Cutting Through the Zoom Gloom

24 September 2020

THE RIGHT TOOLS REIGNITE REMOTE TEAMS

There is no escaping video calls these days. According to CNBCZoom (the popular video conferencing service) saw its daily user rate go from 10 million users in December 2019 to a staggering 200 million users by March 2020, and the number continues to climb as companies extend their remote workplace mandates. Even before the pandemic impact, a report published by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics revealed a large increase in the amount of people working remotely in the U.S. In the span of just one year, from 2016 to 2017, remote work grew 7.9%. Over the last five years it grew 44% and over the previous 10 years it grew 91%.  All of the major video conferencing players (Google Meet, MS Teams, GoToMeeting, Jitsi, Zoom etc.) have been quickly growing their user bases, and are now experiencing an even steeper increase in usage.

Video Conferencing is of course a natural fit and serves a vital purpose for communicating both with internal teams as well as with customers.  It allows for a decent simulation of face-to-face interaction and allows for basic sharing of information via slide presentations and screen sharing. But as workdays begin to stack up with back-to-back video calls, it becomes clear that video conferences have limitations. Too many of these calls in a worker’s schedule can lead to a degree of burnout – sometimes referred to as “Zoom Gloom”.

When did video conferencing become collaboration?

While teleconference technology is here to stay, it is not a magical tool that can do everything well. Often it is the only tool available to allow teams get together and attempt to collaborate.  The results can be frustrating since the software is not really designed with true collaboration in mind.  A truly collaborative digital work environment promotes ideation, user participation, and is agile and responsive enough to not slow the meeting down.

Today’s collaboration software provides the power for individuals to interact more naturally and spontaneously. They allow individual participants to interact and brainstorm without being forced into endless round-robin discussions to get anywhere.  All kinds of media and data can be organized, explored, and expanded upon.  Solutions can be shared and further optimized.  In the end, meetings are much more productive than they would be otherwise.

 If you are looking for a way to re-ignite your remote teams, MultiTaction can help. The Canvus Collaboration software solution make it possible to take a hands-on approach to content and allow you to go beyond the boundaries of the traditional meeting room. Whether your team members are in the same room, down the hall, in their home office, or around the world, with a Canvus solution they are now able to work on video and data in real time.

Interested to learn more? Join us for our webinar “Using Remote Collaboration to Spark Engagement with Remote Teams” presented live on September 9th and September 23rd.  View complete details here of this and other September webinar topics.