Back in the 1960s, Bell Telephone ads described long distance as “the next best thing to being there.” Today, unified communications solutions have taken that concept far beyond a simple long-distance call. With just a few mouse clicks, an organization can set up an audio or video conference complete with application sharing, online presentations and more. And today’s cost-effective solutions can save a lot of money and time no matter how large or small the organization.
Conferencing offers many benefits. It is proven to cut travel costs and associated downtime, increase productivity, enhance customer service and reduce time to market of new products and services. Furthermore, conferencing can help organizations become more flexible and resilient through faster decision-making, increased agility and improved responsiveness to customer demand.
Cheaper, Faster, Greener
Given today’s budget constraints, many organizations are seeking innovative ways to increase efficiency, improve effectiveness and reduce costs. Conferencing allows companies to reduce the time and cost of travel by replacing many face-to-face meetings with effective alternatives. Organizations also can avoid the general wear and tear to their employees that accompany long-haul flights. When face-to-face interaction with clients is needed, video conferencing can provide that personal touch without the need for business travel.
Daily commuting can be reduced with the aid of conferencing, since employees can work more effectively from a remote location. In a similar way, conferencing enhances the recruiting process by enabling organizations to quickly and cheaply interview more people from more locations. Conferencing can also create teleworking opportunities so that new employees don’t have to relocate.
Many organizations are launching green initiatives, both out of concern for the environment and to create a positive reputation within the community. Conferencing is becoming a part of these firms’ commitments to environmental programs. By cutting air and auto travel, conferencing can reduce an organization’s CO2 “footprint” substantially.
Mobility has become a key driver in the adoption of conferencing. As workgroups become geographically dispersed, conferencing can help increase productivity by improving real-time collaboration. This benefit is more pronounced when it comes to managing distributed project teams. Ad hoc meetings speed the product development process, increasing revenue while reducing development costs. In many industries, shorter time to market can have a dramatic impact on market share and profit potential.
All Together Now
Conferencing is seeing dramatic growth due to the adoption of unified communications platforms that enable voice, video and data convergence. By combining phone, fax, e-mail, instant messaging, teleconferencing, video conferencing and Web conferencing over a common IP network, unified communications solutions provide organizations with a number of productivity-enhancing features. Combining voice and data on one network also opens the door to new services, such as advanced conferencing, presence and other media-rich productivity tools.
As a result, conferencing has become more than just a cost-saving tool. According to research from Aberdeen Group, top companies are utilizing collaboration tools to improve revenues, acquire better talent and bring products to market more quickly. Organizations often see double-digit improvements in accelerating product development, reducing the cost-to-hire for strategic hires, improving the time to close opportunities, and optimizing both the time and cost used for strategic projects. Conferencing has progressed from an executive tool to a business enabler that can drive productivity throughout the organization.
Conferencing will never totally replace in-person communications. However, the latest conferencing products are an attractive option for organizations looking for ways to trim costs, enhance competitiveness and protect the environment. The latest unified communications solutions are enabling knowledge workers to combine conferencing with other Web-based collaboration tools to add a new dimension to “being there.”
