Cloud video conferencing providers are popping up everywhere, each one promising the best service with the best features. Comparing all of the different offerings can become quite overwhelming. How do you determine which company is the best fit for your organization? Here are a few things to help narrow down the options:

Expertise: Video environments consist of several different components; endpoints, infrastructure, desktop software clients, tablets and complete audio visual integrated rooms. Look for service provider with a wide range of expertise which allows them to assist with all aspects of your video environment. This eliminates the frustrating finger-pointing when you are having an issue with one of the components.

Adaptability: An organization’s initial video needs typically differ significantly from its future video needs; therefore, select a video service provider that has a wide range of offerings. This helps build a comprehensive video environment and enables the solution to adapt to an organization’s changing needs.

Experience: The best type of experience comes from running a true production environment for a customer. A service provider might have a strong background in monitoring network activity and hardware, but have they managed the day-to-day operations of a corporation’s video environment?

Security: Sensitive data is continuously transmitted during video meetings; therefore, a service provider’s security measures are paramount to ensure this data is not intercepted. The network should be encrypted in addition to containing firewalls. Furthermore, non-disclosure agreements should accompany any comprehensive managed video service.

Attitude: Most likely, you will have a very close relationship with your video service provider; therefore, selecting a company with a customer oriented attitude is important. The best service providers realize that every organizations needs are different and will customize their offerings to best fit their needs.

While only you can determine which service provider is right for your organization; these tips can help provide a foundation for the selection process.

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.