If you’re not used to today’s video conferencing technology, you may associate it with clunky conference rooms and outdated equipment. Due to the fact that today’s business dealings happen at light speed and go through a variety of standard channels such as email or chat programs, video conferencing can seem redundant.
However, the fact is that it’s a burgeoning tool that an increasing amount of businesses are adopting into their everyday processes. Today’s video conferencing technology allows participants to join in meetings using whatever device they have in the palm of their hand, across a variety of diverse systems a variety of systems.
Interoperability is key, and a current hot topic in the telecommunications industry. Here are a few reasons why your business can benefit from video conferencing, and why it’s not only practical but also scalable and affordable.
1. Tech Talk
Using video in everyday business operations can be a boon to professional communication, but there’s much more to it than getting your colleague on screen. For high video conferencing standards, Blue Jeans engineers advocate getting past all of the issues with protocols, coding, and the ways that calls are transferred and processed through different chat and telecommunications systems.
In general, what will make all of these issues easier is to open up protocols to improve interoperability on a global scale and make video conferencing run more smoothly and efficiently. As it stands, modern video conferencing systems are designed to be able to interface with other video chat programs and run on multiple devices.
2. From Hiring to Project Management
Moving away from the nitty-gritty of how video conferencing works, there’s also the fact that this technology is used in more ways than just for meetings. For example, from the first time you’re interviewed, video can play an essential role in the hiring process.
Time Magazine highlights that hiring software engineers advocate video interviews as a way to accurately gauge communication and engagement skills. Having interoperability in a situation like an interview is invaluable, given that it means your candidate can join a video conference call using their own device at home.
Whether they’re connecting using a smartphone or a laptop, it’s possible to conduct video interviews completely hassle-free, since the process is so streamlined.
3. Taking Equipment into Account
Although interoperability across devices and protocols is being stressed and has improved more than ever, there are still some old mainstays that can serve you well when you’re video conferencing. Entrepreneur Magazine advises that in order to stick to good video meeting etiquette, you need to make sure that your camera is at eye level.
However, this goes further than just making sure your laptop is at a good position where you can see everyone. If you’re going to be using a mobile device to participate in meetings, make sure you have a stable cradle. Lifehacker advises using headphones so you can hear everyone clearly, and this goes for all devices.
Whether you’re joining in via a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone, or you’re on a standard laptop, there are certain types of accouterments that are still very useful. This kind of equipment is also portable, again defying the outdated expectation that video conferencing has to take place in a specially outfitted conference room.
4. An Industry for All Size Businesses
Yahoo reports that not-for-profit International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium, an organization that advocates for small startups and vendors in the multimedia industry, recently launched a new membership program for smaller companies to help continue to push its agenda of interoperability across multiple platforms and protocols.
An organization like the IMTC ranks interoperability as a high priority since developing a worldwide, open standard of telecommunication expedites business communication and creates a smoother, more efficient way for exchanging information. Due to the fact that video conferencing is becoming a common tool for both large and small businesses, pushing flexibility and interoperability forward is a current issue at the fore of the industry.
This means that it’s also an opportune time for small businesses to start participating and integrating video meetings into their daily operations as the technology continues to evolve and become more widely standardized.
Final Thoughts
Video conferencing has become more flexible than ever before, with interoperability is at its peak and continuing improvements. Within the next few years, open and freely published protocols will most likely become the norm since that’s the direction the industry is headed in.
However, even until those ideal standards are reached, there’s still plenty of opportunities to utilize video conferencing as a standard communication method for your business.
Don’t miss out on the great benefits you can derive from using video based on assumptions that it’s too expensive and awkward. It’s as simple as unlocking your smartphone and accepting a video chat call using a system that facilitates interoperability.
