Video conferencing 'driven by environmental and economic factors'

Firms that are considering document scanning and storage services in order to make their office greener may also be interested in video conferencing as a way to reduce emissions and save on costs.

According to Jon Knight, audio visual expert at Smarterinteractive.co.uk, environmental and economic factors are the main drivers behind the growing popularity of video conferencing.

"Businesses are under more pressure to make a profit by looking to reduce costs and there's the green angle of reducing carbon footprint," he pointed out. "In particular, the large corporations want to try and promote themselves as being green in that sense or have green targets to meet."

Another driver is that of improved communication, as companies want to prioritise effective communication between staff without them having to get on a plane or in a car.

"There are also the environmental factors - like the volcanic eruption a few years ago, which happened at a time where there quite a lot of economic climate factors made businesses realise that, depending on what they do, especially if they [were involved with] travel - there's quite a degree of vulnerability to it," Mr Knight noted.

Video conferencing could also allow businesses to introduce flexible working to their staff, meaning employees can work from home or other locations outside of the office and cut down on commuting costs and time spent travelling.

Of course, firms that want to bring in remote working policies may need to review their offsite backup policies to ensure staff can access the documents and applications they need wherever they are working from.

"Broadband access, video conferencing and the trend towards cloud computing means global communication is easier than ever before," reported the Financial Times, adding that rising fuel costs are deterring workers from commuting to and from the office all the time and making remote working a more attractive prospect.
 

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