Converged Technology Group IDs Five Ways Video Can Change the Way Companies Do Business

ISLANDIA, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine a time when business users will have the technology at their fingertips to make connecting with customers, suppliers and partners through video and content sharing as seamless as making a phone call is today.  Converged Technology Group (www.convergedtechgroup.com), an award-winning Managed Services Partner (MSP) serving clients throughout the Northeast, says that time is now, and they're going to prove it.  On November 6^th, Converged Technology Group will host a Video Collaboration Experience event in Islandia, NY, to demonstrate how businesses can benefit from upgrading their current unified communication platforms to include video for deeper, more meaningful business communication.  The event will showcase real-time voice and video collaboration capabilities, content sharing, instant messaging, web conferencing tools and presence technologies in a unique, hands-on demonstration illustrating the simplicity of video collaboration solutions for connecting people anywhere, anytime and from any device. And to help IT pros make decisions about their video needs now, experts at Converged Technology Group have also identified a list of the top five ways video can change the way companies do business.

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"People should be able to, and can today, communicate using video in face-to-face exchanges whether that individual is on a mobile device, a desktop phone or in a dedicated conference room," says Leo E. Galletta, President and CEO, Converged Technology Group.  "The ability to see other participants in high definition, share content, and access meetings anywhere, anytime both simply and securely is possible today, and it will be a requirement in the near future.  Converged Technology Group is ahead of that curve, and we're ready to demonstrate not only what can be done, but what is already being done with these technologies in a hands-on meaningful way.  On November 6^th, we invite interested IT pros to come see for themselves what the future of communication technology holds."

Five Ways Business Video Can Help Your Business

"This is something CIOs can't afford to miss," Galletta says.  "They have to prepare now for the expectations for anytime, anywhere, any device communications that will be placed on them and on their staffs in the very near term.  There are a tremendous number of use cases for both B2B and B2C business video today, and IT pros will be expected to deliver those services."

1. Lower Cost, Higher Impact Meetings: The most obvious use for video collaboration is to connect geographically dispersed personnel for real-time, collaborative decision-making.  For example, boards of directors often have members located throughout a region or even across the country.  Not every board member can attend meetings due to scheduling conflicts and the rising costs of travel.  But, with video collaboration, members can take part in face-to-face meetings anywhere, anytime, from any device.  No need to get on a plane.  No need to clear their schedule for a week.  If they have a smart phone, they can access a web-based tool like Cisco's Collaboration Meeting Room to be part of a face-to-face strategic meeting no matter when or where that meeting takes place.  And this is just the beginning.  There are many, many other use cases that make business video a tool that can no longer reside only on a CIO's "nice to have" someday wish list.
2. One-To-Many Addresses: Imagine an "all-hands-on-deck" meeting that doesn't have to take place in a single location.  That's what the power of video collaboration can offer businesses that have regional, national or even worldwide operations.  A CEO presses the "join" button on a single keypad on the conference table in the company's corporate office; automatically, all remote locations establish a multi-point video conference and that CEO is in a face-to-face meeting with 12 people in a dozen different locations around the globe.  Consider a regional retailer with 68 locations nationwide; the vice president of sales presses a single button each morning to talk to all the sales reps across the country, reviewing the week's sales, hot deals for the day and forecasts for the month before stores open and customers begin their daily shopping.  This kind of "frictionless communication" isn't tomorrow's technology.  It's here today.
3. Millennial Expectations: As millennials take their place in the workforce, new expectations for workplace communication have arrived.  For this Net Generation, this Gen Y crowd, mobile devices in every iteration are a natural and normal extension of who they are and how they communicate.  Seamless interactions between corporate computing environments and nearly every mobile device on the planet are no longer on a CIO's "nice to have" list; they've suddenly become an expectation and are of growing importance to how this emerging workforce will communicate and perform in their jobs.  Video collaboration is another tool in millennials' toolbox of communication options, and it's one that every business will soon be expected to have mastered.
4. Access to Remote Experts: In the old days, if you wanted to talk with a mortgage expert, for example, and if that expert traveled from bank to bank throughout the week, you'd have to make an appointment for the particular day when that expert was in the branch closest to you, travel there in person and sit down face to face to get your questions answered.  Today, video collaboration is changing that.  Now, companies are placing their experts in a single centralized location and giving their branches "anytime access" to those experts via video collaboration tools.  Consumers in an electronics superstore with questions about a particular manufacturer's product could, at the touch of a button, have access to a product expert.  Contractors with questions about a specific tool's capabilities could talk face-to-face with an expert while standing in any big-box home improvement retail store across the country.  Clearly, this could be a sales booster for retail, but the use cases extend far beyond that.
5. Hiring: When Human Resources departments advertise for a new position, many find themselves wading through literal reams of resumes that flood into their inboxes and mailboxes each day looking for the nuances that set one candidate apart from another.  After selecting a stack of a dozen or more applicants that have the right on-paper credentials, then comes the arduous task of interviewing each candidate, and that means setting aside hours upon hours of time to determine what, in most cases, becomes apparent in the first few minutes of an interview.  Using video collaboration, HR could pre-screen potential interviewees, limiting the number of in-person interviews needed to a subset of the very best candidates in advance.

Converged Technology Group holds a Master Collaboration Specialization from Cisco and has achieved Cisco's TelePresence Video Advanced Authorized Technology Provider (ATP) status as well, making the company one of an elite group of service partners ready to successfully design, implement and provide ongoing support for emerging collaboration tools like video that provide life-like collaboration experiences capable of changing the way companies do business.

More Information:

• Find out how smart businesses create a technology environment that brings out the best of collaboration and saves money in the process, then learn how to harness the power of video for efficient, effective collaboration: http://ow.ly/BcJDB.  
• To learn more about Converged Technology Group's upcoming Video Collaboration Showcase, to be held Thursday, November 6^th, contact the company at 631-468-5728.
• Find out how managed services like Assist360 can significantly reduce collaboration support costs: http://ow.ly/urpZz.

About Converged Technology Group

Converged Technology Group is an award-winning Managed Services Partner (MSP) focused on improving IT performance and business outcomes while lowering the cost of technology support for businesses in healthcare, financial services, education, retail, legal and other cutting-edge industries. Located in Islandia, NY, and New York City, Converged Technology Group provides network infrastructure, unified communications, virtualized data center, cloud solutions and managed services to multinational enterprises. The company provides business-critical uptime all the time, and helps clients design, implement and operate their IT infrastructure, communication and computing systems for the greatest return on their IT investments. For more information on Converged Technology Group, please contact us at 631-468-5728 or [email protected], and visit our website at www.convergedtechgroup.com.

Media Contacts:

Anthony Malley
Director Business Development & Marketing  
Converged Technology Group  
631-468-5728  
[email protected]

Lisa Hazen
Account Manager  
Communication Strategy Group  
631-239-6335  
[email protected]

SOURCE Converged Technology Group

Related Links

http://www.convergedtechgroup.com