Unlock a Higher Level of Collaboration with Videoconferencing Analytics

Before 2020, many organizations saw video collaboration as an optional tool. 

Not anymore. 

At first, video seemed like a stopgap solution to bridge what many thought would be a brief period of remote work, but collaboration platforms have become a critical part of most organizations’ operations. As employees begin to return to physical office spaces (often in hybrid settings), it is time for organizations to look for ways to optimize their use of video to create a competitive edge. 

One way to do this is through video analytics. By leveraging the data from video collaboration platforms, organizations can ensure a quality experience, increase employee engagement and enhance security.

If employees are having bad experiences using video collaboration, that’s practically an invitation for them to either revert to voice-only phone calls or bring rogue IT into the organization. By keeping their fingers on the pulse of their video collaboration platforms, IT leaders can ensure a high level of quality of service, resulting in happier and more productive employees. 

While using data to improve QoS in technology is nothing new, many organizations’ IT departments have largely been in a reactive mode since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — racing to put out the latest fire and simply ensuring that remote employees have access to the technologies and information that they need. (I know of one company that loaded up rented trucks with 2,000 desktop computers and delivered them to employees’ houses in the early days of the pandemic.) The time has come for these harried IT departments to take a deep breath, step back and look at the data to find and address pain points for users.

Organizations should be careful not to play Big Brother during video meetings by taking a punitive approach and policing employee engagement too closely. However, a look at analytics can reveal areas where managers and other meeting leaders can improve their presentations and find opportunities to make employees more active participants. 

Analytics tools can reveal, for instance, who has their video enabled and when, as well as how often employees are running other applications above their video meetings. Again, a light touch is best here. It’s common for employees to use other programs, such as word processing tools, simply to take notes during video meetings. And if people are checking their email a few times during a video meeting — well, they’d probably be doing the same thing if they were in the office. That’s all fine. The idea isn’t to catch people slacking off but rather to find ways to keep them hooked.

Finally, organizations can boost security through their video collaboration data analytics. Many people have taken a casual approach to remote work, with toddlers or spouses sometimes wandering into the room during video meetings. Often, this isn’t an issue. But in meetings where sensitive or regulated data is being shared, it can create significant security and compliance problems. (Imagine, for instance, a doctor’s spouse coming into the room during a telehealth appointment.) 

Analytics tools can use features such as facial recognition to make sure that only authorized users are able to be in meetings. With video collaboration on the rise, we anticipate that video tools will be subjected to additional layers of regulation in the coming years. It’s best to be prepared.

Story by Scott Merritt, who has been with CDW for four years and has 25 years of experience in the collaboration space. He has done everything from building and designing central office equipment to consulting with customers on hybrid workspaces. He has an extensive background in contact center technologies as well as other collaboration tools, such as video and file sharing.