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CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATION
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By Andy Nolan , Vice President UK , Ireland and Northern Europe , Lifesize
www . lifesize . com
As businesses employ distributed workforces around the world the demand for enterprise-ready cloud video communication needs to be met
Organisations are finding themselves under increasing pressure to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to business communication . With an increasing gap in skills , lack of local workforce , increasing travel expenses and expensive office space , companies are starting to come to the realisation that communication technology considered acceptable just a couple of years ago , has quickly become outdated and in need of modernisation .
With flexible working expected to be the main way of working for 70 % of organisations by 2020 , businesses need to consider this option to remain competitive and attractive to millennials who will make up half the global workforce by 2020 , and expect this way of working . For an organisation to work effectively in this way , some serious thought needs to be given to how they manage their communications .
As businesses employ a larger volume of remote workers who rely heavily on multiple communication platforms , there is a higher demand than ever for the most modern , intuitive offerings . Remote workers and their in-office colleagues want , and expect , easy consumer-like anytime , anywhere access to collaboration tools that allow them to interact face-to-face whether they ’ re at home , in the office or somewhere between .
Despite the myriad of potential solutions , IT professionals are finding it increasingly costly and time-consuming , and in some cases , impossible to upgrade their equipment and infrastructure to meet the changing needs of their organisations . A growing number are switching from working with multiple on premise solutions to choosing one cloudbased Software as a Service ( SaaS ) video conferencing provider . A successful move to cloud-based video communication technology requires a few key steps :
Review cloud advantages and capabilities
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First , ensure you ’ re making the decision that best meets the needs of your organisation . Most businesses move to a cloud solution in search of a number of benefits .
Reduced cost
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IT departments are under pressure to reduce expenses . Investing in on-premise video conferencing infrastructure and hardware can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds . A cloud-based video conferencing service extends IT budgets much further than a lump sum upfront payment for an on-premises solution .
Increased flexibility
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It ’ s difficult to deliver and support video conferencing sessions that may be scheduled with little or no notice , but this kind of flexibility and agility is required in a dynamic business environment . With an intuitive cloud-based application , IT administrators can get valuable time back by enabling users to become more self-sufficient . And
enterprise-class cloud-based video communication platforms offer more flexibility to scale up or down , as per business and user requirements than those services that grew out of consumer applications .
Simplified automation
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IT admins who choose a cloud-based video conferencing vendor no longer need to struggle with the decision of whether to build and manage the video conference infrastructure in-house , freeing up valuable time , money and effort . A web-based admin console gives IT administrators easy access to dashboards to check usage statistics and to customise settings .
Increased device diversity
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Video conferencing software needs to support a wide range of bring your own device ( BYOD ) technology . It can be challenging for on-premises support staff to stay current on all of the different smartphones and operating systems upgrades , so organisations often prefer to give that task to a cloud provider who can also handle seamless integration and support . Professional cloud-based video conferencing solutions bring collaboration to the devices employees use every day from browser- and desktop-based applications for laptops and tablets to mobile applications for smartphones . With this option there ' s no need to worry about software version or complicated updates .
6 Interoperability On-premise video conferencing products usually lack interoperability , and still live in a proprietary software world that requires users to purchase an expensive gateway appliance to call third-party video communication devices . Organisational decision makers who move video
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