It can be overwhelming to even begin to think about purchasing a video conferencing and collaboration solution. No matter how up-to-speed your IT department and generous your budget, you will find yourself lost and flailing in a tornado of jargon and sales pitches if you don't know which questions to ask of both yourself and the person intent on selling you a video conferencing solution. Use the following five questions to light your way through the process.
1. What Are My Needs?
This is an obvious first question--of course you’re going to examine your needs before buying something--but it’s the question you’ll spend the most time answering, so be prepared to investigate every nook and cranny of this particular query as it splits off into an array of sub-questions. How big is your organization? Is everyone on site or do you have a mobile workforce? How many rooms will you want to equip with video conferencing gear? Will you be using video conferencing for formal meetings or for more informal brainstorming sessions or both? Do you need highly secure on-premises storage or will the cloud suffice? See, it can go on and on. But as you answer each question in the series, you will find your options narrow until you’re left with the ideal solution. Be thorough and patient. You will find what you are looking for.
2. What Can I Afford?
Again, this is an obvious one. But too often, the answer to the question can discourage potential buyers of video conferencing solutions. So if your answer is “not as much as I’d like,” there’s no need to worry. With a subscription service like Prime Call Cloud UC, for example, you can connect absolutely any hardware endpoint (Skype for Business, Cisco, Polycom et al.) to the cloud, which eliminates the burdensome costs otherwise associated with video conferencing infrastructure. This is not to mention the various subscription options, which can accommodate organizations of all sizes.
3. What’s The Learning Curve?
The last thing you want to do is implement a video conferencing solution that mystifies your employees and results in endlessly frustrating training sessions. You want something that increases productivity, not something that causes a work stoppage. If you have a sizable workforce with varying degrees of technical savvy, you might want to consider something from Polycom, which offers end to end videos solutions that are easy to use.
4. Is There Mobile Access?
It’s pretty much impossible to conceive of a company that will not require some form of intra- and interoffice mobile communication. So you’ll want to be certain that your video conferencing solution offers robust and flexible options for people on the move.
5. Will This Be Obsolete Tomorrow?
If you’re looking into immersive telepresence solutions, you need to ask yourself how the technology will age as your company grows (or shrinks) and as new innovations change the landscape of your industry. If you’re considering a cloud-based mobile solution, make sure it is a scalable one that can expand and contract as your organization changes size. You never know what the future will hold, so choose a solution that will accommodate unexpected changes.
If you have questions or need guidance, contact us and we’ll have one of our experts get back to you as soon as possible.
In the meantime, you can jump right in and explore our full range of video conferencing and collaboration solutions.
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