Computerworld

Kiwi businesses challenged when unlocking video conferencing potential

Businesses still not seeing true benefit due to limited access and stigmas attached to video conferencing.

Organisations across New Zealand, and the wider Asia Pacific region, are still challenged when realising the full potential of video collaboration, according to recent industry findings.

The global study, commissioned by Polycom and conducted by Quocirca, LTD, found more than 90 percent of those who regularly use video to collaborate are experiencing “higher productivity, better teamwork, financial savings and reduced travel expenses.”

According to the findings, over 80 percent directly link their fiscal savings to making faster business decisions and improving employee work/life balance.

"The value of most networking technologies tends to increase disproportionately the greater the numbers of individuals connected,” says Rob Bamforth, of research and analysis house, Quocirca.

“Video conferencing is no exception. Moreover, increasing usage also generates more familiarity and comfort with the whole experience.

“Encouraging a culture of video adoption would therefore seem to benefit both the individual and the organisation.”

Although the survey uncovered the many benefits of using video collaboration, barriers to broad adoption still exist with one of every two people surveyed suggesting that having more access to video would increase use.

Yet very few organisations across New Zealand have broadly rolled out video to desktop and mobile users, and typically have limited availability of video to the larger conference rooms.

Forty-five percent of end users surveyed frequently use their mobile devices, such as tablets, laptops and mobile phones, to join a video conference, and 35 percent of digital natives—workers who are 25 years or younger and will define the future of work—use video frequently and from anywhere.

These numbers are expected to grow as the amount of mobile devices increases and organisations continue to offer more flexible working arrangements.

“The way people work is changing,” adds Jim Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer, Polycom. “Mobility, BYOD, social and collaboration solutions like video conferencing combined with the desire to reduce real estate costs are causing businesses around the world to rethink the traditional office setting.

“We’re seeing the measurable impact video collaboration is having, but with just a fraction of organisations around the globe using video regularly, the results of this survey illustrate its potential in any work environment and across every industry.”

Across the Asia-Pacific region, executives (86%) and managers (89%) lead the use of video within an organisation, and of those surveyed globally, APAC leads in the use of video for executive management meetings (66%) and recruitment (30%).

Additionally across APAC, 52% of senior executives, 37% of distributed team members, and 31% of remote workers were found to have embraced the technology more than everyone else.

Meanwhile travel cost savings is still the number one benefit for video use in APAC with 87% citing it as medium to high priority while 70% of those surveyed cited an increase in the use of video in day to day business with more than 90% of APAC companies surveyed accessing meetings through room based solutions.