Hardware is back! 

Just like for theatre, nightclubbing and mass live events; the slow, post-pandemic re-opening of physical office space is creating a buzz. 

As a result, organisations for whom smart connective technology has provided essential continuity throughout lockdown are now eyeing the hybrid working model and assessing whether they have kit that is fit for purpose.  

Workforces and customers are still likely to require remote flexibility as they divide their time between home and office – and increasing numbers are turning instinctively to video whenever the need to communicate arises. 

And that means many organisations’ current video conferencing resource need serious scrutiny. 

“Now is the moment for businesses to take stock and ensure they are ready for the next iteration of the workplace,” says Jeff May, UK Sales Director at Swedish-based global audio and video collaboration endpoints giant Konftel. 

“There has been massive growth in the use of video and it’s critical that the new hybrid working model responds to what has become the default method of communication for so many.  

“Choice and flexibility will be the key. Organisations will still need dedicated video-equipped conference and board rooms, but they will also need video everywhere else.  

“Workforces will demand fantastic quality too; whether they are back in the office or working from home.   

“Consequently, businesses will have to quickly understand how video needs to fit into their communications portfolios and then make the right investment for now AND the future.  

“That’s an exciting conversation for resellers to start having with their customers, and we’re ready to support them.”  

There will be many video-related post-lockdown questions for businesses to fathom going forward.  

Where will their employees be located?  

Will physical office meeting rooms need to be reconfigured to accommodate social distancing? 

Is existing video equipment compatible with the collaboration platform of choice such as Microsoft Teams, Webex, Go To Meeting or the others?  

Is the audio equipment sufficiently powerful for the size of room and socially-distanced seating? 

Have they kept pace with the recent advance in the quality of video and audio technology?  

And, all-importantly, what budget do they have to work with in order to be where they need to be?  

“Home workers have been getting by with poor-quality integrated webcams and mics in their laptops, but quality of image and audio is now so much more important that that is no longer a long-term viable proposition”

“Back in the physical office, lots of people getting up from their desks and trooping into a large conference room in order to have a meeting will be much less likely. Instead, people will meet over video from their desks or smaller, or reconfigured rooms or open hot-desking areas.  

“Importantly, they will do so over their organisations’ preferred collaboration platform and so video kit will have to be compatible.  

“Also, quality is now super-important. Everyone now knows you stand out for all the wrong reasons if your picture is fuzzy so, preferably, it has to be HD and 4K.  

“Finally, cost will always be important so it’s vital organisations understand the various pricing options and that the right return on investment can be demonstrated.”  

Re: that final point, many organisations will be unaware of how relatively-inexpensive it is to video-equip (or upgrade) their workforces with high-quality kit. 

Whatever the cost, such a strategy will always be many times more cost-effective than returning to the bad old days of default face-to-face meetings and the resulting waste of time and money. 

But more than that, the WFH model forced upon us by the pandemic has ensured that video is now firmly established as the go-to method of communication for business both large and small.  

That has happened organically: people simply adapted to the challenges of lockdown by turning to technology for help. 

That means communication via video is no longer a luxury, it’s an essential.  

And as ‘sells’ go, they don’t come much more compelling… 

To learn about Konftel’s multi award-winning range of climate-neutral, OmniSound-powered video collaboration solutions, visit www.konftel.com 

 

 



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