There is no company that can conduct business without meetings. As per National Statistics Council, employees spend around 37 percent of their time in meetings. Meetings are held for various reasons like brainstorming, to negotiate deals, sell products and services, give a brief employees, to collaborate and strategize, etc. These meetings can take place anywhere either in the office or out of the office. It is found that meetings in person are almost three times more expensive than meetings conducted over the internet. The immense benefits of internet conferencing apart from saving costs , calls for IT companies to switch to web conferencing. Another option is to try out WooCommerce CRM Software for your software needs. Check out some of the many advantages of internet conferencing listed below:
The Advantages of Internet Conferencing
- Web conferencing has proved its effectiveness. According to a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, 55 percent of high performing companies use internet conferencing. They also indicate that the web conferencing had 29 percent impact on their profitability. Video conferences can be availed by anyone ranging from large business organizations to just about any one that owns a smart phone.
- Online conferencing saves time by almost three times. It is found that the average time spent by people traveling and attending in-person meeting takes around 53 hours and 24 minutes for five member meeting according to a study conducted by Verizon. This time is almost three times higher than the time spent in the internet conferencing. The time saved can be used to enhance productivity, which will benefit the company.
- Electronic meetings help professionals spend more time with their family and also on their work without keeping any work piled up in their offices. It helps to balance their professional and personal lives which get disturbed with in-person meetings due to traveling.
- Sharing of information has become comfortable. IT professionals can solve any problem using desktop sharing features enabling better service and customer satisfaction. Marketing professionals too can host webinars and collaborate without worrying about the size of their files.
- It reduces the response time for businesses to solve problems. Service experts can understand the client’s problems better and deliver the solution online without taking much time.
- Internet conferencing for IT like the Blue Jeans also allows for various projects to be implemented easily which otherwise takes a lot of effort if you wish to do it in person. For instance, it allows polling and surveys to be conducted with ease. You will get quick results for any survey and can also have a wider reach to implement the study.
- It is easier to integrate with CRM, and mobile apps with the internet conferencing so that all the participants are updated about recommendations immediately evolved during the meeting. It helps improve the time taken to generate an idea and execute it.
- Online conferencing also allows for synergy due to brainstorming. The wider participation of people across geographic locations will enable companies to evolve better solutions and bring synergy in the ideas developed.
- Training a broad audience across countries and helping individuals quickly adapt to the company’s culture and contribute to the growth is now just a conference away. It doesn’t take time for employees to understand the company’s principles. Quick adaptation improves employee commitment.
- Online conferencing has now become mainstream and is no more looked as a specialized solution. Many companies are utilizing video conferencing to carry out their day-to-day operations. There is also flexibility in meeting capacity, and the meetings can be scheduled online depending upon the participants’ convenience on short notice without needing to have extensive arrangements. It is easy to implement by any IT department for the benefit of their company. You can have a powerful collaboration tool that helps participants to interact from different places within few seconds.
In Conclusion
The real-time collaboration is what makes the web conferencing much more efficient. Participants no more feel the difference between in-person meetings and internet meetings since even large files can be transmitted and shared within minutes and companies can show a real-time demonstration of their products and services.
More importantly, meetings can be scheduled online, and alerts for the meetings can be sent to improve attendance. The difference between video conferencing and a phone call is that the video conferencing allows face-to-face interaction while the phone call lacks the visual element. Web conferencing provides all the benefits and is much cheaper when compared to both in-person meetings as well as phone calls. In fact, it is the cheapest way to communicate.
The internet has evolved and totally blurred the difference between the video conferencing and in-person meetings. Today web conferencing offers many advantages and it includes sharing content and solutions in just a few clicks. It is not necessary to travel to the other side of the world just to hold an important meeting anymore when you have the right software in place to handle any issue.
photo credit: An Event Apart Design Conference – December 2009 – San Francisco, CA via photopin (license)
