All forms of communications, collaboration, and entertainment are becoming digitized, and connected. New, rich media applications, such as video collaboration, IPTV, music and video streaming, are flourishing. So too is a new generation of devices which, for the first time, can play a role in integrated video applications: from multi-function mobile phones to access control points; card readers to Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. A multitude of video formats; devices and information sources are being integrated into innovative applications that are changing the way people interact.
Both consumers and businesses are driving this evolution. Video is becoming a key requirement for effective collaboration as increasing globalization drives a desire for more personal contact across geographic and cultural boundaries. Video users now demand the ability to view any content, on any device, anywhere.
Today, businesses are using video to transform key business processes to create competitive advantage, lower costs, and to reduce environmental impact, particularly by avoiding the need for travel.
The Forces Driving Business Video
Driving this trend is a potent cocktail of business need and human psychology which includes:
A Global Workforce and Need for Real-Time Collaboration
A new wave of productivity tools are emerging to help create collaborative teams that span corporate and national boundaries, and geographies.
Reducing Energy Usage
Until recently the focus of most CIOs was how to improve the productivity of people on the move. Today, there is as much focus on harnessing IT to actually avoid travel to reduce both cost and carbon emissions.
New Opportunities for IP Convergence
Increasingly, companies are leveraging investments in their corporate IP network by converging video applications, such as high-definition video collaboration, video surveillance systems, and video advertising signage onto a single IP network.
Media Explosion
In recent years the barriers to media production, distribution, and viewing,
have been dramatically lowered. The plummeting cost of video cameras and a new generation of high-quality, low-cost devices have turned users into would-be movie producers.
Social Networking
The social networking phenomenon can no longer been seen as relevant
only to the YouTube generation. The same types of communication and information sharing are just as effective in business as they are in a social setting. For example, employees are increasingly filming short videos to share best practices with colleagues, and to brief peers about projects and initiatives.
Multimedia Integration with Communications Applications
The explosion of media, and the new uses to which it is being put, is driving the desire to integrate audio and video into many forms of communication. The audio conference will coexist with the video conference.
Collaboration tools designed to link together distributed employees will increasingly integrate desktop video to bring teams closer together.
Demands for Universal Media Access
Just like voice and data, as multimedia applications become increasingly utilized and integrated, users will demand to be able to access these applications wherever they are, and on any device. Participation in video conferencing, viewing the latest executive communications, and collaborating with co-workers, are applications that will need to be accessible to employees, regardless of their work location.
Each Organization is Unique
The exact mix, and nature of the drivers for adopting video, will
vary from organization to organization, and by business function. Marketing, for example, is particularly challenged by globalization, and fast-changing consumer tastes; while the CIO’s focus may be on cost rationalization, IT’s alignment with the business, or green IT.
Business Video: An Irresistible Trend
In the past, while stand-alone video-based solutions promised to reduce complexity, they often came at the cost of restricted functionality, and little to no integration with other applications. The net result was frequently an absence of an adequate return on investment (ROI).
Today, the picture has changed. Video should not be seen as a collection of discrete applications. Its real power is leveraged by taking a holistic approach, one where Business Video is integrated across the fabric of the organization and, increasingly, even its value chain.
Most organizations will start to deploy Business Video in order to meet a specific and well-understood need. Such initiatives have the benefit of not only being supported by a sound business case, they also serve as a low risk entry to video, and the means to develop a better understanding of its benefits as user acceptance grows.
The second phase of Business Video sees the power and value of these systems boosted through integration and added intelligence. Systems such as DMS can be leveraged to deliver a wide range of applications, to add to the value already delivered by those video investments. Users themselves will unlock even greater value as they start to experiment, to collaborate even more effectively as they realize that they are “better together”.
Integrating systems can create innovative new solutions to old problems.
By integrating “front office” Business Video assets and “back office” systems over the network, it is possible to add real intelligence to systems. For example, the type of content, shown on digital signs as part of a queue management system, might vary with queue length. People moving in a fast queue may only have time to see a short advertisement; those in a longer queue have time for more informative content. RFID-enabled loyalty or other cards could be used to differentiate content and service to individuals, drawing on the analytics and data held in back-office systems.