Video for the enterprise moves from grass roots to grown up
Despite the vast array of download and play video tools available at your fingertips, adapting them for corporate use is often a huge leap, in both corporate execution and delivery, no matter how easy YouTube makes the distribution experience.
Corporate communications teams and business leaders are clued into how effective the use of live streaming and on-demand video is as a communications tool to both staff and clients but a grass roots approach, increasingly is not cutting it.
Video publishing capabilities may be easily accessible thanks to the social media ecosystem but the divide between social and corporate is a growing chasm and it needs to be traversed by video content distribution masters.
A recent report from Forrester Waves on Video Platforms For The Enterprise, evaluated vendors including, Cisco, Ignite Technologies, Polycom, Sonic Foundry, and VBrick and found that enterprise grade platforms reduce the complexity of video delivery but with the added benefits of scalability and security that do-it-yourself solutions such as YouTube cannot deliver.
The report found that using enterprise grade also allows an amplified viewing experience by supporting all forms of video content, including that from webconference , web casting and videoconference systems and integrating archived materials. viewing. Using advanced functionality takes the basic tools of social engagement to new quantifiable levels also which provide ROI.
Live webcasts for example can include functionality for audience polling and chat. Social media based solutions can also include features to rate, comment, tag, share, and increasingly search and navigate by spoken words. Video platforms can also report on audience engagement by individual user, geographic location, or even specific slides which enhances marketing and lead generation tracking.
Using established platforms with IP sophistication is key. This provides enterprise grade quality and experience for the corporate user, states Eugene Razbash, CEO of Combitel.
“We see many enterprises trying to adapt entertainment or leisure oriented IPTV solutions to enterprise content delivery and the results did not live up to expectations. While they do this largely to cut costs, what it produced is an erosion of reputation, time and business benefits. Using a cost effective yet user-friendly tool such as Combitel’s Omniscreen enterprise TV application server is a way to get the desired result using advanced features that can be tailored to suit bespoke needs and provide demonstrable ROI,” Razbash said.