The travelling conference room

Recently, Infonetics released its latest enterprise telepresence and video conferencing equipment report showing stale growth among videoconferencing tools. In fact, Enterprise Networking Planet dubbed the market as going “flat.”

But with fewer face-to-face meetings taking place thanks to globally dispersed workforces, how can this be the case?

A deeper dive into the report revealed a shift in trends from the sale of hardware to software. It’s not that video calls are disappearing altogether – it’s that people are no longer making these calls from immobile videoconferencing hardware, confined to a conference room or a siloed executive wing.

The main reason for this shift is, of course, the proliferation of BYOD. Most mobile devices for personal and work use are capable of connecting to videoconferencing and other communication tools without restriction.

As opposed to congregating in a physical meeting room equipped with the hardware to make a video call, business people are choosing to treat their mobile devices as movable communication hubs enabling them to collaborate with colleagues via whichever tool is most suitable for that particular function – from instant messaging to texts, email through to video calls.

Having to be in a fixed place at a fixed time for a call is less desirable as more people work remotely or hold meetings whilst out on the road. In our personal and professional lives, we increasingly demand this convenience, but equally expect seamlessness. After all, no matter how quick a method may be, we won’t use it if we risk experiencing problems joining calls or dropping off the line halfway through an important meeting.

This is why at Tata Communications we’re expanding our unified communications (UC) portfolio, with the launch of three new UC solutions to provide businesses with connectivity, collaboration and productivity anywhere, anytime and from any device.

Across voice, video, chat and presence, we’re working to deliver seamless and ubiquitous applications and services from the cloud, anywhere in the world, which are accessible through a rich set of APIs and software development kits.

As businesses grow and expand domestically and internationally, they need a sophisticated way to manage their communications and collaboration – meeting the demand of employees that want to connect instantly, wherever they may be.

By equipping these organisations with choice through a breadth of solutions and in-built interoperability, businesses and their employees can fully realise the potential of a connected world, freeing themselves from the confines of the traditional static conference room.

What are your views on the trend of conferencing moving away from its traditional fixed state? Leave a comment below.