Life as we know it has changed drastically in the business world. In the last ten years, we’ve seen massive adoption of smartphones, tablets, and phablets. Cloud has emerged as a major initiative and with it, bandwidth requirements have skyrocketed from T1’s to Ethernet. Telecommuting has become commonplace at companies large and small. In order to better support clients and attract and retain staff, companies are working smarter by embracing new technologies.
Web conferencing is one such technology. While not ‘new,’ web conferencing has evolved, and it’s changing the way people interact from across town or across time zones. The biggest improvement has been the integration of video with the inherent presentation ability and collaboration tools. Why do you care? Let’s look at how web conferencing can and will improve your business practices.
1. Reduced travel expenses. If in-person meetings are the lifeblood of your company, it’s likely also one of your biggest expenses. With the addition of real-time video to many web conferencing platforms, web conferencing allows you to talk face-to-face with current and prospective clients as well as allowing them to see your presentation. While conferencing may not replace all of your in person meetings, it can eliminate the need for many trips, saving you time, money, and frustration in the process. Not only that, but it’s incredibly easy to determine just how much your company will save by adopting a system: simply take a look at the cost of travel and compare it against the cost of conferencing. Most organizations find substantial savings immediately, making this one of the most prudent technology investments you can make.
2. Increased productivity. At the end of the day, sales, management, operations, and marketing all depend on effective communication. So why is it that so much of our business communication comes down to endless email chains and coma-inducing audio conference calls? Web conferencing allows geographically dispersed coworkers to converse in real-time face to face while collaborating on a document or presentation. This yields faster results, quicker turn-around on projects, and increased productivity.
3. Employee Retention. A bad work/life balance can impact an employee’s productivity and have long term effects on health and well being. Adding a robust web conferencing platform, is a great way to reduce work-related stress and improve your employees’ work/life balance. At ARG we encourage our employees to telecommute one day a week and replace some business trips with less time-consuming web conferences. This helps our employees work smarter and allows our clients to experience some of the technology that ARG represents.
Additionally, conferencing helps to improve communication between manager and remote team members which allows retention of valuable employees who have to relocate to other areas. This retention is one reason that ARG has such great employee tenure and also saves on costly recruiting fees and retraining. The end result is less employee turnover and a happier, more productive staff – just one reason ARG ranked tops in 2014 Washington Post Best Workplaces and 2015 Best Places to Work in Virginia.
These are only three reasons to explore web conferencing. It can also help with training, compliance, and mitigating the challenges of running a business across multiple time zones. Want to learn more about the exciting ways that ARG can improve your business? Call us at 866-521-5121 or email info@myarg.com and schedule a meeting with a consultant today.
