Virtually Speaking

Nearly six years ago, HP Halo set out to improve the experience of videoconferencing, raising the bar for what people could do in a virtual meeting, enabling just about everything but the ability to physically touch each other.

Since launching HP Visual Collaboration in December 2005, HP has consistently innovated in the telepresence market to bring customers solutions that help them to collaborate more easily and more frequently. Take a look at how HP Visual Collaboration has evolved.

Let the legacy live on!  HP Technology Services, the HP channel and HP itself, will work hand in hand with Polycom to continue to serve Halo customers at the highest level and deliver on all customer needs for visual collaboration with a broad portfolio. Thanks for a great ride to the leadership at HP, our customers, and bloggers and press who covered us.

Virtually Yours,

The HP Visual Collaboration Team

Companies around the globe are increasing their focus on environmental sustainability and looking for new ways to be more environmentally responsible. The companies turning to visual collaboration and videoconferencing solutions are able to decrease travel and, in turn, lessen their environmental impact. But, how much of an effect does this really have? The following infographic looks at this topic and highlights how collaboration technologies can contribute to a company’s corporate social responsibility strategy. 

When Jane Corey was 37 minutes into her five person conference call, she heard a distinct sound in the background: typing. Henry in the London office had forgotten to put his phone on mute, but that wasn’t the point. If he was responding to an email he had just received, then he was missing the corporate sustainability initiative she had just laid out to the rest of her team. With her company’s business becoming more and more global, Jane was facing new challenges when trying to communicate and collaborate with a globally dispersed team.

Jane’s story is not uncommon. In fact, as the number of businesses that expand overseas continues to increase, more leaders are finding themselves in similar situations.  However, avoiding three of the top communication pitfalls will help increase team morale and overall productivity.

1.       Mute Button Syndrome

Group attention during a three-hour conference call usually wanes within the first 10 minutes. That’s when many find themselves multitasking.  This might seem like the best way to accomplish more, but studies have consistently shown that multitasking reduces the quality of work across the multiple tasks. While face-to-face meetings provide the best opportunity for teams to connect, modern videoconferencing tools enable teams to actively participate in discussion. Receiving feedback in real-time through videoconferencing enabled DreamWorks Animation to go from producing one movie a year to three movies every two years. This face-to-face engagement increased the company’s productivity and allowed its employees to work more efficiently.

2.       Cultural Sensitivity

Global business brings global perspectives and varying ways of conducting day-to-day operations. Some cultures appreciate direct feedback while others cringe when receiving public recognition. Some groups prefer to meet over tea or dinner several times to build a level of trust before jumping in to a new business proposal. By understanding the cultural nuances, doing a little research and asking the right questions, you will be in a better position for success as you shape and build your team and business across the globe.

3.       Disconnected Remote Teams

Teams with diverse backgrounds and cultures can produce better work when they are given the tools to foster regular collaboration.. However, when teams are disassociated the work becomes siloed and performance falters. Team building exercises are not limited to company outings. With visual collaboration and videoconferencing tools, teams can be encouraged to work as a group, even when being thousands of miles apart.

What are the top communications pitfalls that you’ve experienced in your company? What have you done to overcome them?

This is one of our cooler infographics, I think!   Take a look at all the reasons videoconferencing - from desk, home, mobile phone, tablet  - makes sense for companies. Do 50% of workers really multitask while on audio calls?  I bet it's higher at most firms - well, so much for true engagement and collaboration.  Would you prefer conducting video calls on a tablet?  Or, are you the type who only works at work at the desktop, and saves mobile devices for your private life? More and more remote devices are enabling work, but at your pace and from your locations of choice.

We have definitely reached a tipping point.  Where, when and how we work has changed dramatically.  The reach of business has broadened beyond the office and blurred our view of the “traditional” office dynamic.  This shift is being driven in large part by the increase of remote teams and dispersed global organizations coupled with the influx of mobile technologies, giving us the power of communicating anywhere business or life takes us.  As the modern workforce continues to evolve and change how they work, more enterprises are adopting collaboration technologies to help foster face-to-face communications.

HP is on the forefront enabling this.  Happy collaborating!

At this week’s InfoComm Conference I had the opportunity to participate in an “Industry Leaders Session” with industry experts from Cisco Systems, LifeSize, Polycom, Sony and Starleaf.

The discussion focused on the evolution of integrated communications technology. At HP, the feedback we’ve heard from our customers and industry influencers speaks for itself; users love immersive visual collaboration. According to a recent survey conducted by Berstein, nearly 100% of the respondents would use visual collaboration as an acceptable replacement for a face-to-face meeting. In addition when, where and how we work has changed from a more traditional work environment to a globally dispersed, mobile workforce. With this shift, we’ve seen three trends emerge that are impacting enterprise video adoption.

Besides the consolidation in the industry I also noted the following trends:

1. Video quality will continue to improve, while costs for underlying technology will continue to fall. For example, the cost of bandwidth and the cost of HD cameras is dropping dramatically. Just a few years ago, an HDV camcorder would have cost more than $3,500, and today they are available for under $1,000[1]. This dramatic decrease in cost is driving businesses to adopt the new technology.

2.  Video must be an integral part of Unified Communications (UC) platforms. InformationWeek is reporting that 75 percent of enterprises plan to use teleconferencing by 2013[2]. This type of integrated UC is accessible through the use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), and is being offered by vendors such as Microsoft, Avaya and IBM. Interoperability of video with leading UC platforms is now required to maintain a strong market presence.

3.  Video applications will be hosted in the cloud. Video will move off-premise with an Internet-scale cloud services platform hosted through datacenters. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Applications can be maintained and operated by providing on-demand computing, storage video applications, such as video conferencing from SMBs, and also video capture, edit and streaming.

As these trends progress, the adoption of HD video as a cloud-based communications platform will continue to attract users, as businesses recognize and pursue the potential for connectivity with anyone, anywhere, and at anytime.

Thanks to all who were able to attend the session as well as those who were able to stop by the HP booth during the event and experience the HP Visual Collaboration Concept Studio showcased. For those who weren’t able to be there in person, are there other trends that you see driving the industry?

Best,

Jim