IT and Softwares

Archive for the ‘Video Conferencing’ Category

Video conferencing helps to bring far-flung employees and prospects closer together. Although many of today’s communication methods are fast and efficient, they lack the human touch. Emails can be easily misunderstood due to the lack of vocal intonation, and text messages can be even worse in their brevity. Even phone calls lack important facial and body language clues that help us understand both what is said and what is not said. Video conferencing allows meeting participants to look each other in the eye, gauge engagement and interest, and better understand the conversation. Here are four reasons that video conferencing adds value to today’s businesses.

1) Reduced costs
Video conferencing lets people get together without the expense of setting up a meeting. In an age of high airfares, long airport lines and frequent delays, travel is costly both in terms of time and money. Video conferencing, on the other hand, lets people get together globally by just walking to a videoconferencing suite or, in some cases, by just sitting down in front of a computer. In fact, with today’s camera-equipped notebook computers, tablets and smartphones, simply adding video conferencing software is all that a business needs to get face-to-face over the internet.

2) Clearer communication
Face-to-face communication is still the most effective way for people to connect. Imagine doing a sales presentation via email, when it is impossible to tell what interests the prospect and what they gloss over. The negative feedback that many managers have to give is much easier to deliver with a clear sense of the recipient’s reaction to the information. On the other hand, a “great job” can mean much more when it is accompanied by a broad smile and an upward pointed thumb. Video conferencing adds this human element back into communications which had traditionally been made impersonal by distance.

3) More meetings… more often
By eliminating the cost and inconvenience of travelling for meetings, video conferencing enables people to have virtual face-to-face get togethers more often. Whether the conference uses a nearby video conferencing facility or video conferencing software to allow the interaction to occur at the desktop level, video conferencing is faster and cheaper. For businesses which feel overwhelmed by meetings, video conferencing can replace conference calls, bringing higher impact to those conversations, as well.

4) Increased retention
In today’s geographically diverse workplaces where teams may be spread across the world and made up of telecommuters, road warriors and traditional office workers, feeling a human connection to the workplace is harder than ever. An unattached employee is one who can easily leave for a different, equally unconnected, company. Video conferencing and Telepresenceputs faces to voices and names and gives employees a great sense of human contact. This contact typically leads to increased employee loyalty and to increased employee retention. A higher retention rate not only increases consistency of work product, but also reduces recruiting and training costs.