businessinfomag.uk
magazine
18
Video conferencing
The changing nature of work today,
characterised by dispersed workforces,
mobile workers, telecommuting and
constantly evolving technology, is
causing many organisations to re-
evaluate how they support employee
communication and collaboration.
Throw in greater travel disruption
and the need to control costs and it is
easy to see why videoconferencing is
now seen as an essential tool in any
company’s IT offering.
The need for seamless collaboration
with colleagues, customers and
partners who may be located outside
a company’s main office, country or
time zone has produced an explosion
in demand for integrated Software as
a Service (SaaS) conferencing solutions
that are able to deliver easy to use
consumer-like services.
Organisations that make use of
this technology benefit immediately
from an instant ‘on service’, minimal
internal IT costs and quick adoption,
resulting in increased productivity
and competitiveness and improved
employee recruitment and retention.
As with any new technology, a
successful transition to cloud-based video
communication technology requires
some thought and groundwork:
Review Cloud Advantages
First, ensure your decisions and choices
are aligned with the needs of your
organisation. Most businesses move to
a cloud solution to gain the following
benefits:
n
Reduced Cost.
IT departments are
under pressure to reduce expenditure.
Investing in an on-premises video
conferencing infrastructure and hardware
requires up-front investment and can
cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. IT
budgets go much further with a cloud-
based video conferencing service.
n
Increased Flexibility.
It is difficult to
deliver and support video conferencing
sessions if they are scheduled with little
or no notice, but this kind of flexibility
and agility is necessary in a dynamic
business environment. An intuitive,
cloud-based application enables users to
be more self-sufficient, saving time for
IT administrators. Enterprise-class, cloud-
based video communication platforms
generally offer more flexibility to scale
up and down in line with business
requirements than services that have
grown out of consumer applications.
n
Simplified Automation.
A cloud-
based video conferencing solution
simplifies management for IT
administrators, freeing up valuable time,
money and effort. A web-based admin
console gives IT administrators easy
access to dashboards to check usage
statistics and to customise settings.
n
Increased Device Diversity.
Video
conferencing software needs to support
and stay up to date with a wide range
of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD)
technology. This can be challenging
for IT support staff, so organisations
often prefer to give the task to a cloud
provider. Professional cloud-based video
conferencing solutions bring collaboration
to the devices employees use every
day, from browser- and desktop-based
applications for laptops and tablets to
mobile applications for smartphones,
with no need to worry about software
versions or complicated updates.
n
Interoperability.
On-premises
video conferencing products usually
lack interoperability and still live in
a proprietary software world that
requires users to purchase an expensive
gateway appliance to call third-party
video communication devices. Moving
video conferencing to the cloud
makes interoperability the vendor’s
responsibility and avoids the risk of being
saddled with incompatible equipment.
Choose the Right Vendor
Once you’ve established that a cloud-
based video conferencing solution is
right for your organisation, it’s time to
vet the vendors. Decision-makers should
pay close attention to the vendor service
level agreement (SLA) and support, ask
about outage levels and discuss vendor
availability. Video conferencing is a
business-critical tool that must have
the highest levels of support and service
levels.
As commuters on Southern Rail face continued disruption to services,
Andy Nolan, Lifesize vice president for UK, Ireland and Northern Europe,
considers the benefits and pitfalls of cloud-based video conferencing
Video conferencing
without the tricky bits
Decision-makers
should pay
close attention
to the vendor
service level
agreement (SLA)
and support, ask
about outage
levels and
discuss vendor
availability
Those who want to give employees
the benefits of traditional meetings
in a conference room, along with the
ability for remote parties to dial-in and
communicate face-to-face, should look
at a hybrid model featuring cloud-based
video conferencing and a conference
room-based hardware component to
offer employees the best of both worlds.
Implement Effectively
Lastly, effective implementation is key;
even if the software is a perfect fit for
your organisation, it won’t work if it isn’t
implemented correctly, and that means:
n
Choosing a Point Person.
Selecting
the right team and establishing who does
what and when reduces the likelihood of
a stalled implementation.
n
Establishing a Timeline.
Imposing a
clearly defined timeline provides clarity
and stops drift.
n
Maintaining Focus.
Resist the
temptation to think about every detail
rather than focusing on the big picture.
Take care of the high-level issues first
and enjoy the additional features after
implementation.
n
Listening to the Experts.
Remembering who the expert is – the
vendor when it comes to the new
software and the organisation when it
comes to business operations – is vital to
implementation success.
n
Gaining User Buy-in.
After a
long vetting process, it’s common to
assume the internal sales process is
over. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Employees who will be using
the new software most may not have
been involved in the approval process
and it is vital to gain their trust and
buy-in and even give them a say in the
implementation. Ensuring that they
value, and champion, use of the new
software will increase the likelihood of a
timely implementation.
As businesses continue to employ
distributed workforces around the world,
demand for an enterprise-ready video
communication solution that can provide
a seamless, connected experience will
continue to rise. Organisations that go ‘all
in’ and commit to improving employee
communication and collaboration stand
to benefit from a workforce that returns
the favour with increased productivity,
less staff churn and great employer-
employee relationships.
