From the days of handwritten letters, to telegraphs, to emails and beyond, communications have always sought to bring distant parties into closer contact and synchronization. While email correspondence has rapidly taken hold as the predominant form of communication in business, it lacks the instantaneous quality that allows video conferencing to be so effective as a collaborative tool. When team members in different locations want to work on the same project, being able to speak naturally with one another in real time without the need to compose an email allows for a more cohesive, productive flow of work. Let’s proceed by looking at some of the operational roadblocks in business that video conferencing rooms have shown an aptitude to solve for us.
Synchronization of Operations
If you’re working with a business that handles large scale operations, there is a constant and consistent need for collaborative communication between locations. While you may be able to work with a certain group on a day to day basis if they work in your office, you still need to work with outside collaborators on various projects. Being able to synchronize all of these team members was not a practical reality in the past. Sure, there was the capacity for internal memos to be sent back and forth, but offices in say, New York and London were basically entirely separate given the time difference and geographic distance. With the current technology’s ability to bring together team members around the globe for real time conversations, the board room extends beyond physical walls and borders to become a virtually limitless environment that can support contributions from up to a hundred participants. This sort of technology was unimaginable just a few decades ago.
Low Cost Communications
In addition to the capacity to communicate between larger groups of people, the virtual conference room is also a substantially less expensive way for large businesses to operate. Video conferencing allows employees to perform their tasks with both internal and external facing operations from the home office, substantially reducing the time and expense associated with travel. This allows employees to execute projects with greater efficiency in an accelerated time frame. Virtual conference services are generally inexpensive to operate, and by working with a service like the Blue Jeans Network, there are no costs for buying new operational equipment and technology.
Instantaneous Face to Face Communication
While email had rapidly become the most common form of business communication, there are some projects that require a greater degree of nuance given their complexity. For these more important endeavors, virtual conferencing rooms allow employees to utilize face to face communication instantaneously with other teams. Discussing a complicated issue a business might be facing, video conferencing offers a more human form of communication. While email is a fast and reliable tool for sending quick messages and information, video collaboration allows users to convey ideas as accurately as if they were sitting in the same physical conference room with their colleagues.
Delivering Presentations without Geographic Constraints
If your business is involved with customer facing operation, virtual conference rooms allow you to deliver presentations to clients all over the world without inconveniencing the partnership through long delays or lapses in contact between meetings. Your clients can watch along with any pertinent documents, videos, or slides while you walk them through your services. With services like the Blue Jeans Network, sharing your screen is an intuitive simple, process that will be easy to follow for both you and the parties to whom you present. As such, virtual conference rooms provide a space for hosting more effective business presentations with a forward thinking focus.
Collaborative Work on Documents
In addition to simply following along with the documents you’re discussing, members of a virtual conferencing room can contribute their own edits and suggestions to a shared file. Sending a collaborative file back and forth between offices was an inconvenience in the past, but contemporary coworkers can easily work together on a project without the hassle of endless back and forth postage or email chains. The virtual collaboration results in faster completion and a clearer communication of ideas.
Ability to Conference between Different Platforms
Virtual conference rooms have been available to business for a while now but they were not previously delivering the same degree of accessibility as the current technology. With the Blue Jeans Network for example, users are able to create a virtual conference room with their clients regardless of whether or not those clients are operating on the same video recording platform like those provided by Cisco or Microsoft Lync. Because Blue Jeans is based in the cloud, users are able to connect their system with the majority of other video conferencing software, allowing a seamless communication experience for both clients and employees. There’s no need for the awkward period of figuring out a new technology interface because a virtual conference can be initiated with a simple email containing the link to join on a browser based interface. Virtual conference rooms are saving time and money to become the preferred communication method of the future.
glamazini says
Love this & can’t wait to see it be the norm. Great piece.