Why Hybrid Conferencing Makes Sense for SMBs

Hybrid conferencing is all set to revolutionise the way people located in remote areas communicate across the world by creating a virtual meeting platform where calls on different networks can be converged seamlessly. Moreover, there is no quality isssue while PSTN and VoIP networks merge, which is a value added feature of these solutions. Since SMBs located in India hardly use VoIP for inter-office communications, hence the requirement for such solution is limited. Anyone who needs to connect with a group member working on an alternate network requires a hybrid conferencing solution. Now, considering that there are many companies in India that carry out the backend jobs for foreign companies, there is a regular need to liaise with remotely located business contacts. In order to make full use of a hybrid suite, they can connect as many as 100 personnel who are accessing the meeting using either PSTN or VoIP connections on the same platform. Users simply need to check the presence status of group members, which indicates whether the individuals are online or offline, and set up a meeting. They can also choose the mode of communication to be used in the online meeting, such as audio conference, video calls and enterprise Instant Messaging (IM). There are many communications experts who believe that the impact of voice conferencing has lessened in remote communications in the past few years. However, a study by Plantronics, called How We Work: Communication Trends of Business Professionals, revealed that 81 per cent of the respondents SMBs that participated in the survey considered audio calls 'critical' to their operations. Moreover, audio remains the preferred choice for negotiations and finalising decisions even in web meetings. These points underscore the need of having a sound hybrid communication suite that can seamlessly merge VoIP and PSTN calls for business purposes. Costing is an essential aspect for SMBs while acquiring new technological solutions, especially since the Installation, Maintenance, Addition and Changing (IMAC) costs can be quite hefty. However, a cloud based hybrid communication suite that runs on the Software-as-a-Service model can prove to the perfect solution to alleviate worries about costs. In this model, a hosted virtual meeting solution is deployed on the clients' site across the all offices, which ensures consistent Quality of Service (QoS). All software upgrades are carried out on the cloud, which ensures that the latest technologies can be integrated without any downtime. Video conferencing and collaboration are other two necessary components of a sound conferencing suite. In a reliable hybrid online meeting solution like Arkadin Oneplace, full support is provided to High Definition (HD) video, which allows users to gauge the body language of the group members and understand their interest levels. Similarly, the presence of features like enterprise grade chats, breakout rooms, permanent URLs for regular meetings and file sharing are other class-leading features of such solutions that make these for hosting virtual meetings in SMBs.