A Rising Star in the Rapidly Changing UC Space

The world has changed forever. For the most part, enterprises of all sizes have re-examined the merits of locational flexibility for employees, and have permanently altered the way they view work and where work happens. Now more than ever, the traditional definition of a ‘workspace’ is any location with decent internet connectivity and a good chair. The pandemic has also proven that companies not only have the willingness to invest in video collaboration tools and technologies but the ability to make them work well—to the point where most employees prefer to work at home versus at a more traditional office.

Maintaining efficient and effective communication throughout this shift in workplace dynamics has caused interest in Enterprise Video technology to skyrocket—and Qumu has been meeting this demand with both excitement and a forward-thinking approach. “We believe the new normal will see about 40% of companies never returning to traditional offices,” said Qumu CEO, TJ Kennedy. “And for companies that wish to maintain in-office operation, the vast majority of them will utilize a hybrid work structure. These massive operational shifts will put the burden on Executive teams to enable great communication by investing in the technologies necessary to fill gaps left by the lack of in-person interaction.”

A Changing Marketplace for Both Live and On-Demand Video

The ability to embrace the altered business landscape is a differentiating factor for growth in this new era of work. Qumu is leaning into these changes by acknowledging the need for more secure, scalable, and easy-to-use video technology, and delivering it to organizations of all sizes. It is no surprise that video usage by companies has grown exponentially across the globe, and it’s essential to understand where growth is coming from and what it means for the future of video technology. “We’ve seen usage increases over the past year of up to 900% for companies we work with,” continues Kennedy.

“We used to live in a world where 20% of any enterprise was leveraging video maybe 20% of the time. Now we see 100% of enterprises using video 80% of the time. It’s a very different paradigm, and the Qumu platform has been purpose-built for this level of enterprise use”

The spike in consumption of video within the enterprise has occurred across all popular video use cases. But live video streaming has had the most significant impact in replacing the majority of in-person events, and the definition of an ‘event’ has significantly expanded as well. Less than one year ago the term ‘virtual event’ prompted visions of an educational conference that included some online networking and maybe a virtual trade show component. But today’s virtual events can be sales meetings, customer summits, fundraisers, hackathons, shareholder meetings, executive messages, and even new product rollouts—and the Qumu platform is allowing enterprises of all sizes to securely and easily manage these events at scale.

Another quickly emerging use for video is as an on-demand tool for employees to access information asynchronously when it is convenient for them. Companies with global employee bases are taking meetings and events that were previously delivered in a live format, and recording them as easily consumable video on demand (VOD) assets—available in branded video repositories and tagged with metadata for easy search and retrieval. This on-demand content is then used for everything from learning to internal messaging and customer engagement. “At Qumu we look at asynchronous video as a great way to keep teams engaged. I do a weekly update to our entire company using the Qumu platform, by filming a 3 to 5-minute video that employees can watch any time,” noted Kennedy. “And on the back end, we can look at various viewer metrics to measure engagement. This data is important for determining the effectiveness of your outreach, especially when you have a team that is distributed across multiple cities or even multiple continents.”

Enterprise Video is Not Just for Internal Use

Qumu is also seeing a surge in new use cases related to external video—specifically within the healthcare space. As health and safety organizations continue to distribute timely information to the public related to COVID-19, the vast majority of them have turned to video as a way to make information approachable, accessible, and easily digestible to global audiences. And Telemedicine, an area Kennedy has a significant amount of experience in, is also a potential growth area for video in the short-term. “Video is a great way for patients to get the care they need without having to visit a hospital, where those with pre-existing conditions may be exposed to others who are sick,” added Kennedy.

“As healthcare shifts to more proactive measures versus reactive treatments, VOD, and live streaming content will be integrated rapidly”

But regardless of organizational size or type, a superior video experience is quickly becoming not only the standard but the expectation. And with its market-leading scalability, security, content management, and self-service approach, today is the future Qumu was made for.