Video conferencing, up until a few years ago, required a fair amount of special infrastructure to pull off effectively.
You’d usually end up needing a specific room set up for video, with the camera and display hardware to run your link so that everybody on either end could see. While this did offer some benefits, it was something of an investment, and was not entirely reliable.
Web Conferencing Now
Of course, now things are different. Thanks to better broadband and video conferencing tools like ClickMeeting or Google Hangouts, anybody can participate in a video conference or web conference from their laptop, tablet or mobile device, wherever they are, and with a stable connection.
This is good news, as it means video conferencing is accessible to all businesses, no matter their size, budget, or the limitations of their office premises.
However, because it was initially something of a commitment, there are still a lot of companies who haven’t brought web conferencing into their general meeting culture yet – and these businesses are missing out.
If you are lagging behind when it comes to reaping the benefits of video and web conferencing, here are some reasons to get on board with it right away!
Flexibility
One of the biggest reasons why web conferencing can revolutionize the way you and your co-workers, partners, clients and other associates work, is the flexibility it offers.
People who prefer to work from home will no longer have to trek into the office just because they have a one hour meeting that day. You can cut down on travel between different sites. You can have meetings with clients wherever they are on the fly.
This makes you more productive, and makes everybody’s lives easier. This is just one of the benefits video conferencing has to offer.
Trust and Understanding
The reason why web and video conferencing trumps simply having a conference call, is that when you can all see each other, it is more natural to trust what other people are saying.
When you are dealing with people offshore with strong accents who have English as a second language, being able to see each other and having the ability to type chat during the meeting also makes it far easier to be certain everyone understands each other, which can make working in diverse teams a lot easier and more rewarding.
Cost Savings
The software you need to run a stable, good video conference or web conference costs very little, and you already have the hardware you need.
The software quickly pays for itself when you no longer have to provide meeting rooms, pay for travel to other sites, or even provide refreshments to people coming to your office for meetings, and the savings in terms of time can be even more substantial!
If you don’t currently do any web conferencing or have a chosen way of running these types of conference in place, you need to ask yourself why. It is inexpensive to implement these days, and can offer a huge range of benefits right off the bat!
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