Several studies by leading research organizations have provided us insight on why conferences and meetings seem to always start behind schedule. With unified communication and integrated collaboration technologies like Microsoft Skype for Business, Cisco Webex, collaboration boardrooms, touch-enabled SMART boards, etc. that make it easier than ever to create, schedule and log on, meetings are starting just as late, if not later, than in the past. Let’s take a look at the numbers; uncover why traditional AV has created this inefficiency in your business; and how new AV services can help end the frustrations associated with conferences and meetings.
According to CIO Insight Magazine, senior executives spend the most time in meetings. On average, they spend at least 16 hours a week in meetings with at least 3 other employees. This means that some of your most expensive employees spend 40% or more of their work week in meetings.
A two week study by the Harvard Business Review found that only 10% of meetings started on time and on average 90% of late meetings began at least 12 minutes behind scheduled.
Efficiency numbers are greatly influenced by start times. CIO Insight Magazine showed that a meeting that started just 5 minutes late costs an organization 8% of that overall meeting time. If 90% of late meetings begin at least 12 minutes behind schedule you are looking at losses for the majority of your meetings to already be over 19%. All before anyone at your organization begins solving a problem, collaborating on a project, or working towards a decision.
Warehouse Research recently completed a study to find out why conference calls and online meetings started so late. Their research showed, technical difficulty, software downloads to join and a lack of user knowledge about how to join were the top offenders for conference and online meeting delinquencies.
Historically, purchasing AV meant making a large upfront investment, hiring a firm to install everything, and then simply having them hand it off to your IT department for management. Your IT staff may have managed anything from troubleshooting to setting up meeting requests. This means that more than likely, your staff relied on your IT department for setting up conferences and online meetings or they had to learn on their own – which has led to tardiness, frustration, and inefficiencies.
As business culture continues to change and organizations allow more employees to work outside of the office, the successful deployment and use of integrated collaboration technologies from AV and unified communication become much more vital as operational and management efficiencies rely heavily on them. Millennials expect technology built into their everyday work experience whether they are in the office, at home, or walking to a Starbucks.They also want to schedule and start conferences and online meetings that work on-demand without needing to reach out to anyone else to do it for them.
Organizations are beginning to invest in pre and post tech implementation engagements like envisioning, change communication and training to best serve their employees and customers. These bookend processes enable simpler, custom user interface designs, communication management of the new technologies and multi-visual training documents such as infographics, videos and short how-to books.
As IT costs increase and IT continues to find its way across departments within an organization, the need for integrated AV solutions that are more reliable, simple to use, and managed by third party experts is becoming the baseline for both online meeting efficiency and reduced IT spend. This means that with a good third-party provider, you’ll have way less headaches for your organization and more efficient conferences and online meetings. As-a-Service offerings are aligning with the internet-of-things to offer businesses hassle-free, elastic technologies delivered and managed by a third-party provider rather than your internal IT staff. AVaaS is a consumption model of AV hardware, software, and services on a recurring base. Organizations no longer must take the risk of owning expensive depreciating assets that are locally managed. AVaaS enables organizations to make less capital-intensive purchases, can help consolidate multiple manufacturer AV equipment leases and provide managed services of your AV. Organizations can stop purchasing expensive initial hardware purchases and taxes. AVaaS provides a purchase service option that will be recognized on your balance sheet as an operational expense without having to pay taxes on assets. With the right AVaaS provider, your organization can get back to starting meetings on time. Pre and post-implementation research and training will provide a custom-built, user-friendly AV solution with less confusion. From a high level, the shift to AVaaS also means that your organization can have remote network monitoring and system management services 24x7x365. It also reduces the risk of a large upfront AV purchase and moves your assets to an operating lease expense. Checkout AVaaS for more information. For more information about this subject, IT services, and IT Consulting, please contact us.
