New Study Finds That Video Conferencing Is Growing in Popularity

Following a recent merger with Plantronics, Polycom have released the results of the study “Streamlined Video Conferencing Strategy Drives Business Results”, conducted on their behalf by Forrester Consulting.

The study found that video conferencing is growing in usage, in the number of solutions, and in overall complexity for end users and IT alike. These findings showcase the need for consistent, simple experiences to speed the start of meetings and simplify IT’s job managing the estate.

Key findings of this new global Forrester Study of IT decision-makers and professionals include:

• 74 percent say video conference calls have increased over the past two years.
• 84 percent reported using two or more cloud-based video conference solutions.
• 78 percent reported having two or more video conference endpoints in their conference rooms.

“Clearly the market for video, audio and content collaboration technology is proliferating, and this is driving a demand for simplification of technology, as often users are overwhelmed by too many platform choices,” said Paul Clark, VP & EMEA Managing Director at Plantronics.

“What are the chances that everyone will choose the same vendor or technology? We have put the customer in the centre of this – Polycom Trio simplifies their meeting experiences. Whether the invitees join using a cloud solution or an endpoint in another meeting room, everyone gets to remain focused on business productivity rather than technology and video/audio connectivity.”

With the study finding the majority of companies surveyed are using multiple vendors for both endpoints and video cloud applications, complexity is increasing, not decreasing, as new solutions continue to enter the market.

In fact, the study showed 96 percent already face challenges managing their video conferencing solutions. The result: a web of services for IT pros to manage, poor user experiences, and mounting frustration for IT and employees alike. According to a Forrester study on call quality, delayed video calls can cost a company more than $1 million in lost productivity annually.

One solution for IT professionals to manage this growing complexity already is available – Polycom Trio. Polycom Trio family are simple, familiar communications devices that support multiple video conferencing cloud solutions with a consistent experience. Polycom announced support for Cisco WebEx on Polycom Trio this week adding to the growing catalogue of cloud-based video systems which includes Zoom, Microsoft, BlueJeans, and Videxio. All these solutions can be accessed, used, and managed through Polycom Trio in any conference room using the same simple experience.

“Customers are relying on video conferencing to make employees more interactive, collaborative, and efficient — the technology and services they use need to streamline, not complicate, the experience, but this can only happen if video conferencing is a simple, easy, and consistent experience,” said Tarun Loomba, Executive Vice President, Product and Solutions Management at Plantronics.

“Polycom Trio is the simplest way to connect, communicate and be productive using video conferencing, with flexibility for IT professionals and  great video conference experiences for their employees.”

The Impact on IT

According to the study, IT professionals are facing increased costs and challenges of managing multiple cloud-based video conferencing systems. Those challenges include difficulty in connecting from conference rooms to calls, delayed video calls, poor call quality, and inconsistent user experiences. To combat productivity challenges specifically, 77 percent of IT pros want a consistent user interface and experience across video conference systems.

Flexibility for IT pros was another key finding. With 68 percent of companies seeing increases in the number of video conferencing applications being used in their infrastructure, 67 percent want increased flexibility from all the solutions for employees and partners. The flexibility is critical to productivity, as the pace of innovation in the collaboration space is at an all-time high with new competitors, solutions, and features coming to market at a rapid pace.

Polycom Trio is the leading conference room experience that offer customers this flexibility with a great user experience.