The Business Benefits of Videoconferencing

In the past, videoconferencing was viewed as a way to scale back in-person meetings that were both costly and time-consuming. Today, with the emergence of mobile, BYOD (bring your own device), collaboration technology and remote workforces, videoconferencing is quickly transforming how enterprises conduct business – for the better.

Videoconferencing used to be reserved for conference rooms and senior management. Today, videoconferencing is accessible to any employee via desktop computer, laptop or mobile device. Even small-group and one-on-one phone conversations are being replaced by videoconferencing – because it can be just as simple yet more productive.

“End-User Survey: The ‘Real’ Benefits of Video” — a recent global survey of 4,737 enterprise video end-users by Wainhouse Research and Polycom — revealed the top benefits of videoconferencing:

• Increased efficiency/productivity (94 percent). Meetings can be called in minutes and collaboration can begin with a mouse click, whether participants are in the office, working from home, waiting for a flight, or sitting in a hotel room. Meetings tend to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time.
• Increased impact of discussions (88 percent). Unlike conference calls and email, face-to-face discussions enable people to read facial expressions, reactions, gestures and other forms of non-verbal communication in order to develop a real sense of trust. Instead of simply watching, users are more actively involved.
• Expedited decision-making (87 percent). There’s no need to fly back to the corporate office to regroup and formulate a response. Videoconferencing makes it easier for all stakeholders to attend a meeting instead of waiting days or even weeks to gather in person, accelerating business processes as a result.
• Reduced travel costs (87 percent). Previously, this had consistently topped the list of reasons why videoconferencing was being used, showing that users are looking beyond hard cost savings and recognizing how videoconferencing can improve how they do business.

The study also showed that the most common use case of videoconferencing is to meet with customers and partners (71 percent). In addition 87 percent of remote workers strongly agree or agree that videoconferencing prevents them from feeling disconnected.

Once a luxury for the C-suite, videoconferencing is evolving into a mission-critical system for enterprises, enhancing productivity and efficiency while helping to build trust and cultivate stronger relationships. Not surprisingly, the use of mobile devices for video collaboration is expected to explode during the next year.

The majority of your customers and business partners are either taking advantage of videoconferencing now, or investigating how videoconferencing can help them do business better. Are you?

Let us show you how videoconferencing can help you communicate and collaborate more productively and efficiently.