Consumer-grade, high-definition video conferencing applications such as Skype, ooVoo, Apple’s FaceTime, and iChat may seem like commonplace features now, about as exciting as email.
It’s easy to forget that just a few years ago, hi-def video conferencing was the province of corporations with their own systems costing thousands of dollars—a situation that tended to freeze out small business owners, who were driven back on the low-grade video conferencing options available up until the mid-2000s (or, more commonly, driven back to the tried-and-true, but obsolete, conference call).
The problem with conference calls, aside from their being as outdated as the Walkman, is that they’re just not as effective as video conferencing. People simply communicate better when they can see as well as hear each other, and video conferencing that’s spotty or lacks high-quality audio or video resolution gets in the way of effective communication.
That’s why, when providers began developing high-quality consumer-grade video conferencing a few years ago, IT companies serving the small business market recognized the potential for a massive shift in the way companies communicated with clients and each other.
What’s happening in the IT industry now is that innovations in the consumer realm are driving demand in the business sphere, whereas traditionally it’s been the other way around. It’s tremendously exciting for IT businesses that serve small businesses because devices like the iPad, on sale for reasonable prices for broad consumer use, create the expectation that businesses will use the devices, too—and that opens up the field for technology providers to offer all kinds of different packages that take advantage of this new market.
Take, for example, CMIT Solutions’ new visual collaboration package, CMIT Impression, which integrates not only new devices but new partners. CMIT Impression is a collaboration package that offers high-definition video conferencing, interactive presentations, virtual whiteboarding, document sharing, and more via a conferencing “bridge” that can accommodate up to 12 users from anywhere in the world and makes full use of a 55-inch giant touchscreen tablet that operates as a big-screen television and fully operational PC.
CMIT Solutions partnered with InFocus, which developed the tablet, and Vidtel, which developed the conferencing bridge, to develop the package. The more consumers discover and master high-quality consumer-grade services, the more the business marketplace will drive demand for new services, and the more opportunities IT companies will have to market and sell them and cooperate with other providers to develop them. It’s a transformative time, and CMIT Solutions is at the forefront of the new movement.
Want to find out more about CMIT Impression and CMIT Solutions’ other managed service IT packages? Take a look at www.cmitsolutions.com.