More and more business owners, both big and small, are searching nationwide and worldwide to reach out to the top-notch employees and their services. Without a qualified people, no company can survive in today’s business playground that constantly changes and develops. However, it could be a daunting challenge to keep a lot of people in the loop, especially if they are geographically divided. So, what is the possible solution?
Luckily for businesses owners, there are a variety of web hosting solutions these days, which are affordable, effective, and flexible. The virtual cloud-based meeting is one of the biggest advantages of the Internet age we are living in. This is especially true for the businesses. Thus, even the most remote locations are no longer obstacles for your business. In addition to businesses, these cloud-based booking systems are also convenient for other industries like education, healthcare, and government. Actually, there is no limit to who can use them. Any organization or company who has a need for online meetings can make use of it.
Gone are the days of live room conference. Many business people have replaced this for web conferencing. It is quite easy to implement virtual meeting today. You can do it either through a meeting room software or online cloud-based system. No need to download meeting software to your PC or laptop and run it from there. You can access the same apps and services on the web by means of online cloud-based management solution, such as escribemeetings.com/solutions.
There are numerous advantages of the virtual meeting over live meeting. Below, you can see the 10 most important benefits of cloud-based meetings.
1. Save Time
Time is money in the business world. With that being said, you can save a lot of your time through cloud-based platforms. They save time for all users, including business owners, receptionists, managers, and other staff members. The users can quickly invite attendees, view all available meeting rooms (if the meeting requires several rooms), order their services, and review relevant info about the meeting. Down time is completely eliminated or considerably reduced, which ensures high availability and high performance. This way you can significantly increase the productivity of your staff while focusing only on key things.
Aside from this, virtual meetings reduce the time you would otherwise have to spend organizing travel. This is very important for those meetings that involve people from around the state or the world. The virtual online meeting can come together almost anywhere in contrast to live, physical meeting. People can join and attend a virtual meeting at any web-connected place. What’s more, you can even attend such a meeting on the go or while traveling, if the need arises.
2. Data Security
The cloud-based meeting systems offer complete protection thanks to the highly-efficient disaster recovery technology. Once you’ve stored your data or files in the cloud, you will be able to access and use them at any point. No matter what happens to your computer. Let’s say you have uploaded some sensitive information in the cloud and lost your laptop shortly thereafter. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to delete info from the cloud remotely and thus ensure that important data can’t get into the wrong hands. The cloud-based systems are backed by several servers so that if one of the servers fails for some reason, everything will be migrated to another server. That means there’s no loss of data.
During the physical business meeting, you must pass out documents and materials to your staff. After that, some of the papers end up in the circular files or even get lost. This is not the case with a virtual meeting. When holding a virtual meeting, you send documents to each person. Apart from preserving your materials, it ensures that everyone gets needed documents.
Besides, the cloud-based systems are supported for safe firewall traversals, allowing meetings with people outside your organization, such as suppliers, business partners, and coworkers. There is also support for encryption, which allows users to conduct their virtual meetings with confidence. And that’s not all. The vast majority of cloud host providers offer the latest security technologies that protect your data against viruses, Trojans, worms, DDoS attacks, unauthorized intrusions, and much more. All this ensures a great data security.
3. Lower Costs
One of the most significant advantages of cloud-based meetings over the face-to-face meetings is lower cost. Virtual meetings help cut down on expenses and save money. This is why many businesses, especially the small ones, prefer conducting meetings online.
Why spend money renting cars or flying in clients. Instead, you can go for a virtual solution and eliminate these expenses. While letting users simply pay as they go, cloud-based conferencing eliminates the high costs of hardware. That’s because expenditures and equipment needed for such a conference are notably reduced since there’s nothing to maintain and deploy. That is a huge saving for any business.
One may ask how to pay for an online meeting. Most private cloud resources are billed monthly through pay-per-use cost structures. What does this payment structure mean? Well, it is much the same as paying utility bills. It doesn’t require from you to pay for resources you don’t need, which is a notable cost saving. That makes cloud-based management solutions a popular choice for organizations and enterprises.
4. Improved Collaboration
It’s possible to access and share booking and other relevant information about online meeting anytime and anywhere. And you can do it on a 24/7 basis! Whether you are in the office, at your home, or elsewhere, you can access to data and get to work. Off course, you should have an Internet connection in order to use it.
The cloud-based systems provide full visibility into business collaborations. Besides, they let users update info in real-time. This allows all meeting participants to do more together and result in enhanced collaboration. For instance, they can order services, make booking requests, go through the available rooms, and more. Entitle entire company and increase efficiency. Aim to enable each meeting room and every employee with a certain cloud-based solution. You can distribute employees in different offices as well as schedule online meetings for different times or dates. That will help you allow everyone to attend the meeting and involve your entire team.
5. Great Flexibility
Operational agility and great workplace flexibility is another big advantage. Resource booking software and cloud-based meeting are ideal for those with either fluctuating or growing demands. This is because virtual meeting systems let businesses increase or reduce their cloud capacity at any time. Moreover, a cloud-based system allows employees to manage hoteling and hot desking alike. While optimizing the workspace, this feature gives users more flexibility in where, when, and how they want to work.
Some people cannot attend a physical meeting for some reason. Perhaps someone from your team is traveling, someone else is out sick, and the like. The absence of key people can affect the success of a meeting and your business as well. A virtual meeting ensures that all people from your team will be present at a meeting, regardless of where they are.
6. Easy to Use and Set Up
All you need to have to conduct a virtual meeting is an Internet connection and modern web browser. It’s fairly easy to use and set up a cloud-based room. You should not install, download or upgrade anything. Such a meeting is backed by off-site servers. That means the vendor takes responsibility for security updates and operation of the regular software. No need to struggle with how to maintain the cloud-based system. This allows you to focus on your business.
During a meeting, you can always access your business’s website. You can configure the cloud platform and optimize your resources according to your business needs. To meet your unique enterprise needs, you need to configure and customize the cloud-based platform. All these features ensure hassle free user experience. The cloud host provides you a team of technicians and experts who are in charge of technical aspects of your meeting. So, you do not have to bother with complicated setup.
The cloud-based solutions offer simple usability and management. There is no worry on how to keep the video meeting. Typically, the service provider suggests and manages the best possible solution. The tasks are simplified by administrators through a web console. This results in quick and easy settings.
7. Continuous Monitoring
Meeting management software monitors meeting room usage all the time during a meeting. It notifies each host when a new guest arrives and prints the name badge for every guest who enters a room. A good cloud-based system lets you easily generate your reports about resource utilization and meeting room. All cancellations and changes are handled automatically. For example, if you cancel or change a meeting, the system is going to be updated in no time. The system will immediately notify service providers and attendees about any change.
Each user of the private cloud receives essential resources almost instantly. A specific software constantly monitors storage space, available memory, bandwidth, and the cloud server itself. When needed, the software automatically reallocates resources and turns off those which are no longer required.
Automated software updates make sure you or someone else from your team will never use an out-of-date software. The new features are automatically applied to all connected apps and video systems. This ensures that every member of your team has the latest software version.
8. Availability On All Devices
Many cloud-based systems offer mobile access, so you aren’t restricted by devices. That means you can use such systems via smartphone apart from your computer. You can get all the features you’re using in mobile apps. This is particularly beneficial for people on the go, as they can attend online meetings from different places. Cloud-based meeting applications offer a modern way to conduct a business meeting and manage your workspace. Those apps enable you to book a virtual room and desk, order extra services, reserve equipment, and much more. You can do it via your desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
Enjoy high quality while removing interoperability. By using a cloud-based solution, you can bring high-quality audio and video to your mobile devices. Aside from that, you can get rid of interoperability among users. No matter what devices they use. The users can record and share audio and video files from any device, whether it be a PC, tablet, laptop, or smartphone.
Also, you can get access to recorded videos and images instantly and organize them in a video library. Create your personal video library and easily view and/or share your recordings with a peace of mind.
9. Worldwide Opportunities
Let’s say you want to meet potential clients who are too busy and cannot take their time to travel. Or maybe you need to host a meeting for clients from all around the globe, but not everyone can come to the meeting. This is where virtual cloud-based meeting comes in! Instead of a traditional face-to-face meeting, make use of a virtual solution. The online clouds give the opportunity to everyone, no matter where they are from, to attend virtual meetings. It also gives business owners the opportunity to work with clients and experts worldwide.
10. Environmentally Friendly
Finally, the video meetings through cloud-based platforms are environmentally friendly. Virtual meeting offers an eco-conscious approach for businesses since it’s better for the environment than physical business meetings. For instance, it eliminates the need for travel, reduces printing and writing paper, and lessens carbon footprint among others. More and more people respect a green business nowadays. Let your business feels green by conducting meetings online. It could yield better sales, too.
Final Thoughts
Despite the fact that virtual meetings have plenty of benefits, many businesses still prefer face-to-face meetings. A personal meeting is a better option in some cases though, especially when investing the funds. It is preferred when you want to attract a lucrative client or make a high-stakes investment. On the other hand, the virtual meeting is more suitable for business partners and staff members. So, consider the purpose of your meeting and make the best choice for your business.