HomeThe Benefits of Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing should provide a complete simulation of a
normal meeting environment, enabling both parties to see, hear and
present material, just as if they were in the same room.
Videoconferencing can speed up business process and procedures in the
same way that the fax and the e-mail have revolutionised the way we
share information.
Tangible benefits are most easily related to actual cost savings. The
most obvious quantifiable saving is the cost of travel and the cost of
the time wasted during travel.
Example
The weekly executive board meeting held between two locations saves one
company over £25,000 a year in travel, accommodation and
staff time. This is only one meeting out of hundreds of weekly
departmental meetings that are also held via videoconferencing.
This does not take into account intangible benefits, which include:
- Greatly improved communication between remote sites both within a company and between suppliers and customers
- Reduced pressure, stress and fatigue from travel
- Shorter product/project development times (this can be worth millions when it reduces time to market and/or improves the quality of the product or project)
- Reduced time of meetings as the principle often applies when visiting
- Immediacy of contact between people
- Rapid face to face resolution of urgent situations
- Ability to seize opportunities within narrow time frames
- Faster and better decision making
- Increased executive productivity
- Broadcast of key messages throughout the company
Example
A car manufacturer introduced a version of their Saloon model car into
the UK three months early due to using Videoconferencing.
Videoconferencing is just like electronic mail. It is difficult to
justify on one application. However, once the capability is in place it
is used for all kinds of applications and soon becomes a way of life in
a fast moving world where the shelf life of information is rapidly
approaching zero and the cost of bad decisions can be fatal.