Featured Article from Conferencing

Tips to End Conferencing Chaos

By Susan J. Campbell
TMCnet Contributing Editor

As a business owner, you do the best you can to select the right solutions as you grow your company. The challenge is that your needs change over time, and the available technologies just keep getting better. As your volume and staff grow, you start to find that a streamlined approach really only happened when it was just you. Now, even your conferencing is getting out of hand.

This scenario is typical in a world where users have access to anything they need via the cloud. They don’t like the solution you’ve put in place, so they take it upon themselves to find their own, set up an account and start using it. It’s possible they used the company credit card to do this and it’s possible they might tell IT about it, or not. In the meantime, you’re not sure what they’re using or if your brand is being protected.

This is a common scenario in a cloud computing world. A recent Lifesize blog highlighted the potential chaos, as well as methods to try and eliminate the craziness when it comes to your conferencing goals. In a survey of IT pros in the Spiceworks (News - Alert) community, Lifesize sought to learn more about the factors that contribute to the chaos and the impact that can be realized from an IT-influenced communication strategy. The ultimate goal is overall efficiency and productivity, getting back to the heart of what conferencing was originally meant to provide.

In the typical environment, it’s common to find custom-built communication technology stacks that have been assembled out of haste to solve a problem in the moment rather than choice. As the list of disparate applications continues to lengthen, the support tickets and maintenance contracts also multiply. As a result, only 35 percent of survey participants are satisfied, leading to the assumption that multiple platforms are not necessarily the best and most efficient method to address conferencing challenges. 

The question still remains as to why companies use so many different applications to achieve system compatibility, meet regional differences and match user preferences. One thing we do know is that when users run into barriers to communication, they seldom turn to IT for guidance and instead take matters into their own hands. This method may solve their challenge at the moment, but it creates chaos for IT as they work to try and secure the network, information and users without knowledge of all possible vulnerabilities.

To stop conferencing chaos, it’s important to put a solution in place that meets the needs of all users, as well as the organization. At the same time, don’t allow users to download their own solutions. Just be sure to listen to their needs or the desire to go rogue will linger.