In today’s connected reality, business prosperity relies on enhanced collaboration between organizational departments and teams. Virtually every large and medium-sized organization – both global and local – uses advanced collaboration tools to transfer knowledge, communicate with remote employees, brainstorm with colleagues, and more.
So how is organizational knowledge transferred effectively, without communication lapses? What is the best way to conduct meetings with employees and managers from all corners of the world? There’s no way around using communication solutions that facilitate borderless cooperation. These solutions include video conferencing features, smart meeting room tools, and state-of-the-art audio video peripherals.
A Cost-Effective Investment for All
In the past, investing in meeting room and video conferencing equipment was a costly affair. Organizations would spend substantial sums on hardware that would enable optimal audio and video connectivity. Yet things have changed dramatically. Today, it is possible to find effective and inexpensive software licensing solutions, which allow organizations to benefit from high-level collaboration both in meeting rooms and personal offices. This means that even small and medium organizations with tighter budgets can easily upgrade their teams’ collaborative efforts, and benefit from advantages that used to cater primarily to large enterprises.
How is this accomplished? Where do we begin?
There are countless available organizational collaboration solutions, each one fits different organizational workflows. In order to choose the one that’s right for your organization, answer the following questions:
1. What are the organization’s current communication needs?
The organization’s needs depend not only on its size, but also on its work culture and different workflows.
Some modern collaboration and video conferencing platforms provide powerful performance and user-friendly interface, the most prominent of which are Zoom, Webex, and BlueJeans.
These solutions are offered in tailored packages that include different amounts of licenses and different hardware options. These solutions include a monthly license fee and, optionally, audio-video hardware according to the organization’s needs.
Since truly effective collaboration is achieved not via licenses and hardware alone but requires additional ongoing services, organizations of all sizes should opt for solutions that include comprehensive collaboration support.
If scalability is a consideration (as it should be), many high-quality collaboration solutions are designed to support dynamic business needs. Organizations can pay for several licenses at first, and, if the need arises, acquire additional licenses at a fixed, foreseeable price.
2. Which collaboration platform is currently used throughout your organization?
Many of today’s available platforms can build on existing ones and expand their functionalities, which is a major upside for organizations that are reluctant to switch platforms. Platforms such as Zoom, Webex, and BlueJeans, for example, can seamlessly integrate with many widely used yet limited collaboration platforms, and provide them with enhanced capabilities.
3. What are your current organizational communication challenges?
When it comes to effective communication, organizations face different types of challenges. If your organization’s major challenge is technical – that is, if your workflow is hindered by frequent disconnections, by poor audio-video quality, or by various problems joining meetings – you should opt for platforms that are considered highly seamless and reliable. Yet if your major challenge is low adoption rates of collaboration solutions among your team members, make sure you choose a highly user friendly and intuitive platform that guarantees that the chosen platform is used across the entire organization, with optimal user satisfaction.
4. What is your organization’s budget?
Collaboration suites are available at a wide price range and on a modular basis.
Nevertheless, whether you choose limited or extensive suites, we recommend making sure they are available in a SaaS model. The SaaS model enables you to pay for your software license on a monthly basis, with no installation costs.
5. Would you consider switching hardware?
Some solutions integrate smoothly with your existing hardware and infrastructure, while others require dedicated hardware. Most leading video collaboration platforms interoperate with popular video conference systems such as Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, Creston, Extron, and Logitech, so you don’t even have to part with your favorite hardware.
After reflecting on these 5 questions, conduct market research: there are countless video conference solutions out there. Market trends are disruptive, and today’s innovative products are tomorrow’s relics. We recommend choosing cost-effective and dynamic products, which will support you throughout your organization’s business growth. You can begin with an independent market research: check out leading vendor websites, read manuals, rankings and critiques. If you don’t have the time or knowledge to conduct independent research, you can hire a professional consulting company to analyze your organization’s activity and tailor the most appropriate, cost-effective solutions for your needs.
