Listen to Your Customer!

May 10th, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Telepresence | Use Cases | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

The social era has had a dramatic impact on the way customers purchase and companies promote their products.  Customer feedback is becoming ever important and now is critical to an organization’s long term success.  We’ve seen many organizations stray farther and farther away from customer needs as they fail to adapt to the changing competitive landscape.  So how can companies ensure they stay in touch with customer needs and ahead of future competitors?

Simple:  Listen to your customers and then listen some more.

Your best customers are a great source of information.  Account representatives and sales managers and even marketing managers should pause before focusing on the next sale and examine customer satisfaction.  Start by asking why your customers selected your organization and what the major benefits are.  Then distinguish if there are any products or services that are unavailable but would make their job easier.   Above all, organizations need to ensure their products and services are perfectly aligned with their customers’ needs.   If there is any doubt, it’s time to hit the drawing board.

Customers love to share their thoughts and options; but often times, they are hesitant because they are unsure how their feedback will be received or if it will simply fall upon deaf ears.   Connecting over video not only shows the customer you are interested in what they have to say, but the face-to-face interaction helps establish trust.   With trust, comes more candid feedback that could potentially reveal a product flaw or, even better, an untapped market need.

As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change itself and organizations need to stay flexible in order to survive. Collaborating with customers not only provides visibility into future trends but helps create a sustainable competitive advantage.  Technological advances now make it possible to connect to any customer with a webcam; so pick up the camera and give your customers a video call.

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Developing a Video Culture – Part IV

May 7th, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Telepresence | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

Power to the People! 

In a world where instant messaging, email and online audio meetings reign supreme; shifting an organization’s culture to adopt visual collaboration or unified communication solutions can be extremely challenging.  Implementing a new technology is a significant organizational change that, if underestimated, can produce disappointing results.  There are several key steps an organization must take in order to effectively drive adoption throughout the organization – including proper communication and training. This is the fourth post in a five-part series covering the successful development of a video culture within an organization.  Read part one here.

People are inherently resistant to any major change; they take comfort in the status quo because of fear associated with the uncertainty of something new.  A major organizational change, such as the implementation of a visual collaboration solution, changes the way colleagues interact with each other and perform their daily tasks.  This shift in the daily routine moves users out of their comfort zone by expecting them to learn something new; which if not addressed, can produce significant resistance. 

It is imperative for senior management to address the impact that visual collaboration has on their employees.  Frequent and open communications regarding the reasons for change and expected benefits for both the organization and the end user are a necessity. If organizations do not address the uncertainty around a new technology the resulting resistance can be insurmountable, leading to an abandoned solution. 

Those familiar with video conferencing applications, such as Skype or Face Time, are more apt to accept enterprise video than people who have never used video before.  Many people take comfort in security of email and phone calls because others cannot read their facial expressions.  Therefore, new users can initially become overwhelmed by the face-to-face exposure video provides.  Proper training along with open dialogue can help address some of the uncertainty associated with switching to video communications.  Training should include several different topics; such as operational procedures, best practices and video etiquette. 

While most users understand basic functionality of video equipment; they lack the expertise to manage the infrastructure required for effective visual collaboration.  A team of video professionals, who operate the back-end video environment and provide technical support when needed, is crucial to any video environment.  Advanced video operators should proactively monitor video meetings to allow participants to focus on the matters at hand rather than the collaboration technology.  Therefore, organizations must either locate the right technical support staff or partner with a video services provider for access to advanced technical support. 

This post is part of a five-part series covering the successful development of a video culture within an organization.

Part One: Because the boss said so is not enough!
Part Two: It’s more than just bits and bytes
Part Three: P is for Process, that’s good enough for me
Part Five: Driving Usage & Adoption

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Clouds Are Easy on the Eyes and the Pocket

May 4th, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Cloud Services | Telepresence | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

You’re thinking of investing in a visual collaboration solution or upgrading the existing deployment; however, the equipment and management costs are adding up quickly. 

While you know the value visual communication provides; you need to justify the expense to your boss.  Unfortunately, all the different components are making it difficult to show a return on investment.  

Enter the cloud.  

Organizations can have access to multi-point bridging, firewall traversal, recording and streaming features without the complicated, not to mention costly, equipment.  This eliminates the frustrating “figure it out” period and enables organizations to realize the ROI of their video investment almost instantaneously. 

Additionally, instead of a significant upfront investment in network and equipment; organizations can spread out the operation costs through monthly expenses.  Not only does this allow organizations to budget more effectively; it shifts the video investment from a capital expenditure to an operating expenditure.   As a result, organizations can fully deduct the costs in the period they are incurred instead of having to worry about depreciation. 

Start realizing the benefits of your video investment by saying goodbye to upfront capital investments and hello to manageable monthly payments! 

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Why Take Video to the Cloud? 

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Control System Programming: The Unsung Hero of Collaboration

May 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Audio Visual Integration | Telepresence - (0 Comments)

Many people take for granted the ease of which they collaborate in a conference room.  With the touch of a button participants can switch between content from a PC, projector or interactive whiteboard; mute and unmute microphones; and pan, tilt, or zoom the camera on a video conferencing system.  The technology simply fades into the background while meeting participants focus on the business matters at hand.  Thinking about all of the different components required for effective collaboration can be exhausting; so, how is it that collaboration can be so easy and so effortless?

Simple:  the room’s control system programming.  The backbone of any audio visual integrated room, the control system provides an easy to use interface to manage the room’s functionality.   Instead of having one remote to operate the telepresence system, one to operate the plasma display and yet another remote to operate the projector or interactive whiteboard; organizations can simply invest in a Crestron or AMX Control System.

Gone are the days where participants have to spend fifteen minutes prior to a meeting figuring out how everything works.  With the help of expert programmers, organizations can create a standardized user interface to operate all of their conference rooms in all of their locations.  From a small room with a projector to an immersive telepresence room with three cameras and five displays; the control system ensures participants can collaborate effortlessly.

Advanced programming also allows organizations to push technology boundaries by customizing the video experience to fit their unique requirements.   A custom control program can be designed to display content from multiple different sources, arrange participants in a particular order on screen or manage the speaking privileges of numerous participants.   Essentially, an organization can use a control system to create a visual collaboration solution that is perfectly aligned with its needs.

So, the next time you have an effective collaboration session; give your control system a slight nod, a high five or even a fist bump – just show the little guy some love, he deserves it.

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Developing a Video Culture – Part III

May 1st, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Telepresence | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

P is for Process, that’s good enough for me

In a world where instant messaging, email and online audio meetings reign supreme; shifting an organization’s culture to adopt visual collaboration or unified communication solutions can be extremely challenging.  Implementing a new technology is a significant organizational change that, if underestimated, can produce disappointing results.  There are several key steps an organization must take in order to effectively drive adoption throughout the organization – including properly defining processes. This is the third post in a five-part series covering the successful development of a video culture within an organization.  Read part one here.

Implementing a new technology has a dramatic effect on the way employees do their job.  Visual collaboration sessions shift from scheduling a conference call to scheduling video conference which is far more complex in nature. To join a conference call, users simply dial a phone number and connect to an audio bridge; however, with a video call, participants have to worry about firewalls, network exchanges and more.  Learning all of these new processes can be extremely challenging; especially when users are unfamiliar with the technology.

Therefore, it is important to define and structure the processes required for effective collaboration in an easy to use and repeatable manner. Prior to implementation, stakeholders should work with video professionals to develop the necessary processes and procedures end users need to utilize visual collaboration solutions.  This includes how to connect to a video conference, displaying different types of content, changing audio and zoom settings and who to contact in the event of an issue. Documentation should be disseminated to all end users and a reference guide should be located in each conference room.

When designing processes and procedures it is important to define both the required steps and the expected outcomes. Users are more apt to follow a process when they understand the desired outcomes.  For example, pre-testing the video connection of a system on a different network can help prevent connectivity delays at the start of a meeting.  If users understand the role of pre-testing a network connection they are more likely to do so before an important meeting thereby increasing the likelihood of a successful collaboration session.

Properly defined and structured processes also need to be repeatable in order to be effective. Consistently having a new step or a new challenge creates a sense of frustration among users as it highlights their lack of expertise. Users should be able to replicate the process effortlessly; regardless of their background or expertise. This provides end users with a sense of familiarity which can help them overcome the fear and frustration associated with learning something new.

This post is part of a five-part series covering the successful development of a video culture within an organization.

Part One: Because the boss said so is not enough!
Part Two: It’s more than just bits and bytes
Part Four: Power to the People
Part Five: Driving Usage & Adoption

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