How To Use Video Conferencing In Your Organization

Transcription

1 Why Executives Can t Afford to Keep Video Conferencing to Themselves Making the case for democratizing video conferencing

2 INTRODUCTION The way we work has changed drastically in the last decade. Blue Jeans Network helps companies future-proof themselves, making it so no one has to deal with limited access caused by system incompatibility. They offer interactive video and bi-directional HD content sharing to room systems, Skype, Microsoft Lync, Google Video Chat, mobile devices, and any Web browser. Work used to be a place where you would go for only a set amount of time. The idea of collaborating in real time across the world, or even the country, was still in its infancy. An always-on mobile device wasn t in the pocket of every white-collar worker, delivering s and assignments 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now businesses require that their employees be able to meet and collaborate, anywhere, anytime. Over 75 percent of the U.S. workforce will be mobile by the end of 2013, 1 and that trend is only going to increase. If you re like most executives, you re looking for solutions that embrace this new way of working. You know that effective meetings, collaboration, and communication are key ways that today s organizations create value, spur innovation, drive efficiency up, drive costs down, and manage their daily operations. While many business technology solutions are competing for attention with claims of improving efficiency, productivity, and engagement, organization-wide video conferencing is a solution that hits on all three. To date, most room-based telepresence systems are sequestered to the executive suite, limited to use by senior leaders who conduct intercompany meetings with colleagues in other office locations. By democratizing video conferencing within their organization, executives enable managers and employees to meet on their own terms and achieve greater impact by communicating more conveniently from any location, using any device. Over 75 percent of the U.S. workforce will be mobile by the end of % 1 Worldwide Mobile Worker Population Forecast. International Data Corporation. 2

3 Why is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) becoming more important to a company s technology decisions? According to Gartner, half of employers will allow or require that employees bring their own devices to work by Employee demand and productivity gains from using devices that are familiar are a driving force. Another driving force, though? Enterprise technology has evolved to the point where there is interoperability among devices. Not only do employees demand to use their own devices, they also demand that they be able to access all of an employer s technology with their preferred device. Having technology that doesn t work on a Mac, tablet, or smartphone won t be an option much longer. Willis, David A. Bring Your Own Device: The Facts and the Future. Gartner. April EMPOWERING A GLOBAL WORKFORCE Focusing on connecting the workforce through improved channels of communication is one of the best strategies to increase the efficiency and productivity of an organization. In fact, organizations that consider global business communications to be of a high strategic value are dramatically more likely to succeed across their broad spectrum of business outcomes. 2 Executives within leading organizations are seeking more-effective communication strategies to support empowerment, knowledge sharing, and collaboration across the enterprise. Given today s increasingly flat, fast-moving, and borderless global business environment, organizations that refuse to address communications strategically aren t just failing to take every opportunity to get ahead, they re finding themselves at a significant disadvantage. On the flip side, organizations with a strategic approach to enabling effective global communications are: 3 16 times more likely to be a relative high performer at controlling costs 28 times more likely to be better than the rest at customer satisfaction 86 times more likely to reach the market faster than the competition We are communicating globally via technology. If you re like most people in the workforce today, you want the freedom to choose your own technology and applications to help you perform at your best. The tools necessary to make this happen have become more available and less expensive than ever before. As a result, employees now have the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) mindset and work anytime, anywhere, using their preference of notebooks, tablets, or smartphones. These consumer-level devices and applications open up greater communication options, such as audio conferencing, Web conferencing, and screen sharing. But unlike interoperable video conferencing, each of these options carries its own limitations: Audio-only conferencing can connect multiple parties using any device, but it prevents participants from visually interacting with one another. Web conferencing allows participants to see one another but is typically restricted to the use of technologies on a single platform. Screen sharing gives groups of people the ability to see others documents and screens but not one another. 2 Mallon, David. Global Business Communications: A Strategic Imperative in Today s Borderless Workplace. Bersin by Deloitte. March Ibid. 3

4 With the increase in virtual teams, having software that supports mobile devices is becoming much more important. When you re using that software for collaboration and communication, the stakes increase. Blue Jeans Network allows your teams to check in and collaborate wherever they may be and on whatever device they want to use. Nearly one-half of organizations use virtual teams in their workplace. Video conferencing isn t a new concept. For years, you ve used these expensive and proprietary roombased systems within your company s business locations or key departments, or, to a certain extent, with strategic customers and partners (though this can be costprohibitive). Video conferencing systems that can only be used with certain platforms or within your firewall are limited by their very nature. It s no wonder companies don t take full advantage of all that video conferencing has to offer. Powering virtual teams. In organizations with multiple locations, employees are connecting in virtual teams to solve complex business problems, improve business processes, or innovate new products or delivery systems. These virtual teams are made up of groups of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries, and who interact primarily through electronic communications. 4 The use of virtual teams has increased as well: Nearly one-half of organizations use them in their workplace. 5 is cited as the greatest challenge for organizations using virtual teams. 6 While conventional modes of communication ( , Web conferencing, phone calls, or audio conferencing) may help bring teams together, they cannot replace the productivity and outcomes experienced when meeting and interacting, and holding one another accountable face to face. When virtual teams composed of internal employees and external participants are able to easily meet using multiparty, interoperable video conferencing, they can: Establish more-productive working relationships by meeting face to face without impacting travel budgets. Join their team members or partners across time zones using any device, from any location, whether they re working at the company headquarters, in the field, at a client location, or at home, all sharing the same easy-touse experience. As a result, virtual teams are highly dependent on collaboration technology and organizational infrastructure to support their productivity and business outcomes. 75% But when these global workers come together to form a virtual team, it s not uncommon that they never have the opportunity to meet in person, throughout the duration of their assignment. Developing trust among team members Reinforce leadership capabilities by increasing individual exposure and participation, while sharing the responsibility for hosting and facilitating team meetings. 4 Minton-Eversole, Theresa. SHRM Survey Findings: Virtual Teams. Society for Human Resource Management. July 19, To purchase the report, visit surveyfindings/articles/pages/virtualteams.aspx 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 4

5 Most people in your organization have a computer, and most of those people likely have a laptop with a Web cam already installed. If you re not currently using your biggest technology investment the technology your employees use every day you re missing one of the biggest opportunities to extend video conferencing and collaboration across your enterprise. Blue Jeans Network offers ease of extendibility using browser-based software that connects to room systems, other desktop users, and mobile devices, quickly and easily. Accelerating sales and service productivity. Within a global, borderless workforce, sales and service professionals are conducting the vast majority of their customer outreach using their mobile phones, correspondence, or even traditional Web conferencing services rather than meeting face to face. Even with the screen-sharing capabilities of some of these services, what s missing is the face-to-face connection the ability to gauge and quickly react to customers visual cues and feedback. When highly mobile sales and services professionals are able to use their own smartphones to meet with customers via video conferencing, productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction improve. Empowering your sales and services teams with easy-to-use, multipoint, interoperable video conferencing solutions helps you to: Serve more customers by meeting them anyplace, anytime. All that s needed is an Internet connection and a video-enabled device. Differentiate your business from your competitors by personalizing the customer relationship with face-to-face conversations. Speed new business development by visually joining key decision-makers or influencers to the conversation, allowing you to respond quickly to buying signals or hesitations. Extending video conferencing capabilities throughout your sales and service organization is an effective and efficient way to unify your customer-facing teams and improve the satisfaction level of your customer base. REINFORCING THE BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS According to research by The Conference Board, 7 applying new technologies is the No. 1 tactic being used by CEOs to drive this kind of business innovation. But when it comes to new technology, many employees may already have a vast array of tools at their disposal. What they really want is full access to the powerful video conferencing tools that may already exist in their workplace to help them better serve their customers and the business. Extending the value of room-based telepresence systems. Unfortunately, one of the most effective productivity tools available is often kept beyond the reach of most employees. Many companies invest millions of dollars in top-of-the-line room-based video conferencing systems and supporting network infrastructures, only to find that their use of the system is surprisingly restrictive. Employees consider using them only for the most critical meetings and only a fraction of your typical business meetings meet this threshold. 8 7 The Conference Board CEO Challenge Weinstein, Ira. The Democratization of Meeting Room Collaboration. Wainhouse Research. April

6 Organizations that are looking to increase workforce productivity should embrace and offer support for employees preferences for devices and apps. While companies have started rolling out Unified Communications (UC) strategies to deploy video to the desktop, connecting their UC infrastructure with their room-based video conferencing systems is often a challenge. Executives require dedicated resources to help them schedule, host, and manage meetings using this equipment, and are limited to connecting with others who are using the same proprietary technology platform. Restricting video conference accessibility in any manner diminishes the potential benefits and value returned from these sizable investments. A better strategy involves extending the functionality of an existing telepresence system or UC setup by connecting it with a cloud-based, interoperable video conferencing service to benefit the entire organization. This cohesive strategy connects all the various video systems together for a future-proof solution that easily meets the evolving technology trends, with little or no additional capital expenditures. Blue Jeans Network democratizes video conferencing. Your employees, customers, and business partners can meet using any Internet-enabled device or browser, even connecting through your existing room-based system. When you bring audio, video, and data together, no one is limited by access. they re in the office, at home, or on the road. And that demand is only expected to grow by year s end, over 62 percent of companies will allow employees to bring their own device. 9 Organizations that are looking to increase workforce productivity should embrace and offer support for employees preferences for devices and apps. 10 Blue Jeans cloud-based platform helps your people work and collaborate in new, more-effective ways, using a video conferencing service that is: Vendor agnostic and interoperable, so you, and the people you want to meet with, don t have to worry about the type and brand of video endpoint they can use. Easy to use, with simple one-click scheduling, hosting, and meeting administration, using an intuitive Web interface. Scalable and secure, to accommodate multiparty collaboration for up to 25 people from anywhere in the world. As more employees bring their own smartphones, tablets, and laptops with them to the workplace, they expect to use these same tools to enable their performance, whether 9 BYOD Business Strategies: Adoption Plans, Deployment Options, IT Concerns, and Cost Savings. TechRepublic. February Good Technology s Second Annual State of BYOD Report. 6

7 CONCLUSION The business world is changing it s moving faster, becoming more interconnected, and rapidly pushing beyond traditional hierarchical boundaries. Achieving operational excellence and developing human capital require new technologies to empower a global workforce. The question is no longer, Should we adopt video conferencing? but rather, What is our strategy for leveraging video technology to improve productivity, communications, and efficiency? Blue Jeans interoperable video conferencing fuels your business in a changing world by allowing your managers and your employees to meet and communicate with greater impact. About Blue Jeans Network At Blue Jeans Network, our mission is to make video communications as easy and pervasive as audio communications, enabling more-effective collaboration at work, at home and on the road. Our cloud-based conferencing service makes this possible by enabling customers to connect with each other seamlessly anytime, anywhere and from practically any device. The Blue Jeans Network extends high-quality video communications beyond the traditional boundaries of specialized conference rooms and into the mainstream, allowing individuals and employees throughout an enterprise to interact more effectively with each other, and with their customers, partners, suppliers, family and friends. Blue Jeans Network is a private company headquartered in Mountain View, CA. Find us on the Web at bluejeans.com.