Category: Video Streaming

IT companies can use video conferencing in a wide variety of potential applications ranging from its use in IT support services to helping the company communicate with its different branches that are in multiple international locations.

Knowing what video conferencing can do and how you can utilize it to its fullest is an advantage that should not be ignored.

Video conferencing and customer service

Conference calls for IT support via services like Blue Jeans has become an increasingly prevalent tool in the customer service arsenal of various tech companies.

Sometimes some customers have a hard time setting up whatever product they purchased and they require the assistance of a customer service agent to do it. However, there are cases where even the best tech support rep is unable to understand what has gone wrong without some visual cues.

This is where video conferencing tech support enters into the picture, through the use of a web cam or even the customer’s phone, a tech support representative will be able to take a look at what they are doing and analyze exactly what the customer had been doing wrong.

Visual analysis is simply superior to blindly gropping in the dark along with the client.

This is one of the reasons why the use of video conferencing has become an increasingly popular customer service tools since it helps to prevent instances of frustration between both a customer and a tech support representative as well as saves on the amount of time spent figuring out what the problem is.

Connecting with different departments and branches

One of the issues that IT companies immediately encounter as they expand into new markets is the problem of properly conducting an inter-department meeting to discuss potential strategies.

The sheer amount of different departments across multiple countries make such a meeting difficult to achieve and this is why the use of video conferencing has grown to be a much needed aspect of present day IT company operations.

Through the use of present day video conferencing technology, people from various branches and departments in the enterprise can connect with one another via a conference call and thereby facilitate a meeting that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

Conducting interviews

Another advantage of IT companies utilizing video conferencing is that this enables HR departments to conduct interviews regardless of a person’s location.

Some IT companies such as Microsoft and Apple hire professionals from places like India, Japan and the Philippines. Physically going to these sites and conducting the interviews can be a costly endeavor, especially when you take into consideration the cost of renting out an appropriate venue.

This is why conducting a video conference interview is a great cost saving measure since all you would need to do is send the interviewee a link and have them click it an appointed time for the interview to commence.

As a result, you could have an interview with a potential employee for the company from the comfort of your office.

Training sessions

Another advantage of utilizing video conferencing in IT companies is its use in various training sessions. Technically, a trainer doesn’t need to be in the same room as an employee to help them understand new processes and systems.

With the virtual systems currently in place as well as the capacity of various programs to help a teacher view the progress of students with their training in real-time, the physical presence of a teacher is not essential.

IT companies can take advantage of this by implementing training sessions that make use of video conferencing so that a trainer could help teach batches of students from multiple different locations at the same time. The company could save thousands of dollars that would have gone into the transportation and accommodation costs of the trainer.

Collaboration

Collaboration across multiple departments is also better facilitated through the use of video conferencing. The problem with emails and phone calls is that they are extremely limited when it comes to enabling multiple people to collaborate and discuss a particular idea.

The back-and-forth interaction required for such an endeavor often requires people to be in the same room; however, this requirement can be circumvented if the people involved utilized video conferencing. All they would need to do is set up the right video cameras and speakers, and it would seem as if they were there in the same room as their counterparts.

All in all, video conferencing holds a lot of untapped potential that IT companies are only now utilizing.

As the technology progresses, it is likely that video conferencing will become a commonplace technology to the point that people may start using it instead of physically going to work.

Updating software is a pain. It’s supposed to automatically update, but it usually doesn’t. Meanwhile, your computer or network probably is vulnerable to the latest Internet virus. Then there are the updates you don’t want because you’re working, and you don’t have time to stop and restart your computer.

Things can be even worse when you’re dealing with video conferencing software. Does everyone on the call have the latest update? Probably not. This can cause real problems. Who cares about a pretty new graphic interface, when the video feed goes black on three screens right before a presentation? All because one software update suddenly made Skype incompatible with OS X.

If only there was a way to bridge all the different software programs on local computers or networks regardless of version to a single video conferencing solution. Then you wouldn’t have to call your local IT guy who’s afraid of Macs or always wants to trouble shoot over the phone. You know, the guy who can’t get the Flash plugin to work right in Firefox?

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Business meetings are an old standby, as integral to most companies as a smile and a handshake. They’re the basic unit that measures how business gets done. But they’re also time-consuming and often inefficient, especially when it comes to getting multiple people in the same room. Travel time and travel expenses can drain a budget, especially for small businesses.

A survey conducted by the New York Times found that small businesses are hit disproportionately hard by travel and meeting expenses: they often find themselves sending fewer people longer distances, and that time lost to travel adds up quickly when you don’t have many people to spare.

But what could replace something as simple and unavoidable as a business meeting? Thanks to the Internet, there’s a new possibility out there: video conferencing.

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