Featured Article from Conferencing

What's Needed for Ubiquitous Enterprise Videoconferencing

By Paula Bernier
Executive Editor, TMC

Many of us now carry smartphones with built-in videoconferencing capabilities too. And that lowers the barrier to these multimedia interactions.

The popularity of YouTube (News - Alert), and the push around collaboration and huddle rooms, are also signs of confidence for videoconferencing. And forecasts are showing half the workforce will telecommute within a decade and 75 percent will do so in 20 years.

So, why is videoconferencing for work still the exception rather than the norm?

One reason may be that most people are simply more used to calling, emailing, and messaging others. Other reasons many telecommuters don’t want to be on camera may be because (a) they are not wearing business attire (b) they’re just back from the gym (c) they’re speaking with you from the golf course, the grocery store, or the beauty parlor (d) or, they haven’t yet taken the time to run a brush their hair.

However, InFocus suggests technological and pricing/packaging barriers may also be to blame for the lack of widespread work-related videoconferencing. InFocus CMO Brady O. Bruce notes that clunky implementations of videoconferencing standards and pricey conferencing fees early on turned off businesses to the technology.

Things changed as a new breed of companies introduced subscription-based, business-class videoconferencing offerings, he noted. But, he added: “Premiums were charged for making standards-based calls, and users were assessed additional fees for making calls on larger room systems.”

Per-user pricing is what’s needed for enterprise-wide deployment of videoconferencing to happen “in every conference room, at every desk, on every employee’s laptop and smartphone,” Bruce said.