If you’re interested in knowing what business professionals generally think about videoconferencing, look no further than a new report from Nancy Jamison and Blair Pleasant of Unified Communications Strategies (UCS).

According to UCS’s blog, Nancy and Blair interviewed business professionals who use unified communications-like technologies, including videoconferencing, in their day-to-day jobs. Their findings, which are detailed in “UC End User Productivity Study” (available here via PDF) reveal an absolute love affair with unified communications and videoconferencing in particular.

From “UC End User Productivity Study“:

The Growing Value of Video

Though we did not single out every UC feature in our survey, surprisingly, we received numerous comments on the value of video, even if most respondents are just starting to use it. Those that had implemented video as part of their UC solution found that it helped to build relationships, to work better as a virtual team, and to cut down on the time and expense of business travel. Specific comments included:

• “The video was most surprising. It is better quality than I expected, easier to use, and really makes a difference in relationships.”
  
• “Not only can remote people interact with people in the main office, we all get to see them. People joke and around more and build relationships faster with remote people thanks to video conferencing. Also all of our company meetings are recorded now so people who missed can go back and watch the meeting (And fast forward through the dull parts!).”
  
• “Video has made remote people seem more a part of the team and I feel closer to them.”
  
• “Ever since we put in video conferencing, I’ve used it a lot more. It cut my travel in half and I’m much happier.”
  
• “Videoconferencing lets us reduce the amount of time spent on planes, and we can
  accomplish some of the same benefits by doing videoconferencing and saving a tremendous amount of money.”
  
• “For me the video component will be massive. Often times, especially if I’m talking with my staff, the face-to-face communications is so important in building manager-employee relationship. IMs and emails can get misconstrued, as can voice messages. Visual communication is 60% of the message. For building trust and camaraderie with my team, video will be key.”
  
• “We have video conferencing which saves wear and tear from traveling. It makes my distributed teams more efficient.”

As an aside, if you’re confused by the term “unified communications,” don’t feel bad. Some say it’s just a buzz phrase while others swear it’s here to stay. Basically, “unified communication” describes the integration of disparate communications systems, media, devices and applications. Said differently (thanks to the folks at UCstrategies), unified communications is communications integrated to optimize business processes.

Regardless of the longevity of “unified communications” as a descriptor for the marriage between communications devices and systems, videoconferencing–when it works and works well–is appreciated by nearly everyone who comes face-to-face with a system of their own.

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