U.K.-based video conferencing network and managed service provider, mvision, announced that its managed video conferencing service is being leveraged by an international development charity, VSO, in order to improve the charity’s international collaboration and volunteer placement across 42 countries with video conferencing-as-a-service.

 

According to a press release, VSO chose mvision’s managed video conferencing service to shun an increase in specialist IT headcount or resource to install and maintain the system.

 

mvision is one of just five TANDBERG global managed service providers, and supplies TANDBERG’s telepresence and video conferencing equipments. The Company’s solutions include a dedicated vendor agnostic network as well. Its managed service facilitates organizations, especially which are new to the technology, to take advantage of simple, capex-free video conferencing.

 

According to mvision, its managed service or video conferencing-as-a-service is available for per-month subscription - with no initial outlay on hardware, software or bandwidth. The service provides customers with faster and more substantial savings, without impacting on overall business efficiencies, results or existing IT infrastructure.

 

The features and services of mvision include multi-point conferencing (bridging), ISDN gateway services, call recording, reporting, concierge service and video help desk facilities.

 

The new TANDBERG-based systems deployed for VSO in Kenya, the Netherlands, Philippines and UK not only enables VSO to better co-ordinate the recruitment and placement of volunteers in poorest communities, but also offers a better platform for training and human resources, said officials with mvision in the release.

 

“Having face-to-face communication is proving increasingly important,” said Uzma Kazmi, systems manager. “There was an example recently where one of our medical teams was delivering training by video and was able to interpret facial expressions to know that one of the country teams had not fully understood it.”

 

“Without that visual detail, they would not have immediately addressed the issue and overcome the language and cultural challenge,” Kazmi added.

 

With the adoption of mvision’s managed video conferencing solution, the company was well equipped to interface with the different end-points at VSO including TANDBERG, Polycom (News - Alert) and Aethra. In addition, mvision’s specialists were quickly able to set up the whole system; configuring the bridge, integrating it with VSO’s network and data switch port speeds, said officials in the release.

 

Terry Dwyer, managing director at mvision, said, “VSO has over 1600 international volunteers working in 42 countries around the world, so effective team collaboration and communication are vital. User feedback to date is that the new systems which run on the dedicated mvision network are quicker and easier to use than their audio and web conferencing systems that quite often involved a connection delay of 10-15 minutes per meeting.”

 

Kazmi added, “Now we can do more frequent but shorter meetings that get us to our desired outcomes much quicker. The motivational gains we are experiencing with video conferencing have completely changed the way that we engage with each other that simply is not possible by phone. It will help to unify us as an organization, but made us feel truly international and one global VSO at the same time.”