Video Conferencing Benefits
Gone are the days of Video Conferencing being an additional “nice to have” business communications solution that was so expensive that it’s deployment was limited to the realm of Large Enterprise. These days, top of the range business phone systems such as pascom’s offer a complete range of Unified Communications (UC) and Video Conferencing tools as standard at little or no additional cost.
Beyond this, Internet speeds and stability have increased significantly in just a few years. This means that both the quality and stability of video conferencing solutions have dramatically improved, making the solutions both more affordable and practical as a business communications application. The result is simple; regardless whether you operate a SOHO, SMB or Large Enterprise sized business, Video Conferencing is now affordable and has become a must have business communications and collaboration tool. And here’s six key reasons why businesses should adopt video conferencing:
1. Reduced Travel Time and Cost
Perhaps one of the most commonly recognised benefits of Video Conferencing technology is the ability to reduce business travel time and costs. Having the ability to connect and communicate from anywhere without requiring any additional hardware or software can significantly drive business productivity as it means that managers and dispersed teams no longer to travel to meetings, saving time and cost both of which positively impact the bottom line.
2. Increased Remote Employee Engagement
One of the drawbacks of remote working is that employees can often feel left out of the loop. Audio conferencing goes some way to recitifying this problem, but in terms of engagement there is no substitute to face time. Another interesting aspect of video meetings is that as soon as the video is on, participants become more focussed i.e. engaged. The reason for this is that people engage more with the visual aspect of communication, meaning participants are less likely to become distracted which will result in more effective, professional meetings.
pascom Screen Sharing
Many online meeting platforms also include Team Collaboration tools such as Instant Messaging, Screen Sharing and support for mobile devices. This enables remote employees to connect “face-to-face”, brainstorm, share files, chat with one another and view and share presentations from anywhere, on their preferred device.
3. More Structured and Improved Communication
More face time also means improved communication. It is widely accepted that approximately 55 % of communication is visual so by adding the personal, visual element to business meetings, participants can pick up on visual clues with enhances understanding, particularly when compared to audio conferencing and the constant back and forth e-mails that plague our inboxes on a daily basis. Furthermore, as a video conference is normally scheduled in advance and the opportunity for the idle chit chat that afflicts in-person contact, online meetings are often more structured, leading to more concise outcomes.
The result is simple: Video Conferencing breaks down information silos by letting everyone attend from anywhere, saves time and more importantly helps eliminate any confusions and misunderstandings.
4. Increased Efficiency and Productivity
pascom Desktop Mobile Video Conferencing
The effect of improving communication during online meetings means that employees are all on the same page enabling them to make decisions more efficiently and effectively. This will result in employees performing and completing daily tasks more efficiently and promoting effective collaboration within teams and project groups which in turn leads to an increase in business productivity.
5. Greater Employee Retention
Another key aspect of Unified Communications and Video Conferencing is that they promote anywhere, anytime communication and collaboration. Now this is great for reducing travel, but savvy businesses also use this to facilitate and promote remote working opportunities which has become to attracting and retaining the best talent within the workforce, particularly when one considers that more and more professionals actively seek opportunities that offer flexible working conditions. Take this a step further and by enabling remote working with UC and Video Conferencing, businesses are better able to break down the traditional geographical barriers to employing and retaining their best employees, which in turn can help promote company growth.
Last, but definitely by no means least, through reducing business travel and enabling remote working, video conferencing also supports businesses to become greener and reduce their carbon footprint. First and foremost, this essential for our environment, but being environmentally aware is also a great branding tool. Customers and employees today are much more environmentally aware today than just 5 years ago and as a result are more environmentally concious when it comes to businesses that they work with either as a customer or an employee.
Final Word
To sum up, Video Conferencing technologies have come a long way in a short period of time, reducing cost and improving quality. As such, the potential business opportunities that video has to offer have transformed the technology from an expensive, nice to have toy into an affordable must have tool that can provide businesses with a significant competitive edge.
For more information or a personalised demonstration, give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.