Videoconferencing and telepresence have significantly matured over the last few years. Consumers love the video/chat experience and ease-of-use that Skype brings to the table, and in the enterprise space we have familiar solutions from Microsoft and Cisco, and a plethora of other players such as Lifesize, vidyo and ooVoo steadily gaining market share.

Videoconferencing is increasingly common on smartphones and tablets with Skype, Apple Facetime, and Google Hangouts available for consumers, and  Microsoft Lync, Cisco Jabber, Citrix GoToMeeting and a handful of others available on smartphones and tablets for the enterprise. Use of video communication for consumers and business is only going to increase with the introduction of the NBN, improved cellular networks (4G), more choice and improved affordability (many are free). Our appetite for video collaboration is showing no signs of slowing.

For healthcare organisations, there are many opportunities to leverage videoconferencing to improve client outcomes, particularly now that videoconferencing solutions are well and truly mobile. A few examples…

• Social isolation prevention –  eg, clients keeping in contact with family via skype
• Field workers attending clients in their home – videoconferencing with colleagues or specialists to provide holistic care or get a second opinion about a particular issue
• Remote doctor-client communications, where clients in areas with scarce medical resources receive treatment and consultations through videoconferencing.

For organisations undertaking videoconferencing initiatives, consideration must also be given to other uses of videoconferencing within the organisation, to ensure any investment is well leveraged.  A common example is videoconferencing between various branches/offices and staff, either through desktop conferencing or room-based conferencing. Delivering education or presentations to remote staff using videoconferencing tools is a common requirement. Increasingly there are requirements for videoconferencing consultations between staff and clients or colleagues, who are external to the organisation.

Whilst there are an array of choice to satisfy consumer videoconferencing requirements, and a range of good options to satisfy the enterprise, the challenge comes when emphasis is placed on the requirement for videoconferencing with those external to your organisation. This could be clients, contractors, consultants, universities, government agencies, competitors, etc.  Whether we like it or not, the best chance of videoconferencing with these entities is likely to be via Skype.  Microsoft acquired Skype in May 2011, and as of September 2011 had 663 million registered users.

Organisations wishing to satisfy all videoconferencing requirements listed above may need to consider a hybrid approach – an enterprise tool and a consumer tool(s).  The choice of enterprise solution would depend on many factors including user/business requirements, and existing investments in telephony, infrastructure and systems.  However, to accommodate the requirement to videoconference with say, a client in their home, or a colleague who is out of the office, there is no getting away from a consumer solution such as Skype, unless you are willing to talk them in to installing product x on their device, which is not always an option.

I.T. and business leaders need to consider the challenges of not only introducing consumer videoconferencing into the organisation (think security, management, support, etc), but also the challenges that a hybrid approach would bring in terms of support, licensing and maintenance. Something has to give – either the suite/scope of requirements needs to be refined, or budgets increased to accommodate the scope.