Are you doing enough to embrace video collaboration?

Despite more than 80% of businesses experiencing higher productivity from video collaboration tools, many firms are still not reaping the full benefits of video.

According to a global study by by Polycom and Quocirca, LTD, more than 90% of businesses that use video to collaborate experience higher productivity, better teamwork as well as financial savings. Furthermore, 80% of them are able to directly link it to improved work life balance of their employees as well as making faster business decisions.

However, most organisations limit video conferencing to their larger conference rooms, while only a handful have rolled it out to desktop and mobile users. Half of those surveyed suggested more access to video would increase its use.

"The value of most networking technologies tends to increase disproportionately the greater the numbers of individuals connected,” said 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.”

ALSO READ:How HR can make the most of video contentLocal leaders must do more to promote collaboration

Worldwide, organisations in Asia Pacific take the lead for adoption of video, as more than 90% of companies use it to access meetings with 86% of executives, and 89% of managers use video conferencing for meetings 66% of the time, and for recruitment 33% of the time.

The biggest benefit of this, business leaders said, is travel cost savings, with 87% of respondents giving it a medium to high priority.

The study also found video usage is expected to increase as people change the way they work and organisations increase in flexibility. Currently, 45% of users often use mobile devices to join video conferences and 35% of digital natives (workers aged 25 and below) use video frequently, regardless of platform.

“The way people work is changing. 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,” said Jim Kruger, chief marketing officer at Polycom.

“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.”

Image: Shutterstock