Benefits of video conferencing
For example, in the United States a newly-minted user of video conferencing is a home for youth in Boonsboro, Maryland, a town of about 3,500, known for being a part of two American Civil War battles and little else. The San Mar Children’s home in Boonsboro is a place for youth who have suffered through dysfunction in the family and are in need of guidance and therapeutic help.
A federal grant enabled San Mar to obtain video conferencing and Bruce T. Anderson, the chief executive officer of San Mar, said it will prove invaluable in helping them to help their clients. They will now be able to liaise with educators, therapists and family members, all of whom could be anywhere and yet attend a Boonsboro meeting concerning the welfare of a client.
“It’s similar to Skype,” he said recently. “Except…these are secure lines and so we can allow our psychiatrist or our therapists to do counseling through this. It really opens up a number of things and will open the door for us to collaborate with other agencies and provide a benefit for a much broader community here.”
In India, officials in the prison system in the state of Karnataka are setting up video conferencing in 62 prisons. It will enable meetings to be held with therapists, administrators, judges and lawyers, who may be scattered through Karnataka, the country or the world. Prisoners will no longer have to miss a court session because there’s no escort free to take them.
Video conference on mobiles
Video conferencing has become so inexpensive that smaller businesses are using it and companies like Blue Jeans Network are working with business to help them access the technology. The people at Blue Jeans, and elsewhere, maintain that an increase in revenue is a welcome offshoot of using video conferencing and say it’s becoming a must for business.
Along with meetings where dozens attend, something Blue Jeans Network makes easy, face to face meetings with staff and clients who are anywhere on the planet are quickly achieved. Having a one-on-one, secure, meeting with a staff on assignment is a step up from simply talking on your mobiles.
Psychologists will tell you that the non-verbal signals which we all utilize in conversations are valuable tools in communication. Further, building trust is easier to do when you are visualizing one another as opposed to hearing a disembodied voice.
That sincere prisoner in India is more likely to convince a judge of his or her sincerity when they are face to face. So, too, will a client be more open to you when they are watching you communicate with them.
Research has shown that video conferencing is on the rise thanks to a plethora of reasons. Reasons from those touched upon here, like increased productivity, better communication, tighter security and ease of use, and others, such as improving staff morale and saving money.
Ease of technology
It was once necessary to install a complex system of hardware in a boardroom to achieve what now can be done using any of your own mobile devices or a PC.
Today’s business world is all about mobility and video conferencing can be done virtually anywhere, anytime. From your desk, in your hotel room on a tablet, even while in the backseat of a cab on the way to an airport.
The bottom line is that video conferencing isn’t a luxury reserved solely for the big boys anymore. Small to medium size business owners are finding it to be a simplified process that doesn’t require much tech know-how. It’s just another way, a simple and productive way, of conducting employee interactions and business dealings.
A way of communicating and exchanging information and ideas that doesn’t tether you to, at an inconvenient time, a therapists office, a courthouse or a stuffy conference room. With so many organizations coming onboard, it appears video conferencing is now a permanent fixture in the business-world.
