Video Conferencing as Enterprise Productivity Tool Rapidly Increasing- According to Wainhouse Research-Polycom New Global Survey

There has been a lot of comments and observations about the growing use of video conferencing as a tool for productivity in enterprises from several industries. In fact, there are now over 5,000 end-users of video conferencing all around the world. This observation was given enough proof from the survey produced by the teamed-up efforts of Polycom and Wainhouse Research in December 2012, with the title, “End-User Survey: The ‘Real’ Benefits of Video”.

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This survey was able to reveal important comprehensions on the use and advantage of video conferencing as well as its current deployment trends and use cases and its future adoption. The Wainhouse Research surveyed 4,737 video conferencing end-users all over the world, representing the entire global regions including:

• North America: 63%
• Asia/Pacific: 27%
• EMEA: 9%
• Latin America: 1%

And also all company sizes:

• Small Businesses (1-49 employees): 20%
• Very Large Companies (More than 10,000 employees): 17%

If you want to see the full report, click here to download it.

Results of the Survey on Video Conferencing as a Productivity Tool

According to the survey, these are the top advantages of using video conferencing:

• Increases efficiency/productivity: 94%
• Increases impact of discussion: 88%
• Expedites decision making: 87%
• Reduces travel costs: 87%

And in all those participants, 71% of them admits to using video conferencing in meeting their respective companies’ partners and customers. And when it comes to the frequency of use, these are the results:

• Daily: 45%
• Weekly: 39%
• Monthly: 21%
• Every few months: 14%

For using multivendor equipment and software for their video conferencing needs, 60% reveals to using equipment and software from more than one vendor and 30% from three or more vendors. When connecting to colleagues, 87% of the participants in the survey who work from home claims to never feel any disconnection from work and their colleagues despite the distance.

Polycom President and CEO Andy Miller believes that the study serves as the validation of the company’s observation about their customers for years. He added, “In or out of the office, employees do their best work when they are empowered to meet and collaborate, face-to-face, over virtually any device. In addition to helping foster a more productive and engaged workforce, video collaboration helps enterprises and organizations thrive by enabling more effective sales and engineering teams, better customer service, and stronger partner relationships. The world is on a path to ubiquitous video, and Polycom’s goal is to drive that ubiquity by making video easy to use, secure and affordable for all, across the widest range of devices and environments, ranging from immersive theatres to conference rooms, desktop systems, laptops, PCs, browsers, tablets and smart phones.”

Other Results Gathered from the Survey

The survey concludes that the most common devices, which the participants use for their video conferencing, needs are the following:

• Desktop PCs and laptops: 71%
• Room/group video systems: 65%
• Tablets: 34%
• Smartphones: 33%

For the most used video conferencing environments, 79% of the participants claim to use video conferencing rooms, making it the most popular one and 69% use their offices for video conferencing. Meanwhile, “on the road” video conferencing environments are rapidly increasing, which include:

• Airports
• Hotels
• Client sites

Though currently, PCs are considered as the top choice for video conferencing, the mobile age is rapidly conquering industries. In the survey, 90% of the participants use smartphones and 75% of them use tablets. In addition, 77% of these smartphone users and 50% of these tablets users use their mobile devices for their business needs. These percentages are expected to rise in the next coming years.

The adoption of video conferencing in business operations is continuously growing and according to the survey, the leading drivers for the rapid adoption of video conferencing are the following:

• Equipping more people with video: 94%
• More accessibility of video: 85%
• More integration of video in business software: 83%
• Availability in IM/UC clients such as Microsoft® Lync™: 80%

Wainhouse Research Senior Analyst and Partner Ira M. Weinstein said, “The longstanding misconception is that travel reduction is the only ‘real’ driver of video conferencing.  This survey, however, shows that soft benefits including improved efficiency and productivity and increased impact during discussions play a prominent role in the video conferencing value proposition. In addition, the survey highlights the value that end-users place on several of Polycom’s focus areas including ease of use, integration with presence and IM, and support for video on mobile devices.  By focusing its efforts on these hot spots, Polycom continues to make video easier to buy, easier to deploy, easier to manage, and easier to use.”