Used for a number of purposes, from facilitating training to improving targeted aspects of a business, companies are utilizing video conferencing to provide the highest quality, remote video and voice communication world-wide. Even more, video conferencing has become the latest imperative directive for competitive businesses today, especially in today’s modern world of virtualization and remote workforce.

A variety of industries enjoy the benefits of video conferencing; including manufacturing, travel, hospitality, healthcare and related IT services, government, nonprofit, and even education training, all to carry out vital aspects of the differing services they provide. There are many obvious benefits of video conferencing, as it provides remote communication and can save a considerable amount of time and money, but there are some key aspects many do not realize.

Video conferencing makes it easy to sit back and relax while executing imperative aspects of your business, with benefits including:

• Reducing travel costs: We live in a modern, globalized economy where traveling is 100 percent necessary for leveraging new market opportunities. Video conferencing simplifies the process of journeying across the world to engage in brief but always important, face-to-face interactions – whether with customers or partners – by bringing those across the globe to you with unprecedented immediacy. Video conferencing addresses the large expenses which inevitably come with regular business trips by providing top-quality, readily available, easy to use video interactions, allowing users to share content in high definition as if they were really there, all while seriously cutting costs.
• Increased Productivity: Enjoy the benefit of increased productivity across dispersed workforces and teams with video conferencing. Where dispersed work forces and project teams typically are challenging and rely on phone, e-mail, or IM, the ability of these teams to understand, process and collaborate over distance using these methods is no longer proving as effective. It has been proven that when video is applied to a meeting, participants are more likely to stay focused, as they are no longer just being heard, but also physically watched. This inevitably leads to faster decision making and ultimately faster project completion.
• Improved Hiring and Retention: We all know the hiring process can get lengthy and costly, especially when candidates are located in remote cities and when multiple individuals are involved in the interview process. Organizations implementing video conferencing reduce unneeded expenses and time associated with the hiring process by bringing candidates to be interviewed via video – making interviewing candidates anytime, anywhere easier than ever before.

A lot of video conferencing news has been surfacing on TMCnet as of late, including Actelis (News - Alert) working to improve broadband challenges, that companies utilizing applications are faced with, that are bandwidth dependant, such as video conferencing. It was reported that the key was their approach to broadband solutions – Carrier Ethernet over copper, which was able to meet advanced broadband service demands. Additionally, TMCnet reported that popular video and voice communications tool, Skype began a partnership with Xoom Corporation in which new Xoom customers can be eligible for a $50 Skype credit. In related news, Eyeball Networks (News - Alert) showcased their new video conferencing tools at this year’s The Cable Show, as reported by TMCnet’s Erik Linask (News - Alert). A constantly evolving technology, no one knows what can happen next in the video conferencing world.

If you want to hear more about the currently Video Conferencing market and where it’s headed, check out this upcoming Webinar in which Irwin Lazar, vice president and research director of Nemertes Research, presents informative, key findings from the latest 2011 customer research.