Video conferencing is everywhere we turn. Open your phone now, and you likely have multiple apps that will quickly and easily enable you to video chat with your closest friends. There is no denying that apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Duo, FaceTime, and others are great for connecting with family. But when it comes to connecting with your colleagues, which video conferencing tool is best?
Likely, it’s one you don’t currently have downloaded to your phone. The video conferencing tools we have available to us as consumers are perfect for when we want to chat with our parents or our children, but they fall short in three main areas when it comes to using them for enterprise-wide collaboration.
Full Features and Functionality
The ability to place dog ears on your face and change your background is great when you’re video calling with your friends, but no one has ever shown up to a business meeting dressed like Fido. Simply put, what we need out of our video conferencing system is different when we’re meeting with coworkers and partners—features like screen sharing, whiteboarding, and annotation become much more important when you’re trying to collaborate on important projects and reach consensus on major decisions. A business-grade application will provide these features, as well as HD video and superior audio quality, making sure that focus stays on the meeting, and not on the technology that enables it.
Enterprise-Grade Security
When companies are making decisions worth millions (or billions) of dollars, you want to be sure that those conversations stay private. While consumer-grade applications offer a small amount of security, they are often more easily accessible than their business-grade counterparts. An enterprise-grade platform will ensure that your information stays secure, particularly when contacts, location, and other sensitive data are available.
Measurement and Management
Implementing a new tool in the workplace is great, if you can determine its impact on the business. Very few consumer-grade applications offer robust measurement tools, making it hard to determine whether video conferencing is helping or hurting productivity. However, with an enterprise application, analytics dashboards are standard so you can be sure that you will always have access to the statistics that mean the most to your business.
Consumer applications are often cheaper than enterprise-grade ones, and apps like FaceTime are free. It can be tempting for organizations, especially small businesses, to choose a cheaper option, but doing so puts the entire company at risk. Ensure your security and increase your employee productivity with a tool that will do it all, and one that will keep your data safe in the process.
Learn more about how to choose enterprise-grade technologies in our upcoming webinar.
About the Author
Joe Mann led Sales Engineering in North America for BlueJeans. Acting as a partner to the sales team, Joe leveraged his technical background to drive value as a trusted advisor to customers. Prior to joining BlueJeans in early 2015, he held positions in technical sales, software engineering, and system design. Joe attended San Diego State University on a basketball scholarship before trading athletics for technology.
