Atlassian is about to release group video chat and screen-sharing capabilities for HipChat that could help it edge out rival Slack in more deals. But it's still an open question as to how much appeal video chat has today within enterprises, and whether it will become a pervasive way for business users to communicate, or merely another item on the collaboration menu.
HipChat brand manager Elena Gorman made the announcement—and a case for enterprise video group chats—in a blog post:
Remember the last time a discussion really got going in HipChat? Someone probably wrote, “I bet we could hash this out in 5 minutes if we talked face-to-face.” So you either scheduled a meeting or you flipped over to Skype, Google Hangouts, or your company’s conference-bridge-of-choice. Invariably, the conversation lost momentum.
The new HipChat video platform solves this problem, putting group video chat and screen sharing right where your team is already collaborating, your rooms.
No need to switch applications, download plugins, or interrupt your flow in any way.
Once you’re inside the video chat, anyone can share a live view of documents or browser windows via screen sharing, just like in the 1-to-1 video chats you already use. You decide which window to share, and HipChat will broadcast it to the room.
Slack doesn't currently offer group video chat capabilities of this sort, but will surely add them over time. Until then, Atlassian will have an edge with customers who see value in the feature, which was built in part with technology it gained through the acquisition of Jitsi.
The question, though, is how many enterprise customers fit that mold today, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Alan Lepofsky.
If you believe the hype from enterprise collaboration vendors, "video chat is all the rage" inside companies, he says. "In our consumer lives, we talk to our significant others, friends and our kids on video, and the marketing story is that translates to work. But most people aren't really ready to chat at work."
In a work context, "it's more important for people to be able to see the content than the people," Lepofsky adds. "Screen-sharing is more important to me. In your consumer life, the video is the content. You want to see your wife, your kids, the beach. At work, you're sharing other pieces of content."
That being said, "the human element is wonderful—it's always nice to see your colleagues," he says.
The customer adoption question aside, collaboration vendors are pushing video chat for a few reasons. "It demos well, it looks modern, it ties into mobile really well," Lepofsky says. And to be sure, there are certainly valid use cases for group video chat within remote teams, he adds. "But I think the hour-long conference call video doesn't necessarily have to be part of it."
In addition, these lightweight video platforms are replacing the need for expensive, albeit more immersive Cisco telepresence rooms.
To preserve that business, Cisco will need to stay ahead of the game with advanced features such as sentiment analysis and eye tracking, Lepofsky says. "I think they're in trouble and I think they know it," he says. Hence Cisco's move into collaboration software with products such as Spark. "They see the writing on the wall."
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