Use Hosted Video Conferencing for Your Small Business to Beat the Competition

Small businesses have the advantage of being able to make decisions and take action more quickly than big businesses in order to seize a market advantage. One of the most rapidly evolving areas of competitive advantages is in communications. Advanced cellphones and VoIP phone systems have enabled businesses to communicate better internally, with customers, and with suppliers. The next big communications advantage, High Definition business video conferencing, is now available to small businesses thanks to hosted video conferencing cloud services.

As recently as 2009, high definition video conferencing was only available to big companies that were able to afford the investment in equipment, dedicated circuits, and IT staff that were necessary to operate the system. HD video was a large improvement over previous video conferencing, and allowed both sides to actually see facial expression so true communication could happen. Even as lower cost systems became available, it was still complex to set up high def video communications over the Internet that would work reliably.

Most small businesses were relegated to using services like Skype or Webex, both of which incorporated video, but at lower resolution and capability. Furthermore, these were running on workstations, and the video quality was not near the size and clarity of dedicated equipment with large LCD screens. As big companies were able to start making HD video calls over the Internet, small businesses fell behind.

Now small businesses have the opportunity to not only get to the same level as big businesses with regards to HD video conferencing, but have the opportunity to go one step further. Just like there are hosted VoIP services available, there are now hosted high definition video services available. Just like hosted VoIP, small businesses have an advantage because the system works best when every site has broadband Internet access. Furthermore, no expensive back end conferencing equipment or firewall maintenance is needed.

Small businesses now have the opportunity to gain better communications capabilities. They can just sign up for the service and start having HD video calls and conferences over the Internet to customers, suppliers, and other branches of their company. Advanced video conferencing can be initiated by a call that is as simple as dialing a cellphone, providing the face to face discussion capability everyone wants to have.


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