If you have just purchased your company’s first videoconferencing system, congratulations! You have now joined the new tech age of virtual meetings and your productivity increase will thank you for it.
The next step is to begin using it, but, depending on the size of your company and the staff numbers this can be a challenge. First, there is the need to be make sure everyone is aware of its existence. Second, is to be sure that it works smoothly and correctly and third, is to make sure that the staff actually uses it and with the purposes for which its intended.
Therefore, it is important to address the three essential areas of concern: awareness, utilization and adoption of the software in day to day business activities.
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Define Your Usage Levels
Before we delve into the three areas it’s important to identify potential usage levels within your business.
Since companies do differ in terms of their size, business dealings and geographic location the usage levels of video conferencing will differ, so it is important to predict the usage levels within your company.
While, some companies have embraced video meetings as an integral part of their daily business activities, others only need it occasionally for specific reasons, while some others may be so new to the whole experience they do not yet see its usefulness in their particular business practices.
Therefore, the first step is to identify which category your company falls into and then develop the appropriate approach to maximize the adoption of the system in your own business.
Awareness And Management
The very first step to facilitate awareness and management is to assign a person, or a team if needed, that will become the ‘go to’ resource for videoconferencing needs within the company. Basically this person will be the ìmanagerî of the system with a specific set of responsibilities.
This person or people do not have to be techs or specialists, especially if you choose an easy to use system like ClickMeeting that is very user friendly. This person can be someone from HR, management or a competent employee from any department. They will be responsible to learn the system, understand its usage and benefits and promote it to others within the company.
For very large companies, this might turn into an actual position independent of other responsibilities.
Depending on your individual needs this person (or team) should be the main overseer of the system, responsible for its implementation, training, spreading the word to other staff of the system’s existence and encouraging employees to use it.
One of the more important elements of this person’s (or team’s) knowledge is a deep understanding of videoconference benefits as it pertains to your business, so they may use that knowledge to increase its adoption across the company.
If your company is quite large, nationwide or global, it will be most helpful to assign people in various practical groups, geographic locations and also at various employee levels in order to extend the reach throughout the entire company.
This person’s responsibilities should also include:
- Support
- Set up of training materials
- Training of staff initially and on-going as needed.
- System maintenance, which, includes, keeping the platform updated and all related equipment working and functioning properly.
Utilization
It’s important to make sure that your Internet communication system can handle the videoconferencing traffic that you plan to have. High definition streaming requires more intensive systems and higher bandwidth than older equipment can handle.
If your company uses older systems, and hardware, it is possible that you will have issues within the virtual meeting itself, because HD video is the best way to perform effective presentations that can use a wide variety of media and provide a clear, crisp and brilliant virtual experience.
Implementing high resolution technology with HD capable content sharing and bandwidth optimization technologies makes a huge difference in video communication.
Other considerations within utilization should address:
- Streamlined Tools For Scheduling There should be a system in place to schedule video conferences, and it should be accessible to all relevant employees within one central location, such as, a server based MS Outlook calendar.
- Consider The Rooms Where Videoconferencing Will Take Place
Some questions to ask are:
What rooms have video enabled?
Are these rooms booked often for non-video meetings and will this interfere with the usage of videoconferencing?
Are more video meeting supported rooms needed based on the predicted usage needs?
Are there high level employees that will use it so much that it needs to be set up permanently in their offices?
- Clear Usage Instructions It is important to provide employees with concise instructions for the steps to use the videoconference platform and the best course of action is to prepare a step by step manual. Large companies should consider setting up a web portal that will serve training manuals, ‘how to use’ videos and various marketing tools.
- Provide Support Contact Information Include detailed data, such as, name of contact, extension and/or phone number.
Adoption: It Does Require Promotion
If you want your staff to use the system it must be promoted. Awareness and promotion are the keys to adoption. Yes, you can send emails or inter office memos, but these are not really effective. Live meetings are the best way to ensure that all relevant staff is not only aware of its existence, but, is also educated on the amazing benefits it brings.
One way to achieve this is to have a formal presentation, and by all means spring for lunch, where all relevant personnel is invited and a detailed presentation and announcement of the new videoconference system is introduced.
Itís important to highlight not only the existence of the system, but also its benefits to the productivity of the company, and all other advantages, and positive aspects for the company as a whole.
Consider all the perks, and incentives that this new system will bring. Provide real life examples of those that can build the excitement needed to stimulate a greater level of adoption. Do a visual presentation as those are much more effective than verbal communication.
Bottom Line
Videoconferencing can be an essential tool for companies, but if it is not used or not used properly, its benefits will not come to fruition. Take the time to address the above considerations because when managed correctly, conferencing over video can yield some incredibly positive rewards.
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