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All businesses can benefit from adding new technologies to their operations. Whether you own an electronic media company or a restaurant, you have an IT team that relies on the latest tools. Don’t be led astray with the many choices out in the market. To find the best video conferencing tool for your IT team, here are a few tips to help you find the holy grail in video technology systems:
Assess Your Needs
Before you can choose which one suits your organizational needs the most, you’ll have to decide on what you require from a video conferencing tool. If all you’re after is a product that allows you to make calls, then a basic system should set you up just right. However, if you want all the bells and whistles, be sure you aren’t going for something that’s too complex that it’s a complete bother to use. You want something simple. A simple system is easier to learn so you can expect better adoption rates from users. After all, there’s no use buying a system that only slows down instead of expedites the work they do.
Get The Features Right
Be sure to check if the video system has several of the following capacities:
- Compatible with multiple devices. Need to log into the meeting but your laptop’s battery is dead? Log onto that meeting via your iPad or mobile phone. If the system is compatible with any of these, you can hook up any of your gadgets to the system. The result? You’ll never have to miss another meeting again.
- Share content. The best video tools make it easy for teams to collaborate and work together. With features that allow you to share videos, pdfs, documents, excel reports and more, working on projects together is easy, even among remote and onsite teams. It also allows your team to use video editing software to highlight the important moments of a meeting.
- HD clarity. Face to face interaction gives video conferencing tools the edge over email and chat. Video calls help foster closeness and a deeper bond between your onsite and offsite teams. That isn’t going to happen if the system’s video quality is blurry or glitchy, though. If your teams can’t get a solid fix on who they’re talking to, if the video is shaky, then keep looking until you find a system that provides your team with clarity so remarkable it’s enough to make them think their remote counterparts are right there in the room with them.
Consider Maintenance
How much maintenance is necessary? Ask this question about any new technology you plan to implement. Don’t put all your attention on the product that you forget to determine how much it might cost in maintenance fees in the future. That video tool might come be a steal right now, but will the maintenance fees negate all those cost-savings down the road? Consider your options very carefully if you don’t want to end up tied to too many charges and service fees in the future.
Determine Number of Users
Some systems are perfect for small groups while some others can accommodate up to a hundred or more. How many participants do you need in your meetings? Your teams could probably work with systems that allow for a small number of participants. But if you regularly make company-wide announcements, you’ll want a system that can handle both. Among the best video conference services for IT use is BlueJeans. It has a boatload of features that make it ideal for large and small groups. They can use it improve team work and collaboration while you can use it to connect to your employees on a company-wide scale.
Check The Mobile Experience
The point of these systems is to provide you with access to your remote business outsourcing staff. That includes connecting to them through mobile. With the growth of mobile consumption these days—more and more people use mobile to log onto the internet instead of their desktop units—it’s important to make sure the mobile connection is sound. If your employees are having a shaky or blurry mobile experience, that’s not going to make for a productive and engaging talk. Make sure you use a video conferencing solution that provides them with the mobile experience that’s powerful, whether they’re on a desktop or on their mobile phones.
Integrate With Your Apps
Use third party apps in your work? Be sure those apps are easy to integrate into the video meeting product. That’s the ideal option. Many are designed to make it easy for you to import documents in MS-word or MS-excel format so when you share content with the rest of the team, you won’t have to worry about converting a ton of materials. Everyone can open and view the documents without any worries. Some systems even provide note-taking capabilities. What you can do is put together a list of all the apps your team uses and look for a system that works with the list. Be sure to keep in mind the level of control you want from each participant as well.
Record Video Conferences
Furthermore, record your video conferences. It can be difficult to select a meeting time that all IT team members can make. Keep those who cannot attend up-to-date by recording each conference. The best tools come equipped with this feature for convenient usage. Take advantage of it to keep records of decisions as well. You can improve your overall IT strategy with the feature. This step benefits IT teams as they implement video conferencing tools for business.
