Upgrade Your Video Conferencing to Save Money on Travel

The clarity and speed of video conferencing has improved dramatically. Upgrade the A/V in your boardroom to impress your clients — and save money on travel.  

Open communication is one of the hallmarks of a good business relationship. Historically, that means setting aside a significant portion of your budget for travel to client sites, vendor meetings and pulling teams together, but today’s advanced video conferencing platforms provide a fast and high-quality connection between individuals in remote locations. Businesses of all sizes are seeing the value of using video conferencing to work through tough business challenges, make recommendations or simply to catch up with team members who are on the road. Video conferencing has been plagued with slow connections, poor quality and difficult technology, but today’s solutions are dramatically better and provide a true alternative to business travel.

Support for Remote Workers

It’s not unusual for businesses to have at least some of their staff working remotely, either from home or from offices in a different state. That can cause significant communication challenges as you attempt to manage remotely or build collaboration. Face-to-face meetings are still often the best way to ensure that you’re not reading nuance into a conversation, and simple phone calls may not be enough to communicate complex business problems and work through solutions. This type of communication builds a sense of shared mission and helps enhance relationships between individuals that allow trust to grow.

Tune Into Non-Verbal Communications

Nearly everyone has been stuck on an audio conference call with more than 5 participants, and it can be nearly impossible to understand who is speaking and what they are trying to share. By the time your mind processes who is speaking and what their role is in the conversation, it’s likely that they have already moved on to the next speaker. With both audio and video, you’re better able to read the non-verbal cues that are coming through loud and clear from individuals on the other side of a computer screen.

Keep Participants Engaged in the Conversation

Ever wonder what people are doing while they’re listening to an audio conference call? They might be multi-tasking on another project, checking email or texting their family members. When you provide video conferencing capabilities for your staff and clients, you’re showing that you are willing to invest in the conversation and take the time to have a true conversation — just as if you were meeting together in the same room. This can offer a higher level of acceptance from clients and improve relationships with staff members and vendors, too.

Easily Share Visuals to Reduce Confusion

Everything from building a website to designing a car can be done between remote teams with today’s screen-sharing and state-of-the-art collaboration tools. Share control of your desktop or laptop, focus on a single communicator or draw complex figures with virtual whiteboards or team workspaces. Having teams in the same room may still be best for the most complex communications, but as your team gains comfort level you might be surprised how well groups work together remotely.

While it’s unlikely that you can eliminate all business travel from your budget, video conferencing is a great way to reduce the need for routine trips while still showing clients and team members that you’re invested in the conversation. When you’re ready to upgrade the audio and video conferencing capabilities in your boardroom or meeting rooms, contact the professionals at ICS today at 281-819-5829. We have been providing superior service to businesses in the San Antonio, Houston and Austin areas since 1981.