Video conferencing is reshuffling the deck entirely, especially when it comes to business. Here’s how it’s changing businesses all around the globe. Take a look at how it can change yours, too:
Manage Remote Teams with Ease
Running remote teams used to be tough. Geography was a major factor, contributing to a lot of problems. Information dissemination took a whole lot longer. If there were key decisions to be made, you would normally expect them to arrive at a snail’s pace. With discussions carried out through email threads, it could take days of back-and-forth emails, resulting in delayed decisions. That was a huge problem, especially if you were working under a strict deadline.
With online meetings, though, businesses now have an excellent means to get in touch with their remote employees at any time. Want to do a one-day workshop with key members of your team? Cloud conferencing takes care of that easily enough. Have a few urgent announcements to make? You could see what your team thinks of those announcements, face to face, through video. You can do this all in a matter of in seconds, making geographically-dispersed teams that much easier and convenient to manage, says BetaNews.
Offers Face-to-Face Interaction
The best part about using video is that it provides face to face contact to you and your employees. Small Business says about 65 to 75 percent of whatever we say or communicate to others is rendered in non-verbal terms. That means a whole lot of cues consigned to oblivion the minute you use email, initiate a text chat, or make a phone call. It can also lead to a lot of misunderstandings. A short email can come off as rude or abrupt even when there’s absolutely no offense intended.
With video, you can see your team’s expressions regarding your announcements. A single glance can indicate right away if they like what they hear or not. Even silence is a great indicator. If there’s no rousing applause, no excited chatter, no smiling faces, it’s safe to say your staff probably aren’t as receptive to your plans. That’s because expressions, body language, and other forms of social cues already help you figure out what their reactions are. In an email, you have to wait for feedback. On their side of things, they have to worry about phrasing some of their feedback in just the right way so as to avoid any misunderstanding. This, of course, takes time.
Either way, whether you’re careless with how you communicate through those channels or supremely careful, you still lose out because both options take time. That’s exactly what online conferencing saves you from. By providing you with a tool you can use to communicate with your team in a way that eliminates the guesswork and any room for misunderstandings, you can look forward to faster processes, less mistakes, and better decisions on the job.
Cost-Effective Video Deployment
One of the major concerns of every business is looking for ways to keep their operating expenses low. That’s why this technology is popular, especially for startups that need all the funds they can get, at least until an angel investor comes along. Most companies believe it’s incredibly pricey to integrate video into the company’s communication system. That’s where online meetings for IT infrastructure through Blue Jeans—one of many video solution providers—come in. By relying on cloud-based solutions sans the sprawling hardware, businesses no longer have to spend a small fortune just to deploy a video conferencing tool on all levels of the organization. It’s an efficient and cost-effective solution.
Promotes Better Use of IT Talents
Unlike complicated systems of yore, where you had to rely on an IT expert for every move you made—from putting up your report on the big screen to connecting that phone patch to HQ—meetings were a lot of hard work. Now, with current apps and technologies, you can download the software, install it, and run it, all on your own. You no longer have to pay your IT team to take care of simple installation work. With systems that are easy to run and use, your IT experts can take care of more problems and enjoy better opportunities for growth.
Improves Collaboration
Video conferencing makes it possible for everyone on the team to reach out and connect. With face to face interaction, onsite and offsite employees have a chance to get to know each, shoot the breeze, or discuss updates and revisions immediately. As a result, your staff are able to be at ease around each other, allowing them to get the job done that much better. After all, people are much more efficient when they work with someone they know and trust. Aside from encouraging your team to develop a great sense of team spirit and deeper ties, the technology also takes collaboration to another level. With anywhere, anytime access, people can easily get to work whenever and wherever the need strikes.
If you want to take your business to the next level, don’t be afraid of change. Start by getting yourself better tools.
