Who HASN’T heard of video conferencing? From grandparents wanting to keep in touch with grandchildren during the pandemic, to weekly networking meetings and daily work briefings, the increase in video conferencing has been astronomical during lockdown. Advances in technology have allowed it to become a viable way of keeping many businesses afloat during physical office closures, with some companies reassessing working practices to include video conferencing as an alternative to face-to-face meetings and general communications going forward.
Back in April, Ofcom reported that Zoom users increased from 659,000 in January to a staggering 13 million in April; an increase of over 1872%. And Zoom isn’t the only company benefiting from the lockdown – according to this report, Microsoft Teams hit 75 million users at the end of April, increasing its user base by 12 million in just one week at the very beginning of March.
Now a staple of everyday life, the Zoom Boom is showing no signs of slowing. As increasing numbers of workers are choosing, or being told, to work from home, never has there been a better time to own a video conferencing software company (Eric Yuan, who owns 20% of Zoom company is the world’s 146th richest person and is worth an impressive $10.8bn)! Even Facebook has muscled in on the act, offering Rooms via its Messenger app, and Google is getting in on the act with Meet.
But, with each platform hailed and criticised in equal measure, you may be confused as to which is the best for your business. Which you opt for depends not only on your budget and size of team, but also on what you need from video conferencing – do you want Q&A and poll capabilities? Are your calls going to be straightforward video chats, or will you need to share screens and documents?
If you need any advice regarding which software is best for your company’s needs, look no further – at Bells IT, we use the world’s leading products to ensure your conferences will go ahead seamlessly (but do read through these conference call fails, just to avoid ‘going viral’ when interrupted by kids, or a toilet break, or immortalized as a potato… ).