Conference Calls vs. In-Person Meetings (2021 Insights)

ICS Shares Expert Insights on Conference Calls vs. In-Person Meetings

Communicating with team members via applications like Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Zoom can be a viable way to collaborate from any location. An ever-increasing number of businesses embrace online meetings to enhance flexibility and reduce the cost of business travel. Technological advances are making it easier for organizations to keep teams connected remotely.

IT support Houston service providers like ICS help companies install advanced communication systems that enable staff to dial and join meetings easily. As a result, conference calls become more convenient and user-friendly. However, many professionals wonder whether conference calls should or can eliminate the need for in-person meetings.

Although many firms are switching to video conference calls, others are sticking to face-to-face meetings. Hence, the need to compare the pros and cons of these two approaches.

Video Conference Calls

Video conferencing has undoubtedly become the new phone call and in-person meeting. This reality applies to many businesses of varying sizes regardless of whether they operate in multiple locations, have a remote workforce, or manage a team of staffers who travel frequently.

According to a recent Gartner report, companies around the world will increase spending on web conferencing solutions throughout 2020 by 24.3 percent. This trend is attributable primarily to the Covid-19 health crisis. Analysts predict that the pandemic’s lasting effects will make remote work and video conferencing commonplace beyond 2020.

Organizations are leveraging benefits like improved communication, cost savings, streamlined collaboration, time savings, and increased productivity.

Boosts Operational Efficiency and Productivity

Conferencing enables professionals to share documents and critical information in real-time. This approach eliminates the need to spend considerable time focusing on long email chains or lost messages. Additionally, teams no longer worry about version control complications or in-document comments. These communication issues often lead to delays and misunderstandings.

Clearer communication associated with video conferencing ensures efficiency. Meeting participants can share screens and leverage verbal or non-verbal cues thanks to real-time collaboration from any location.

According to scientific reports, humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text- or audio-based messages. Many organizations understand that video conferencing enhances the quality of communication and the degree of comprehension by participants.

Effective communication plays a vital role in setting expectations and meeting the objectives of specific projects. Hence, the importance of investing in premium video conferencing tools and working closely with IT support Houston vendors like ICS.

Most businesses handle highly complex information with multidimensional relationships. For this reason, team members need a better way to visualize data sets relating to sales and other aspects of day-to-day operations.

Saves Time and Money

The in-person experience that comes with video conferencing keeps communication flowing without spending on travel. Companies can also hire highly skilled and experienced professionals and permit them to work from any location. By adopting the concept of remote work, organizations save on the costs of running a fully staffed office environment.

Likewise, virtual meetings provide a practical way to save on travel time. Teams can complete projects faster by eliminating the cumbersome process associated with long email chains.

Streamlines Collaboration

Top-tier communication platforms like Microsoft Teams offer a wide selection of tools that help streamline collaboration. Some of the tools enable teams to share screens and documents in real-time. Thus, team members take advantage of the tools to peruse documents and contribute meaningfully to the discussion.

Participants receive immediate feedback on their contributions, making sure that the workflow progresses faster. This capability allows teams to brainstorm more effectively and conveniently.

Scheduling meetings becomes easier because participants can work from any location without the need to travel. They can even join discussions while on the go. Everyone stays up to date about the arrangements via different types of devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Creates Accurate Communication Records

Video conferencing technology simplifies record-keeping during and after business meetings. With traditional in-person meetings, some details of the discussions often fall through the cracks. Teams can ill-afford to lose critical project details. Thankfully, video conferencing platforms come with meeting transcription capabilities and chat records.

Attendees can share the information with colleagues who did not participate in the meeting. Thus, all team members stay well informed about the proceedings.

In-Person Meetings

Before the introduction of webcams, business professionals relied on in-person meetings to conduct discussions with people located outside their office. These meetings compelled people to spend money on business travel. Unlike in the past, this approach is now inefficient and unnecessary. However, face-to-face meetings still have some advantages worth noting.

Organizations can still consider dispatching team members for in-person meetings outside the office under specific circumstances. For instance, professionals can discuss matters in person if they need to touch items like product samples. This type of meeting can also prove more dynamic than video conferencing.

On the other hand, the early stages of a business relationship can benefit from meeting face to face to create a solid foundation for future interactions.

On the downside, conducting an in-person meeting requires that all participants converge at the same location. To reach the meeting venue, business professionals may need to embark on interstate or overseas travel. It is common for people to spend 24 hours or more en-route to the venue for a 30-minute or one-hour long meeting. In such cases, face-to-face meetings prove inefficient, time-consuming, and costly.

The financial and time costs can be prohibitive for most organizations. Hence, the importance to drop this outdated approach and maximize productivity by hosting virtual meetings conveniently and cost-effectively.

Why Partner With ICS

ICS is an established tech firm that has been providing IT support Houston services for more than 37 years. It works with clients in Houston and Austin, TX. The vendor offers a wide selection of services, including cloud services, cloud phone solutions, managed IT services, network security, and information technology infrastructure support.

Many companies in Texas take advantage of IT support Houston services to keep tech assets working optimally. In doing so, they enjoy peace of mind knowing that operations are less likely to suffer due to technical glitches or cyberattacks.

ICS also handles cloud migrations to help organizations boost productivity, scalability, and accessibility. It allows clients to leverage high-level skills to avoid data migration issues. The vendor customizes managed IT services to suit specific technological and operational requirements.

Jason Simons

ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.