Overlooked Industries Using Video Conferencing

June 26th, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Collaboration | Telepresence | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

Video is becoming ubiquitous; everywhere you look there is a new application or platform. Plus video enabled smartphones allow you to bring video virtually anywhere. Countless organizations have used the technology to connect remote workers, cut travel expenses and create a competitive advantage. Here are a few overlooked industries that use video in a fun and exciting way.

Post-production: Directing a movie is a strenuous job, when one movie wraps another one starts, making it difficult to complete the final product. While the editors are back at the studio in Los Angeles, the director is already on a new film set in Thailand. Video conferencing allows the director to work through key scenes with the editor in real-time, ensuring post production stays on schedule.

Help predict the weather: Weather patterns are notoriously unstable and meteorologists have one of the only jobs where they can be right less than half the time. Video conferencing can easily connect local meteorologist to national weather experts so they can prepare residents for any severe weather or provide up to the minute updates that could potentially save lives.

Review the plays: Despite their best efforts, referees can miss a play or a professional athlete can cross the line. Sometimes a second opinion is needed for a game changing call and other times the league needs to step in for supplemental discipline. League officials can easily review the plays and confer with one another. If needed, officials can hold supplementary discipline hearings with players

Crime scene investigation: investigating crimes and finding those responsible is getting more and more difficult by the day. Advanced forensic science has allowed experts to unlock crime secrets while also freeing those who are wrongly accused. In some situations, blood spatter or other experts can be consulted over video during the initial investigation. This brings the highest level of expertise to any location in the world.

Finding the perfect outfit: The retail industry has been known to use video conferencing to view clothing samples and make alterations with manufacturing partners overseas. Consumers can also use technology to help find the perfect outfit. Not long ago, I started a video chat with one of my friends so she could help me decide on the right dress for an event because, let’s face it; my husband’s opinion just didn’t cut it.

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Selling Your Boss on Video Conferencing

June 25th, 2012 | Posted by Adam Kaiser in Telepresence | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

With so many organizations either using or implementing video conferencing, the technology is becoming ever-present. Whether an organization is implementing the highest quality immersive telepresence, or rolling out video across iPads and smartphones, someone at some point had to sell their boss on the value of video.

Perhaps you find yourself in a similar situation? Here are some tips to make it just a little bit easier to sell the power of video to your superiors.

Teamwork – Selling your boss on the value of video conferencing to connect disparate teams is crucial. Maybe you work with a sales person in Los Angeles, an engineer in Dallas, and a support specialist in Chicago. Connecting the team face-to-face will help make all of you more productive and foster better relationships. This type of increase in productivity will only help to increase the bottom line.

Travel Costs – This is an oldie, but goodie. There is no doubt that organizations save significant dollars on travel once video has been implemented. To make this process easier, see if you can get your hands on the company’s travel expenses from the last few months. If you can’t get that much data, look to your own expenses for travel. Take that number and calculate 25% to show the potential savings video can provide on travel. When presenting this to your boss, point out that 25% could be a conservative number.

Outsmart the Competition – With the rapid communication abilities of video, your company will be able to stay one (or maybe more!) steps ahead of the competition. Whether its responding to a customer issue in the shortest time possible or getting a product to market faster, this type of rapid response is only going to make your company and your boss look good!

Recruiting Top Talent – Remind your boss of the last time he recruited a new sales executive. It started with 10 phone interviews then four were brought in for face to face interviews. When the candidates showed up, none of them had the appearance or polish of a sales rep. It almost seemed like there was a different person on the phone! With video, the first interview can occur visually, making it easier to find the right candidate sooner.

There are many more ways to sell your boss. If you are in a particular niche industry (healthcare, legal) there are very specific use cases to present as well. But if you begin with the four points above, you will be well on your way to selling your boss.

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Introducing Norm – The Most Interesting Guy on Video

June 22nd, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Tips & Tricks - (1 Comments)

Norm here. I use video on a daily basis and absolutely love it; although, I seem to make a lot of mistakes which can be rather embarrassing at times. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’m sharing some of these instances so you can avoid making the same mistakes. 

Yesterday, I was in the conference room for our monthly sales meeting. We were discussing the latest market trends when this new guy appears on the screen to give his thoughts. Now, not only did this guy have long blonde hair, he had his shirt unbuttoned a little too far if you know what I mean. 

So I lean over and whisper to Carl, who does this guy think he is Fabio? When I turn back, I saw a few people snickering and Dan (aka Fabio) had a really weird look on his face.

I thought to myself, could they have heard me? No way, they’re thousands of miles away and I was just whispering to Carl.  Maybe they read my lips? That seems highly unlikely – although Fabio is pretty distinct. 

Later that day, my manager calls me into his office to discuss my ‘inappropriate comment.’  Uh oh – busted. Turns out, microphones are super sensitive and can pick up even the slightest sound. Even though I was whispering, the microphone picked up my comments for every single person to hear. 

Note to self: Whispering is not really whispering on a video call.  

Anyway, the next day I called Dan over video to apologize for my behavior. I told him that sometimes I speak without really thinking and he was cool about it. He said perhaps I was just jealous because he could pull off the look and I couldn’t.  Right, that’s it.

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Video Conferencing and Retail Therapy

June 21st, 2012 | Posted by Nina Parker in Use Cases | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

Shopping can be therapeutic. From browsing clothing chains for the latest fashions to searching for the right tools in do-it-yourself hardware stores, the act of shopping can be relaxing and even fun. Sometimes we shop for things we don’t need because we like the experience; the layout of the store, the decor, or a courteous staff member.

In challenging economic times, brick-and-mortar retailers face more competition than ever, so the pressure is on to stand out from the crowd and get customers back in the door. To get an edge, some retailers are turning to video conferencing solutions on the sales floor or behind the scenes to improve customer service, assist in merchandise management, and enhance internal communication.

Video conferencing, when paired with a cloud-based managed service, creates realistic, in-person meeting experiences that translate well to the retail environment. Retail is all about the face-to-face, personalized exchanges that cannot be replicated with online shopping or catalogs. Video improves the in-store customer and employee experiences in the following ways:

Access to remote staff – A customer in a consumer electronics store may have a question about a new computer software application that can best be answered by an expert in a remote location. Or, the details of a product may need further clarification, but in a different language. Video is the ideal way for customers to get the right answer right away, while not having to leave the store’s premises, or engage in an impersonal audio call with a call center. In addition, the store saves money by not retaining specialized employees at each physical location.

Inventory management – When video is used among employees at disparate corporate locations, internal communication is greatly enhanced. One of the most delicate and important components of any successful retail establishment is an effective strategy for inventory control – keeping the right balance of products in stock at all times. With face-to-face communication among the staff at warehouses, corporate locations and store sites facilitated, there is a real opportunity to create an efficient inventory strategy, and store revenue may increase as a result.

Store connectivity –Employee turnover is a major concern for retailers. In addition, operational efficiencies can make or break any major chain or even mom and pop shop. Video can be used to effectively improve store operations and relations by creating in-person meeting experiences that unite a diverse and dynamic employee base. In addition, video can be used within and between retail branch locations to facilitate team meetings and create new employee incentive programs. Video also can provide headquarters with faster access to sales reports and employee information.

The right video conferencing solution can provide immeasurable benefits to retail establishments looking to gain a competitive advantage and attract customers. When video calls are managed by a third-party that specializes in making video equipment easy to use, the investment in technology quickly pays for itself with the revenue from happy customers that enjoy shopping in your store and keep coming back for their quick shopping fix.

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The Rise of Social Collaboration

June 20th, 2012 | Posted by Adam Kaiser in Collaboration | Industry News - (0 Comments)

The last year has been quite interesting with a constantly shifting landscape of social media, visual collaboration and unified communications. Social collaboration, a combination of these, is becoming a significant trend and driving the behavior of key manufacturers and software companies. At the same time, businesses of all sizes are beginning to see social collaboration as a key component of their communications strategy.

Point in case, Cisco announced Cisco WebEx Social earlier this week. Originally marketed under the Cisco Quad brand, WebEx Social is an attempt at 2 key things: 1) Expand the incredibly well known Webex brand into the social enterprise space and 2) Create a “hub” for an organization’s collaboration efforts. At the same time, there are rumors of Microsoft looking to acquire Yammer, another provider of social enterprise software.

Cisco and Microsoft are following suit behind Salesforce.com’s continued expansion of their Chatter social platform, Jive Software’s IPO and popularity (another social software company), and about a dozen or so smaller companies vying for a company’s social business.

The key trend emerging is about interaction and communication. As organizations continue to explore social collaboration, they have to ask themselves a key question. What kind of interactions do we want to foster? Organizations can either focus on internal communications by making sure employees can collaborate in the most effective way possible. Or, they can expand those interactions outside the company, making collaboration with partners, vendors and customers possible.

With those questions answered, a company can look to implement the aforementioned “hub.” With this in place, employees have a single starting point for all of their interactions; they can interact with people through IM, chat, and ultimately launch a web conferencing session, voice call, or video conference. This level of integration provides a seamless way for employees to move from one form of collaboration to another. It provides a new meaning for unified communications and will help drive adoption of the technology in addition to foster a team environment.

At the end of the day, all of these technologies are pretty amazing. But, what are the true business benefits? How do employee interactions increase productivity and aid the bottom line?

For one, the cliché “two minds are better than one” holds true; employee interactions with partners, customers and other employees increase productivity through knowledge sharing. As employees interact, they share different tips, think creatively and produce ideas that can improve products or processes and ultimately drive true innovation. All of these aspects have a direct, and dramatic, impact on a firm’s bottom line.

In the coming weeks we will explore in more detail how these different types of interactions can improve an organization’s performance.  Stay tuned!

This post is part of a series covering the benefits of social collaboration within an organization.

Part Two: Unified Communications, Unified People
Part Three: The Power of Business Partnerships
Part Four: Using Collaboration to Increase Customer Lifetime Value

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