over four years.
Video Conference as a strategic business tool
Your executives can access others across the country easily using video conferencing. As a result, information and knowledge are often disseminated at more rapid rates, and collaboration between executives occur more willingly and freely. Companies using video conferencing find that their executives arrive at decisions faster
Sales meetings, training programs, product demonstrations, interviews and even meetings with important customers are some of the ways video conferencing may be used in your organization.
What is stopping you?
- Training executives across all branches to use and operate video conferencing systems
If you think, that you need a skilled IT guy at each location to handle video conferencing equipment, you are wrong. Most video conference systems available today are as easy to use as dialing out from your desk phone.
Most systems come with remote management facilities, allowing your IT guy at the Head Office in Calcutta address issues in your VC equipment at Coimbatore remotely ensuring high video uptime. Through this interface it is possible to execute diagnostic test, check a system before a scheduled conference and check system settings
- Web and Video Conferencing:Your sales guys at Surat and Faridabad operates out of a business centre. How will he join?
Ask the system integrator to propose a video conference system that seamlessly works in conference room environment and from laptops. For example, Aethra Hydra allows unlimited installation of desktop video conferencing software on unlimited number of PCs which may join room based endpoints.
- Interoperability Issues: I already have a Tandberg system at my Lucknow office. Do I need Tandberg at all offices?
Almost all the reputed video conference equipment manufacturers follow the open standards. So two systems from two different companies work together without any problem. In most cases, you dont even need to know whether the equipment on the other side is Polycom, Lifesize or Aethra. This allows you to hold video conferences even with your clients or suppliers easily.
- Connectivity Issues: My metro offices are connected over Leased Line. Connecting my other offices will be expensive.
You need a mixed mode Multiple Connectivity Unit (MCU) which will allow some of your sites to connect over your corporate leased line network while some other sites may dial in using ISDN.
- Audio Video Quality: My IT guy says video quality is choppy and there is no lip sync.
Forty Five years ago the first video call took place, when AT&T introduced the Picturephone at the 1964 World’s Fair in America. Video Conferencing has evolved over four decades and today it is a business tool that companies cannot ignore.
Believe me, even classical musicians are using video conferencing today to rehearse together although sitting miles apart from each other! Gone are the days when the student had to sit at the feet of the guru to take music lessons. The image quality offered by video conferencing has improved to the extent that, with high resolution HD images, it is possible even to view stitching on products, or faults on printed circuit boards. Audio bandwidth too (22 KHz) is now of the same quality you’d expect to have on your home audio system.
- Why do I need an expensive unit, can I use a PC cam?
Video conference units start from INR 1,15,000.00 for SOHO environments. PC Cam units can not go beyond 128Kb and will not provide the quality needed for a business video conference.
With the wide variety of benefits that it offers, and virtually no drawbacks, there’s no reason to put it off any longer. Videoconferencing has arrived and it is gradually becoming as standard in businesses as the fax machines or computers.
Time to decide is right here and right now. Unless your organization has less than ten employees and there are no branch offices, ignore the benefits of modern communication technologies at your own peril. Because the savvy Y generation entrepreneur already had the skills and now she has the tools to catch up with you.
Cutting out travel, or greatly reducing it, can make a huge difference to the bottom line and at the end of the year it can even make a difference in whether or not a company is profitable.
The only disadvantage of using video conference is that you cannot pick your nose or be in your underwear (which you can do during an audio conference) during a video conference.
