Expanding Uses of Video Conferencing System
Video conferencing has turned out to be a ubiquitous collaboration tool for companies that want to smoothly manage all their communication with employees, vendors and customers. With every passing day more and more companies are making use of this excellent collaboration tool. A recent survey has revealed the growing use of video conferencing tools among businesses. The survey states that about 39% of the businesses use these tools on a weekly basis, 21% on a monthly basis and 14% use these collaboration tools every few months. Majority of the businesses also cited that they the use of video conferencing system lead to higher productivity, quicker decision making and a huge cut on their travelling expenses.
Video conferencing systems have found their way into larger business houses as well as the smaller companies. The biggest beneficiaries of this technology have been the smaller businesses as they have been able to manage their day to day collaboration needs under a small budget. They have been able to edge past their competitors without spending a fortune and even manage their remote workers without having to invest much on their communication infrastructure.
Video conferencing systems are now being used government agencies for efficient communication among officials and dignitaries. Advancement in the government arena has proved to the world that collaboration tools can actually be used of effective management of agencies that till date used outdated technologies. US government has always been a frontrunner in using the latest communication tools and they have now taken it to a new level by implementing the video conferencing systems.
Government agencies in the US are trying to use video conferencing to take democracy to a new level. They are using the latest video collaboration tools to carry out important meetings that has a huge bearing on the policy of giving voice to all those who matter in the policy or decision making processes. Video conferencing systems like Microsoft Lync or Skype are being used for better communication among local council members and other government bodies.
Several technology infrastructure and platform providers are offering the latest network services as well as quality devices in order to connect all the concerned individuals in a government project. Now the local governments are better placed to engage all the officials and even manage their statewide or nationwide employees. Video conferencing systems are being hailed for providing end-to-end communication solutions. Since, this is a relatively new tool for collaboration, there are a few things that every user should keep in mind before, during and after a video conferencing session to make it a complete success.
Here is a list of key points to keep in mind:
Preparation and planning –All the participants have to make some basic preparations prior to attending a video conference. They should aware of the conferencing schedules and keep all the related documents and files ready before going for the meeting. Every participant should be clear about the agenda of the meeting as that would help them make optimal use of such interactions or meetings.
Stay clear of all other commitments or unfinished jobs – The participants should ensure that they have no other pending tasks before attending the meeting. This would help them to concentrate better and not excuse themselves from the meeting to attend to some other important pending tasks.
Check the equipments – It is better to check all the equipments like microphone, web cam and the system prior to proceeding with the meeting. Technical glitches during the meeting can be pretty frustrating for all the participants.
Participate without any hesitation – Video conferencing is just the virtual extension of face-face interactions, so it is important to shed all inhibitions and participate without any hesitation.