5 Ways In Which Video Conferencing Benefits Your Business
Uninterrupted communication between employees is the prime requirement of every business in the current era. Luckily, advancement in technology has led to the invention of sophisticated mediums of communication, which in turn have helped sectors like education, media, and politics, thrive.
For instance, video conferencing supports newsroom debates, which are essential to news channels. Before we dive into the benefits of video conferencing, let’s gain a better understanding of what it actually is.
What is video conferencing?
With strides in Internet technology, video conferencing has become an essential medium of communication. A video call takes place when a group of individuals can interact with each other and exchange their ideas using video and audio. This way, participants can communicate with each other simultaneously.
Video telephony was introduced in the United States of America and Europe in the late 1870s. In other words, preliminary technology capable of transmitting and receiving video signals existed even 150 years ago!
Today, digitized, Internet-backed, and sophisticated video conferencing makes it easy to carry out various operations and run businesses around the world. It makes it possible to undertake many activities virtually and across continents.
How does video conferencing work?
There are plenty of applications in the market that let people video conference with their colleagues. Examples include Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangouts, Skype for Business, Blue Jeans, and Acefone Meet.
Every application comes with its advantages and feasibility. However, it is vital to have a stable Internet connection and a compatible device for a successful video conferencing experience.
In terms of the technical functioning, it works as follows: Audio and video input devices relay the data over the Internet to the person or group being interacted with, who receive this data via audio and video output devices. Echo cancellation tools and codecs for compression and decompression are also part of the process.
What are the benefits of video conferencing?
Given the astronomical increase in demand for video conferencing lately, let us cite some of its benefits:
1) Better time management
Time is the soul of business, which makes time management an important component of effective management. Video conferencing calls reduce travel time, and allow for delegates and collaborating organizations from across the world to interact, discuss, and evaluate multiple opportunities and solutions.
With all the time saved, one can invest their energy into other, more important, tasks. All in all, a workforce can be more productive and efficient this way.
2) More cost-effective
The profit a business makes depends on the total revenue and the overall expenditure on components and infrastructure. In order to initiate a project, discussions with numerous C-level executives and other team members are required, who may be located at different locations.
Hence, every member can voice their views on a video call and share a presentation as well. This feature saves expenditures like travel and hotel booking cost. Hence, video conferencing is cost-savvy.
3) Business continuity
Work operations may still be carried out with the help of video conferencing, even if natural calamities threaten to disrupt the flow of business, especially in the IT services sector.
There is no need to worry about the cancellation of travel arrangements during unavoidable situations, and, hence, it is possible to maintain business continuity.
4) Better employment experience
It is easier to hire and retain employees who cannot work in a physical office due to constraints such as location inaccessibility. With geographical limitations no longer a concern, an organization can seek the best of candidates.
Such employees tend to stay with companies for a long period, which helps increase employee retention.
5) Better communication and understanding
As specified in a research conducted by Forbes, “62% of executives agree that relative to audio-conferencing, video conferencing significantly improves the quality of communication, a figure that rises to 73% among high-growth companies. In addition, 50% of those surveyed believe video conferencing also improves the degree of understanding.”
Face-to-face interaction is an intimate form of communication as compared to telephonic interaction. Hence, video conferencing makes it convenient for presenters and attendees to communicate and understand the topic of discussion. Similarly, it is easy to give and receive feedback.
One can conclude that video conferencing technology helps a company grow and improve its employee productivity.