Four Things You Need to Know About Video Collaboration

[Patricia Finlayson (Patfin)]

Unbelievably, there are still some organisations out there not making use of video collaboration. This is despite the evidence that it’s a critical business tool. In a recent survey 94% of business decision makers said that video collaboration increases productivity and efficiency. This was the biggest area of agreement across all business functions, including IT, HR, marketing and facilities.

So what’s holding the rest of the world back? There are a few lingering misconceptions, so I’m here to bust the myths around video collaboration and tell you what you need to know about modern communications.

1. Video is not just about reducing travel costs

How many times a month do you travel to an offsite meeting? Now compare this to how many times you collaborate with others. Every call could be made over video, and made more efficiently. The ability to share and edit content in real time is a key factor in when it comes to productivity and efficiency. That’s why many Polycom HD video and telepresence customers see a complete ROI for their investments in as few as one to six months. Travel savings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to telepresence ROI. Polycom customers tell us that the time they save by not travelling is more valuable than the dollars saved. In fact, in a survey by Polycom and Wainhouse Research, we found respondents think that the top benefit of video conferencing is increased efficiency/productivity (94%), followed by increased impact of discussions (88%) and expedited decision making (87%). Reduced travel costs only came in joint third.

2. Video is a daily part of business life

Think video conferences are a special occurrence? Think again. In our Global Video Conferencing Trends survey, we found that 76% of respondents are now using video conferencing at work with 56% of video users taking part in video calls at least once a week.  With a Virtual Meeting Room it’s as easy to hold a video call as it is a phone call. More and more organisations are using video collaboration all-day every-day. It’s not just internal either, technologies like Polycom’s RealPresence CloudAXIS allow you to send a web-link to those outside your organisation, so they can join a collaboration session with one click in their browser.

3. Video is not just limited to the meeting room

How many of you think a video collaboration means two meeting rooms talking to each other? It’s just not true. These days video collaboration is available on your desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet. In fact, Polycom RealPresence Mobile is so bandwidth efficient that you can even make a video call over 3G, and more users participate in video calls using mobile devices than room systems. In the End-User Survey: The 'Real' Benefits of Video, Polycom and Wainhouse found that the fastest growing video conferencing environment is "on the road" - which includes airports, hotels and client sites. The advent of high-quality, secure video collaboration on mobile devices means that video is being used in all kinds of industries. Everyone from manufacturing to medicine is using video to communicate from the factory floor to A&E.

4. Video is just beginning

So you’re feeling pleased because you have video in your boardroom? What about all the other meeting rooms? Research shows that most organisations have only equipped 20% of their meeting rooms with video collaboration.  But 96% of business managers and leaders say video conferencing helps companies defy distance and break down cultural barriers to improve productivity. Think about all that untapped potential! It’s not just meeting rooms; what about on every PC, laptop, smartphone and tablet in your organisation? If your company (or your enterprise customer) is only using video in meeting rooms, there’s work to be done! Make video your communications standard and you’ll soon see the difference. But for your team to adopt video into their daily routine, it needs to integrated into business processes. Leading drivers for increasing use of video conferencing include equipping more people with video (94 percent of respondents), more accessibility of video (85 percent of respondents), more integration of video in business software (83 percent of respondents) and availability in IM/UC clients such as Microsoft® Lync™ (80 percent).

Still not convinced? Read the full report from Wainhouse Research here.