The recent troubles with the air travel possibly will have an unpredicted effect on the use of tools. Here, I look at what the long term might hold for video conferencing.
Video conferencing is nothing new. It has been round for years, as has conference phone calls. And all of this is getting less difficult with the internet as people become used to talking to friends and contacts via their web camera.
But, businessmen have still favourite to travel. Flights over the Atlantic to take people to and from conferences and business meetings are common place. They are accepted as the way to do things.
But, in April, all this collapsed as flights were stranded, people were left stuck powerless to make meetings and probably worse, incapable to return home to their families. A short meeting and a hop across the Atlantic unexpectedly became a long time away from the desk and home.
And this is costing trade dearly. Plenty of cannot put off such meetings and there must be delegates stuck on the wrong sides of the Atlantic who ought to get home to keep on their work. Their employers have sent them there and cannot now get them back to a productive environment.
So for plenty of, remote working is starting to replace an office. But with a difference! Rather than remotely working from their home office or whilst in a motorway services, they are instead finding a desk the wrong side of the Atlantic and signing on to their office computer to read emails and continue working.
But, what round those that have not made it to the meetings? Well, even the price of a trans-Atlantic phone call does not match the cost of the flights, accommodation and lost work time. So suddenly people are discovering video conferencing as a replacement.
And what round all of these organisations that are desperately trying to make price cuttings to keep afloat throughout this global economic downturn? Those that were spending hundreds flying workers across the Atlantic and to the Far east? Perhaps even thousands when teams of staff were sent half way about the world?
Well, this is where swiftly companies will start to see the light. What was once seen as a advantage of the job - air miles - can now be seen as a risk of being stranded.
firms have the option now to install video conferencing facilities and start to use them whilst there is the chance of flight disruption and get their workers into the habit of taking merely the 2 hours to make the call, rather then half the week, a huge flight bill, hotel costs and taxi fares.
Ultimately, businesses will be the winner. Some workers will miss the joys of international travel as part of their job, but by embracing technology, they will save their employers a fortune and prevent themselves risking being stranded!
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