There’s no doubt that the pandemic, and the resulting shift to work-from-home, drove massive adoption in video conferencing. Metrigy’s research shows that video is now the new voice, with 60.9% of companies using it for all or most meetings and calls (even for 1:1 calls), and 75.0% saying that video is an important or business critical technology to support operations.
Along with the shift to work from home has come the rapidly rising adoption of Microsoft Teams as the predominant business video meeting application, with more than 75% of companies now using it.
Now, as organizations reopen offices, a successful video strategy requires ensuring high quality experiences regardless of location, enabling equal meeting experiences for those both in meeting rooms and working from remote locations. To achieve success, IT and business leaders must turn their focus toward optimizing both in-office meeting spaces and personal video devices to support hybrid work.
A successful strategy for delivering reliable and high-quality Microsoft Teams video requires addressing two components: Endpoints and management.
Research participants are heavily investing in deploying video systems into their in-office meeting spaces, with 31.2% planning to deploy video conferencing systems to all rooms and meeting spaces, and an additional 23.9% provisioning room systems into most spaces.
Even those who have already deployed video endpoints are refreshing rooms on an average of every three years to ensure they have the highest quality meeting experience and to take advantage of rapidly emerging, AI-powered capabilities to improve voice and video quality.
Key trends we’ve seen in our research among those using Microsoft Teams for meetings include:
The last thing an employee wants to do when entering a conference room is to navigate a mess of cables before starting a meeting, and then have to configure personal laptop settings to enable in-room cameras and audio devices.
Rather, they want the ability to enter a conference room and quickly launch a meeting. Video bars, with integrated camera, microphones, speakers, and computing capability, controlled via a touch screen or touch pad, simplify meeting join and management.
Metrigy’s cost data shows that integrated bar devices are, on average, 26% cheaper to implement and manage on an ongoing basis than disjointed room devices.
It’s not enough to upgrade the room experience. High quality personal video devices can improve experiences for remote employees or those who choose to attend meetings from their desks. Nearly 29% of our research participants will provision such devices by the end of 2021, mostly to executives, customer service representatives, sales people, or for general use by whoever wants them.
Voice and video quality management remains a top challenge as many organizations still lack access into meeting performance, especially for remote employees who may have poor Internet connectivity or Wi-Fi coverage. While Microsoft Teams provides its own set of application management capabilities, additional investments are required to fully enable end-to-end performance management to room systems and personal devices, both in the office and for remote employees.
Voice and video quality management remains a top challenge as many organizations still lack access into meeting performance, especially for remote employees who may have poor Internet connectivity or Wi-Fi coverage. While Microsoft Teams provides its own set of application management capabilities, additional investments are required to fully enable end-to-end performance management to room systems and personal devices, both in the office and for remote employees.
Facilities planners are able to leverage room occupancy data gathered from in-room systems to track overall room utilization. This information can help organizations understand if they have the right mix of meeting space sizes, or if they need to reconfigure meeting rooms to better align with demonstrated need.
A proactive approach to provisioning high quality devices and ensuring effective management is required for Microsoft Teams video success. The future of work is hybrid, and as such, requires IT and business leaders to plan for a ubiquitous video future that requires high quality experiences whether remote or in-office, or at one’s desk or in the conference room. You should evaluate endpoints and management platforms that provide you with performance management, analytics, and that enable end-to-end visibility regardless of employee location.
ABOUT METRIGY: Metrigy is an innovative research firm focusing on the rapidly changing areas of Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC), digital workplace, digital transformation, and Customer Experience (CX)/contact center—along with several related technologies. Metrigy delivers strategic guidance and informative content, backed by primary research metrics and analysis, for technology providers and enterprise organizations.
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About the Author
Guest post by Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy
Irwin Lazar is President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy where he develops and manages research projects, conducts and analyzes primary research, and advises enterprise and vendor clients on technology strategy, adoption and business metrics.