We all love a good magic trick.
Rabbits out of hats; doves from handkerchiefs.
But how about rooms made bigger or the number of people contributing positively to a meeting somehow boosted?
In the new hybrid world of work-from-anywhere, video conferencing technology is doing all that, and more.
With increasing cleverness, smart (yet affordable) kit is providing organisations of every size with the ability to embrace the post-pandemic work revolution – driving transformational efficacy, efficiency, and productivity in ways few would once have imagined.
And, as is always the case in the opportunity-rich channel, that kind of trick is one for resellers and Managed Service Providers not to miss.
“The light bulb has gone on for many organisations that working from home or outside the office does not necessarily mean a reduction in productivity – brilliant video conferencing capability is at the very heart of that,” says Nigel Dunn, Managing Director EMEA at global unified audio and video vendor Jabra, which is waving a big wand in this space.
“Now everybody collaborates virtually. The next phase of evolution is for organisations to maximise the functionality and the quality in order to provide the best possible user experience.”
The research suggests that time is now.
A survey of 2,800 organisations of all sizes commissioned recently by Jabra reveals that 87 per cent of all meetings are now either fully virtual or hybrid - Hybrid Ways of Working 2022 Global Report (jabra.com)
Crucially, it’s likely that a high proportion of people in those meetings are deploying unsophisticated in-built laptop cameras, microphones and speakers which severely limit that all-important user experience.
Some will be at home or otherwise out of the office and some will be back in the office as part of the hybrid mix.
That means two things are highly desirable: smart kit capable of pulling off some of that aforementioned magic, and reconfigured office space which responds to today’s modern challenges.
“Of the people we recently interviewed, 57 per cent were concerned that their career would suffer if they didn't go back to the office regularly,” says Dunn.
“Organisations should change their views of what office working should look like and how their spaces are laid out. The new hybrid meeting may have, say, six people participating in the office and 30 people online from wherever.”
In Jabra’s case, its smart PanaCast 50 products feature a 180 degree field-of-view camera capable of appearing to double the size of a room by including everyone on screen regardless of how big or small the space actually is.
That means six or so people can contribute effectively to a large virtual meeting from a room as small as three square meters – a game-changer for organisations with potential to reduce their physical real estate footprint.
