Internet / E-Commerce - Videoconferencing III : Disadvantages..boo

Disadvantages

After my last post about advantages, here are the disadvantages...

 1. Physical Presence

Are virtual meetings a perfect replacement for physical, face-to-face meetings? People communicate non-verbally through gestures such as handshakes, high fives, and fist bumps.  Today, HD video conferencing ensures these cues transmit in high fidelity.  Salespeople can truly read a potential customer’s response, customers can assess a salesperson’s credibility, leaders can gauge their audience to see whether they caught the organization’s vision, and managers determine whether to hire an applicant.  Organizations concerned about physical presence can begin by using video conferencing in the most appropriate applications, such as training and internal meetings, where the gains from video conferencing are dramatically superior to a traditional audio conference call.

2. Quality Systems are Not Free

Some perceive conferencing systems to be expensive, but this is no longer true.  In the early days, organizations installed fully-outfitted central meeting rooms with cameras, lighting and hardware.  Today, high quality video conferencing is possible via cloud-based systems, and the need for expensive end-point hardware has dropped significantly.  Many organizations now install a centralized gateway that connects participants via a broadband network. While this installation does entail some up-front costs, it’s much lower than before, saves on bandwidth, and makes video conferencing much more widely available within an organization.

3. User Familiarity

While some people seamlessly adapt to change, including new technology, others find change disruptive.  Today’s video conferencing systems are significantly easier to use, and some systems (like those available from LifeSize) eliminate intimidating remote controls and multiple devices that were common in the past.  In fact, LifeSize now supports workers’ existing mobile devices (the “bring your own device” or BYOD phenomenon) such as mobile phones and tablets, making the experience far more familiar and accessible than in the past.

See for yourself how cost savings and productivity advantages have made video conferencing a must-have business technology.