The advancement of technology has transformed how we live our lives and conduct business. This advancement has reduced the necessity of a lot of things which were quite common and taken for granted, such as business travel. It has always been expansive and tedious but has always been accepted as a business necessity. However, the advent of video conferencing technologies and the widespread proliferation of high-speed internet has made business travel for the purpose of meetings largely redundant. Let us take a closer look at the many advantages provided by video conferencing over traditional means.
It saves time
Travel is very time-consuming. Especially in today’s age of multinationals, international travel has many regulations and visa formalities that need to be dealt with. Most trips, even for one or two meetings, last multiple days. Video conferencing allows companies to cut down the time that its staff spend on travelling to different offices in order to conduct meetings.
It saves cost
The cost associated with travel is quite huge. The employees travelling for meetings have to be compensated not just for travel expenses, they also have to be often paid extra for the time spent travelling for business. These costs add up a lot, especially for international travel to distant locations. Video conferencing costs almost nothing compared to that. One can set up video conferencing equipment for just the cost of one international travel, and then the cost of each conference is essentially nothing.
Flexibility of arranging meeting
The savings of time and money allow companies to arrange frequent meetings and also at more flexible timings. Thus, this can improve the overall communication among the company, since the cost associated with the communication is drastically cut down. It also allows some employees who may have some issues with travel to participate in meetings.
Accessibility
The technology that enables telecommunication has trickled down and today almost everyone has access to it. Today every smartphone has all you need to participate in a video conference call, and even professional commercial grade teleconference equipment have gotten cheaper. High-speed internet is readily available, making it possible to participate even from home.