How the Cloud Reduces the Cost and Complexity of Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing is no longer a luxury utilized in specially equipped conference rooms by top-level executives. Today, videoconferencing is a business necessity that speeds the decision-making process and moves business forward across entire organizations, regardless of the user’s physical location. Videoconferencing enables face-to-face collaboration with customers and business partners without the long delays and travel costs associated with in-person meetings.

Despite these business benefits, infrastructure costs and management challenges have prevented more widespread utilization of videoconferencing. However, cloud videoconferencing, or videoconferencing-as-a-service (VCaaS), provides an alternative to on-premises solutions that can help organizations overcome these challenges.

Benefits of VCaaS

• Lower costs. Cloud videoconferencing removes the cost of adding the hardware and software needed to support traditional videoconferencing. It also shifts the responsibility of management, maintenance, monitoring and security from your IT staff to a cloud service provider.
• Accessibility. VCaaS allows users to access videoconferencing tools from virtually any device – desktop computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
• Technical expertise. A cloud provider has a highly trained IT team managing the videoconferencing tools and services utilized by your organization. You don’t have to hire additional staff or train current staff.
• Reliability. The service provider’s enterprise-class videoconferencing tools, proactively managed by technical experts, help ensure that calls run smoothly and deliver maximum ROI.
• Simple, flexible scheduling. With traditional videoconferencing, scheduling is often rigid and the process complex. VCaaS makes it possible to schedule an impromptu videoconference from anywhere in a matter of minutes, whether the call includes two people or a large group.
• Improved security. While security is a common concern with any cloud-based service, a quality VCaaS solution uses data encryption and enforces security at a number of levels, including meetings, applications, ports and the individual user.

When choosing a VCaaS solution, interoperability is critical, both at the device level and system level. Your provider should be able to integrate and provide support for virtually any device, not just specific equipment. At the system level, your videoconferencing tool needs to be able to communicate with multiple platforms and endpoints. Your system should also be easy to deploy – minutes, not months – and operate. If users get bogged down with a complex process for scheduling and running meetings, they won’t use the system and you won’t see ROI. However, make sure you avoid consumer-grade services. They may be easy to use, but they don’t come close to matching the capabilities of an enterprise-class system.

IPC Technologies provides a full suite of on-premises and cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions, including end-to-end, cloud-based videoconferencing from Lifesize. The Lifesize solution brings together award-winning room video systems and mobile apps in a simple, plug-and-play system. All features come standard with no costly add-ons. Let us help you determine what type of videoconferencing system makes the most sense for your organization.