A great advantage to using videoconferencing in a company is that it makes meetings easier to organize and without any delays of having to wait for business people to arrive at your location after using transport(flights, trains and etc.).
Videoconferencing is very similar to video phones, it has a similar concept by allowing a user to communicate with any person around the globe, and with a video feed, you are also able to see the persons face you are communicating with.
Before you do decide to purchase video conferencing, it’s advisable that you look at the advantages and disadvantages, which will give you a better outlook to see if videoconferencing will suit you’re companies needs.
Advantages of Video Conferencing
- Using videoconferencing equipment, you are able to communicate with anyone immediately.
- VideoConferencing allows groups of people from various locations to interact with each other at the same time. For Example: 7 Business Executives in Cape Town can can now interact with 16 other executives in Johannesburg and other executives based in a different province/country all at the same time. Its a perfect scenario to create conference in which all participants will be able to see and hear each person clearly.
- Sharing documents (PowerPoint, Word Documents, Spreadsheets) can be done easily between all the participants in the same conference.
- Participants are able to use a virtual whiteboard in which they can add in their own comments or ideas onto one location, which is then shared with all participants.
Disadvantages of Video Conferencing
- Although you are able to communicate immediately with anyone, on some occasions when you need to make an international call, due to the time zones, you need to be willing to participate in calls late at night or even early hours of the morning. For example, some states in the USA are 7 hours behind Cape Town. You need to plan a meeting which suits both participants.
- For some companies, purchasing videoconferencing equipment can be quite expensive. Ideally, larger companies will use the facilities as its cheap, but for the smaller companies purchasing a cheaper model that’s not as advanced is rather more advisable.
- In any meeting occurring, the quickest way to judge if your audience is listening and showing interest is by their body language. In videoconferencing, the participant’s body language won’t be visible as communication is being done via microphone and webcam.
Before you plan to go ahead with videoconferencing, weigh your options by observing both the advantages and disadvantages.
