Business Collaboration. It’s high on the agenda of most modern businesses, fundamental to their future success and a major challenge facing many business leaders. More than a buzzword, it is an essential component of modern global businesses that all rely on the core ability of their teams to work efficiently, productively and creatively.
...organisations demanded instant access to video, audio and content collaboration regardless of network bandwidth, device platform, quality or location – video collaboration had become pervasive...
So how did business collaboration technology start? Remember the fax machine? These wonders of the 80’s once dominated every office and were, at the time, seen as the ultimate in business to business communication. Of course, poor quality black and white faxed copies of documents are far removed from today’s live document annotation and editing facilities, but at the time it was cutting edge, saving huge amounts of time and more importantly money.
Roll on to 1995 and the appearance of email which introduced a whole new dimension to business communications. Now we could send high quality, full colour documents to a colleague, supplier or client anywhere in the world - instantly. Suddenly the world was a much smaller place and organisations could achieve global communications.
What next? With the advent of video conferencing, face to face communication became a reality, bringing the ability to see and hear the person you were talking to, and react to facial expressions, body language and those subtle signs that really let you know what that other person is thinking. It also allowed users to really start making personal business relationships because they got to know much more about the individual than could ever be achieved using a phone or sending a fax or via an email conversation.
Video conferencing capabilities expanded with the ability to send content streams alongside video and audio. Colleagues could now see all appropriate meeting resources, discuss actions and implement changes on the fly during a video call. Collaborative business meetings had become agile.
Huge advances in internet and network technologies soon meant that High Definition video and remote access were a reality for all, not just the big corporations. Influenced in no small way by the invention of the smartphone and the revolutionary iPad tablet, the business collaboration sector was set for yet another revolution.
Enter Microsoft Lync soon to become Skype for Business. Suddenly organisations had the ability to hold virtual meetings over video from a wide range of consumer driven devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones. High Definition quality standards suddenly weren’t the driving force as accessibility rapidly took over as the nirvana. Now people and organisations demanded instant access to video, audio and content collaboration regardless of network bandwidth, device platform, quality or location. Video collaboration had become pervasive, it was everywhere and the demand for access rapidly became a high strategic priority for many business leaders.
The launch of dedicated collaboration products pioneered by Microsoft with the Surface Hub, took business collaboration to a whole new level. These integrated hardware solutions meant that business communications benefited from high definition video, audio and with true multi-party content editing. Multiple participants could now work in real time as if they were all in the same room. The ability to do this regardless of location brought rapid strategic business benefits to many organisations.
The big technology providers were quick to see the opportunity with Google and Cisco introducing similar environments with the introduction of Hangouts and Spark which unfortunately echoed the limitations of early video conferencing systems, with proprietary environments that required all meeting participants to be on the same platform. This wasn’t a major hurdle for internal communication, but it did create detrimental barriers for business to business collaboration.
Visavvi saw the potential for open platform collaboration and introduced solutions built on the ability to install third party app’s and software to provide greater flexibility for organisations who required access to multiple collaboration platforms such as Skype for Business, Cisco Slack, Cisco Spark, Google hangouts, Zoom, standards-based Video conferencing and consumer Skype to name a few. Liberty is a flexible highly responsive collaboration screen based on Windows OS that allows organisations to benefit from highly secure, open platform collaboration, with IT teams allowed to install their preferred cyber security and anti-virus applications. IT managers can easily deploy, manage, monitor and support devices as part of their IT estate. Users are presented with a familiar interface in which to access all their content via a single sign-on, driving user adoption, business agility and return on investment beyond the expectations of most businesses.
Visavvi’s subscription based Convene service provides video, audio and content collaboration via the cloud all in a simple format which is accessible for organisations of all sizes at any location, using any device or platform. The ability to scale as and when business demands dictate, alongside rapid same business day deployment, has made Convene the default choice for many businesses.
Bringing strategic business benefits beyond digital workplace transformation. Industry leading system design, installation and support services from Visavvi ensure every collaboration environment is provided with a tailored blend of technologies that are extremely easy for users to walk in and work. Today technology becomes almost invisible to users. Gone are the days of multiple remote controls, questions over how to join a call, looking for an IT expert to start the meeting, wasted time working out how environments work.
Through an intrinsic commitment to detailed consultation, Visavvi have become trusted collaboration advisors and partners to many established global brands, empowering their businesses to communicate without barriers.
