Strategy for Successful Video Rollout

Enterprises are actively expanding their use of video and consider it an essential component of their overall communication initiatives. Video conferencing has become pervasive, as technical improvements make it easier to use, less expensive and more manageable. Today’s diverse workforce creates a high demand for personalized contact with external locations and video conferencing promotes more intimate meetings. Sales managers also find video conferencing creates a closer relationship with prospective and existing customers. However, video conferencing expansion should not be left to sporadic upgrades across departments but part of a well thought out plan to ensure maximum usage without sacrificing quality and the user’s experience. Consider the following steps when developing your enterprise videoconferencing strategy. Picture your end state. Video conferencing should not be considered a solution where one size fits all. There are many practical options for using video and it is important that you prioritize which types of solutions will deliver the results needed. Solutions may range from high level global meetings to internal training classes. Develop end users’ requirements. Classify different work groups according to their job functions and communication responsibilities. Knowledge workers may consider frequent video conferencing sessions as essential to their job performance, while other employees may be an occasional attendee of a video conferencing meeting. Additionally, determine if the videoconferencing sessions will be mostly for internal communications or for external meetings with customers and partners. Identify what type of experience users’ require. Most video conferencing today takes place in a room equipped with a video conferencing camera and speakers. However, desktop video is growing quickly and enables users participate in video conferencing sessions through their PC or a video phone. Tablets and smart phones are also growing in importance especially for remote and mobile workers. Executive level meetings may favor high quality immersive experience of telepresence. Also, note limitations to some types of video conferencing sessions. An employee who sits in a cubicle may disturb others using desktop video requiring video endpoints be set up in convenient break out rooms. Manage the quality of the uses’ experience. Video conferencing requires real time connectivity for high resolution. When expanding video conferencing, it is critical to ensure there is adequate bandwidth and that packet loss is less than 0.1% in any five minute period. It is also necessary to support QoS on the LAN and WAN for uninterrupted traffic flow. Include special-use applications. As tablet adoption increases, mobile video will expand as businesses use tablets for multiple business purposes. Using the video capabilities of tablets, organizations can capture and record real time events to remote sites. For example, a healthcare organization may equip its doctors and nurses with tablets to provide face to face meetings with distant patients or a manufacturer can use tablets to see inside remote facilities to observe workers and conditions. Consider real time video support. As video adoption becomes viral, it is important to measure its effect on the overall capacity of the network. When planning for video conferencing adoption determine the number of simultaneous sessions you plan to support and additional network equipment, such as gateways or session border controllers, that may be needed. It is also essential to address video’s security requirements, such as NAT/Firewall traversal or HTTP tunneling, etc. Highlight its ease of use. Although video calls have become very simple to set up, there is still some reluctance on users who may not feel confident in setting up a video conference. For those groups who plan to participate in video conferencing, set up training sessions to ensure widespread adoption. Determine purchase method. Video conferencing solutions are available as premise based and cloud solutions. The purchase option depends somewhat on the company’s network capabilities to support video and its implementation of security and management tools. If the network is video ready, then the premise based solution may offer a lower cost. Cloud solutions reduce management time and are faster to implement and many consider cloud solutions as an operational expense, which appeals to some companies. Integrate with overall UC plan. Video should be considered a part of a company’s overall communication strategy and be included in its Unified Communications upgrade plan. This enables users to have a common interface for video and integrate more fully into the overall communication infrastructure. Interoperability is also important criteria and you need to understand how vendors support other vendors’ video endpoints.