Video Communication Peps Up Manpower Productivity

Business conferences and decision-making options depend critically upon the availability of information at the right time. In order to save time, business meetings are increasingly being conducted over telecommunication networks with the help of video conferencing.

The drivers for advanced conferencing solutions include enhanced employee productivity as one spends less time travelling and out of office, improved remote office productivity and maximum value out of each interaction through richer and more valuable communication.

Proficient substitute for face-to-face meetings

Over recent years, the very nature of face-to-face meetings has undergone some alteration, as a meeting no longer is confined between two individuals. Often it involves multiple stakeholders across as many locations and this shift has brought about a change in how meetings are held.

Video communication and technologies such as TelePresence allow real-time, face-to-face communication and collaboration over the network with colleagues, prospects, and partners, even if they are in opposite hemispheres. The potential scenarios where the technology can play a major role include C-Level-executive meetings, HR: job interviews, Customer Service: troubleshooting of technically complex products and access to remote experts, Sales: presentations and demonstrations of products and services with product specialists, Design: collaboration between teams and involvement of experts as needed, Consulting: interaction between outside vendors and clients and Staff Meetings: regularly scheduling updates of projects between personnel at remote sites.

Lars Ronning, president – ANZ, NSEA and India, Tandberg, said, “I would say we are not trying to replace face to face meetings but enhance them and help the executives do the same more often. For example what we suggest is if an employee is in India and the client is in the US, the first meeting they have may be a face to face where the client or the employee travel, but the meetings that will follow can be over the video. This increases the effectiveness of the conversation as the individuals are seeing each other and their reactions and expressions are conveyed much better that over the phone where they are not seeing each other. In this area Tandberg has a fleet of products right from individual workspace systems to high-definition telepresence solutions and offers end-to-end visual communication solution.”

Augmenting employee productivity

IP telephony, unified communications, rich-media conferencing, IP video broadcasting etc take full advantage of the power, resilience, and flexibility of an organisation’s IP network, and boasts an “inherent intelligence” that enables organisations to solve problems, conduct transactions, or complete tasks more systematically.

The result is a highly effective and collaborative business environment that significantly improves the way companies interact with their employees, partners, and customers, enabling organisations to set themselves apart from their competitors, while achieving a measurable ROI and enhancing customer service.

Employees derive both personal and professional benefits using the video communication technologies. This drives greater productivity in several ways as an employee spends less time out of the office.

Minhaj Zia, business development manager, Cisco India and SAARC said, “In spite of its market longevity, videoconferencing has not become a vast means of communicating today. The TelePresence Meeting solution from us is based on an entirely new technology, one that goes far beyond videoconferencing in many important ways. Through latest innovations in video, audio and remote communication technologies over the Internet Protocol (IP) network, Cisco has redefined the experience of “face-to-face” communications.”

Visible profits

Today 60% of the business communications take place nonverbally, which is comparatively ineffective to video communication. The ability to connect to people when you can see them is certainly more than when you are over a phone call and sitting miles away. The cost of deploying a video communication solution can also be easily recovered within a time span of a year or less, as the solution cuts on travel expenses, thereby resulting in more savings and thus conspicuous profits.

“Web conferencing is a reality today. The biggest advantages of conferencing tools are the time saved and thereby the cost reduction; these go a long way in increasing the profitability of a company. This also helps in increasing the productivity of the manpower and leveraging existing human resources within a company,” opines Kiran Datar, MD, WebEx Communications, India.