A common question among organizations is why they should make the decision to outsource their video conferencing environment to a video services provider.  Steve Jobs provides the best explanation with a whiteboard and a two-by-two grid. To get Apple refocused in 1997, he told his team members that they needed to focus on four great products instead of the random array of devices they were currently producing. He said, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”

Simply put, using video-as-a-service allows organizations to focus on their core competencies; whether it’s designing and manufacturing high quality products or providing expert services.

In order to successfully operate a video environment, an organization needs video infrastructure equipment, defined processes and procedures, and a team of video professionals with experience and expertise. This requires a substantial upfront capital investment along with additional expenses for ongoing maintenance, training and equipment replacement. Not only does this become quite costly, it diverts resources from departments critical to accomplishing the organization’s mission and goals.

Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) removes the obstacles that organizations face during an enterprise implementation of visual collaboration and unified communications solutions by providing them with the tools needed to make collaboration work.

  • The People: VaaS provides access to a team of video experts with the experience and expertise to manage, operate and scale a video environment. This allows participants to simply enter a conference room or launch a video application and they are automatically connected to the video call.
  • The Process: VaaS allows organizations to take advantage defined processes and best practices for optimal meeting experiences; including centralized scheduling process, pre-meeting connectivity testing and proactive meeting monitoring. Participants can focus on the meeting at hand rather than worry about the technology.
  • The Technology: VaaS provides advanced video technology in the cloud which allows for video bridging, audio conferencing, direct voice dialing, streaming and archiving. Additional services can connect consumer video applications (Skype) or mobile devices (iPhone/iPad) allowing participants to connect from anywhere.

With VaaS, organizations can extend the reach of collaboration throughout their organization by allowing participants to collaborate anytime, anywhere, with anyone, on any device. Instead of worrying about locating the right technical staff or determining the best way to utilize video; organizations can focus on their core business practices while realizing the ROI and other business benefits of video almost immediately.

Cisco has released a white paper predicting that more than 50 percent of all work loads will be processed in the cloud by the year 2014.  In addition, it predicts a 22 percent compound annual growth rate for cloud data centers, which will handle 57 percent of workloads by 2015.

The cloud is the key to working efficiently in the future.

IVCi is ahead of this trend with its MVE managed video experience. This service provides secure, cloud-based video to its customers who use desktop, room, and mobile devices. IVCi has found that when IT organizations are taxed with additional responsibilities, the move to the cloud is a significant trend. The benefits of cloud services are numerous; reduction in upfront capital expenses, redundancy, the ability to have the latest and greatest technology, security, and much more.

More:

http://www.ivci.com/international_videoconferencing_managed_conferencing_services.html

 

Recently the New York Times ran a story regarding the security of video conferencing systems, highlighting a hacker who was able to connect to open video networks of major organizations. 

To learn more about how Cloud Video Services can help address this issue, check out the article at http://www.ivci.com/article-big-brother-can-t-watch-you-in-the-cloud.html.

 

 

Interesting aticle in CRN magazine delivers a video conferencing state of the union.  It includes a substantial piece about the IVCi Desktop Experience and an interview with our own Chris Bottger:

IVCi, well-known in the video conferencing channel and a top VAR for both Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO) and Polycom in the space, began working with Blue Jeans before its commercial launch. IVCi uses Blue Jeans’ cloud to power its IVCi Desktop Experience, a managed services offering that connects various desktop video clients and is both application- and appliance-independent. It works hand in hand with IVCi’s Managed Video Experience, the managed video services offering IVCi uses for everything from multipoint bridging and ISDN service to endpoint and network management for customers.

Blue Jeans is a game-changer, said Chris Bottger, IVCi’s senior vice president, managed conferencing services.

“They’re isn’t anything I’ve seen that works, that ties the business in with what I would call the prosumer and the consumer sides, and if there is, it’s not as robust as the cloud offering that Blue Jeans has here,” Bottger said. “Just the fact that you can do a video call with Skype clients and really make this easy.  A lot of the customers who have done the demo are blown away by it.”

A service like Blue Jeans’ makes irrelevant the challenge of connecting various video endpoints and pieces of video infrastructure, and also makes more convenient the idea of on-the-go video, particularly from smartphones and tablets.

“If you think about it, probably 80 percent of the video calls we run on a daily basis have an audioconferencing bridge attached to them. You usually have more people than you have video systems available,” Bottger said. “But now we can offer those people the ability to do video, as well, at their convenience. People need to be able to use the tools they’re comfortable with.”

Bottger disagreed with the idea that the shift toward selling the video experience would mean less emphasis on hardware-based endpoint and infrastructure sales. There’ll be less opportunity to sell those things individually he said, but packaging them with managed video services will make the whole video solution a moneymaker for a company like IVCI.

“One feeds the other,” Bottger said. “It feeds the services on the back side and we’re also not shortchanging the hardware business — it’s continuing to grow. We’re fairly evenly balanced: one-third services, one-third integration and one-third technology, meaning them buying it or us building it for them.”

More:

http://www.crn.com/news/networking/232300285/wheres-the-puck-going-in-enterprise-videoconferencing.htm?pgno=1

 

 

Visit IVCi at VCI Group

October 3rd, 2011 | Posted by Nina Parker in Cloud Services | IVCi - (0 Comments)

IVCi will be exhibiting at the second annual VCI Group conference at the New Orleans Sheraton October 10 – 12.

Make sure to stop by booth #307 to see how your company can bridge the gap with IVCi’s desktop experience, powered by Blue Jeans Network.

Info at about the VCI Group Conference:

http://www.vci-group.org/level1/Conference/VCI-G-2011-Brochure.pdf