On the Eleventh day of UC the industry gave to me, the value of video, not hyping,
no more pagers beeping,
interface enhancing
CFOs bilking,
overuse of power dimming,
applications plug ‘n playing
five phone rings
the voicemail market girds
an AT lens,
what SMB loves,
And a clear definition of UC.
Its not that we don’t have video out there; we sure do and it’s a mind boggling amount. At Cisco’s C-Scape I believe the figure that was mentioned was something like 250 billion videos were produced in 2007. That is mind boggling. That includes videos incorporated into Web 2.0 applications such as YouTube, and social networking sites etc. Some estimates have Internet video increasing four fold by 2011. However, my day eleven wish is certainly not for that number to increase, although it will undoubtedly hit some mind numbing figure by the end of 2008. No, I’m wishing for businesses to “get” the value of video too, not just consumers, and for vendors to help them “get it” without the hype.
As Ross Daniels of Cisco said to me, “This time around video will work – no more talking heads”. That is what I’m hoping for, even though I don’t personally use video conferencing or video messaging - yet. And speaking of Cisco, lots of people who know me know that I’m a walking advertisement for Cisco TelePresence despite its current price point. If I had a spare $300+K and the money to pay for monthly bandwidth, I’d put one in my house. Indeed I do have the wish that Cisco would drop the price and make it affordable to more than the elite, but my wish isn’t about everyone having TelePresence in their house or business, it’s about video used intelligently and productively as part of a unified communications strategy, in ways that are valuable for the user.
Video conferencing and collaboration are valuable components of UC. Besides enabling face-to-face meetings without the energy and time drain of travel, it is convenient and allows workers to respond faster and get work done quicker with less stress. For and example that is a lighthearted look at some of these benefits you should check out iLinc’s Web Conferencing Smock video on YouTube.
The value of video goes way beyond conferencing, however. Video on demand (VOD) can be an integral part of business processes, not just for distance learning, but also for things like agent training within the contact center, or training of any type for that matter. Log on when you have time, access the video you need, and voila, a mini training course is right there.
Video messaging can be just as powerful too. Let’s take, for example, Active Voice’s video messaging product – VideoMail, which was recently introduced. VideoMail allows users to create and send video messages and screen captures by way of email, and if the person isn’t near a screen, they can hear the audio portion of the video over the phone. Video messaging like this can be used as a way to push training to people, like contact center agents, by a supervisor, rather than waiting for the agent to remember to do it. It’s invaluable for demonstrations of any kind that you might not be able to do in person or in real-time. For example, let’s say a person has a problem with their computer and can’t get a hold of someone to fix it right away. By capturing the screen shots of the sequence the user went through that shows the problem, and sending them as a message to the IT person, the problem can be addressed without both parties needing to be there at the same time. I can think of dozens of uses for video messaging like this from solving business problems to just having fun messaging people with video. I believe that video is going to become one of the hottest and most useful pieces of unified communications.
I have one last thought before I go and slave away cooking for Christmas. Maybe I’m shortchanging myself here. Maybe Santa will bring me a TelePresence system and five years of free bandwidth. Hmmm. Dear Santa,…….