On Monday, 4 March 2013, Softline IT held a presentation for clients at the Hi-Tech Park business center in Kyiv, dedicated to the advantages of telepresence technology. With the help of a Cisco expert, the company also dispelled the myths associated with it.
For many years, Softline IT has been Cisco's partner in implementing videoconferencing technologies in Ukraine. One of the key developments is telepresence. It is a set of technologies that allow users to feel present in a place other than their physical location. The main advantage of the technology is that it replaces face-to-face communication more fully than any other. This makes it possible to use it in situations that previously always required the personal presence of the participants. This applies especially to high-level meetings, such as board meetings and negotiations with the heads of foreign companies.
Serhii Balashuk, CEO of Softline IT, has calculated that a videoconferencing system can save a company of a thousand people up to UAH 5 million a year by cutting travel expenses. Often, too, what matters is not money but the time and energy of leading specialists, who with the help of new technologies can be "present" in several places at once. "In a year or two, no commercial organization will be able to work without videoconferencing technologies," he is convinced. And combined with other advanced IT technologies, such as business automation and electronic document management systems, a company's efficiency can be increased 8 to 10 times.
In practice, however, businesspeople are still in no hurry to take full advantage of this technology. Snorre Kjesbu, Vice President of Cisco, attributes this to myths that have spread in the business community in recent years. Softline IT presents his view, in which he debunks them.
Myth No. 1. "It is very expensive and available only to large companies"
Telepresence videoconferencing technology allows a group of people to collaborate, solve problems and improve their projects in a live, dynamic, real-time format. At the same time, telepresence systems are available to any organization. Advances in technology, especially cloud technology, allow companies around the world to take advantage of videoconferencing. Realizing how beneficial videoconferencing is for business and how quickly investments in this technology pay off, small organizations are increasingly deploying it to expand their collaboration capabilities.
Myth No. 2. "Budget video services on the Internet are quite sufficient"
Mass-market video services lose out to professional videoconferencing on parameters that matter to any company, such as security, quality, flexibility and versatility. Providers of amateur video always promise a realistic picture, but in practice, in most cases, you get a poor image accompanied by indistinct audio. And while this is acceptable for ordinary users, since these are free programs, for doing business it is an ineffective option.
Myth No. 3. "Software versus hardware"
Market trends point to a choice in favor of software-based videoconferencing, but you should not fixate on choosing just one. We live in a global, non-stop economy in which software and hardware video solutions must interoperate and provide users with greater capabilities, mobility and the experience they need. Choosing exclusively software or only hardware solutions limits the possibilities for interaction; what matters is the right combination of technologies and broad connectivity options, whether from a computer, from a conference room or on the go.
Myth No. 4. "Videoconferencing is very complicated"
Videoconferencing deployment models are designed so that they can be adapted to the needs of end users and technical support staff. Thanks to flexible deployment schemes such as cloud, on-premises or hybrid technologies, rolling out teleconferencing infrastructure poses no particular difficulties. Recent innovations have simplified the process of organizing videoconferences for users inside and outside the organization, and have made it possible to connect from mobile devices and share content in real time.
Myth No. 5. "Videoconferencing is only needed by those who travel often"
The potential return on investment in videoconferencing goes far beyond travel. Video can be used to optimize virtually all business processes, which will ultimately bring you quantifiable, measurable results. Video helps strengthen partnerships, shortens time to market, makes it possible to hire remote employees and to resolve emerging problems promptly. There are videoconferencing applications for virtually every business unit, from management, sales and marketing to HR and research and development.