Video Conferencing: Importance, Advantages and Disadvantages

17/05/2021 1 By indiafreenotes

Video conferencing solutions are a major part of the corporate world today. The working environment in today’s world is moving towards a model where multiple offices and remote workers are becoming a prominent part of most corporates which creates the requirement of a fast, reliable, and flexible mode of communication like video conferencing.

Video conferencing is the method of visual communication in which face-to-face, live communication takes place without requiring any transportation. Video conferencing erases the limitations of distances and helps in real-time communication with the help of the internet. It is widely used by the companies to interact with their employees and clients within the country and overseas.

Importance

Improve Value and Reduce Redundancy

Companies are upgrading their legacy audio or web conferencing providers and finding more value in full video conferencing solutions that include audio conferencing, screen sharing, chat, meeting recording and event live streaming. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of maintenance and licensing for multiple vendors just adds unnecessary costs and complexity for the end users of the solution.

Increase Communication Reliability

Video conferencing provides a fast and secure way to communicate with your teams. As video continues to evolve into a business-critical function, it’s important to prioritize enterprise-class service reliability and support reliability in your solution.

Enable the Digital Workforce

Video conferencing software not only creates a more collaborative meeting culture in your organization, it’s a foundation for enabling today’s digital workforce. Video meetings help teams maintain human connections, irrespective of physical location, which speeds up decision making and improves your ability to collaborate globally.

Rally Communication and Culture

Today’s workforce prioritizes mobility, flexibility and modern forms of communication over private offices and seclusion.  Bringing remote workers face-to-face with in-office employees can boost productivity on both ends and lower travel costs at the same time. Comparing travel costs and costs of video conferencing shows that video conferencing is a true winner.

Simplify Management and Usability

Teams need access to the collaboration solutions that let them meet via audio conferencing, video conferencing, screen sharing and real-time instant messaging. But relying on too many desperate solutions can overcomplicate everything. By deploying a consolidated online meeting solution with a simple UI that is centrally managed, teams can focus on their meetings instead of being burdened with  troubleshooting every meeting.

Advantages

Cost Cutting: Video conferencing helps in reducing the travel costs incurred by a company manifolds. It allows the company to interact with its employees and clients, and share screens, files, HD audios and videos without any hassle.

Happier Employees and Higher Job Retention: Thanks to video conferencing, companies can now let their employees work from home without sacrificing communication. Studies report 56% lower turnover rates among telecommuters. The overall job satisfaction increases when people don’t have to go to office every day. Students can also get sufficient sleep and still be on time for their online lecture or seminar.

Enhances Productivity: Video conferencing prevents back logging of work, as it allows the employees to discuss the problems with the concerned person without any delay.  Easy availability of communication prevents communication gaps; thus, lessening the chances of pitfalls in the work.

No barrier of time: Video conferencing erases the barriers of time and place by allowing a group of people to discuss things with those working in distant locations without moving from their location. This allows a smooth workflow in the company without any breaks and hitches.

Disadvantages

As it the case with any technology, video conferencing also doesn’t come without a few caveats and disadvantages. Even though most people would correctly argue that when it comes to video conferencing solutions, the advantages weigh out the disadvantages but in order to have a well-developed outlook on anything, it is important to see both sides of the argument.

  • Even the best systems can suffer from technical problems: No technology is impenetrable to glitches and problems. While most live video conferencing vendors provide 24×7 support for any corporate system they install, glitches can still happen, which wastes a lot of time and resources for the company.
  • It still lacks the personal touch of face-to-face communication: While most conferencing solutions by live video conferencing vendors come really close to emulating the experience of personal face-to-face communication online, there’s still a small gap between the effectiveness of video conferencing and a face-to-face meeting. Most corporates understand this and usually also have face-to-face meetings between teams on important issues. However, whereas these meetings used to be the primary method of inter-organization communication, video conferencing service providers have definitely reduced the frequency of these meetings in general.
  • Technical issues: The malfunction of any of the hardware or software component can hamper the smooth functioning of the work. To rectify the issue, skilled technical people are required. This may delay the work and add to the maintenance cost of the company.
  • Leads to misjudgments: A meeting or an interview via video conferencing can sometimes lead to wrong decisions and selections, as many a time it becomes difficult to access the gestures and personality of a person through this virtual medium.
  • Financial strain: Installing a video conferencing system can be a financial burden for a small scale company, as it is a bit expensive technology and requires regular maintenance.
  • It has a high initial cost: Setting up an enterprise-grade video conferencing solution is often an expensive task as most solutions require specialized hardware that also needs to be set up, often at multiple locations. Considering the quality of gear and the expertise needed to set up the entire system, it is natural that the process has a high initial cost. However, most corporates are more than willing to pay the costs as it is recovered within a pretty short time of operating.