No Jitter Research: 2018 Video Collaboration Survey (1)No Jitter Research: 2018 Video Collaboration Survey (1)

Whether in corporate conference rooms, at their desktops, or via mobile apps, many business users are becoming increasingly comfortable communicating and collaborating over video. But just how pervasive is this trend, what does the modern video estate look like within the enterprise, and what are the biggest benefits and challenges enterprises are encountering as they video-enable more and more of their workforces? For insight on these and other questions, we turned to our No Jitter and Enterprise Connect enterprise IT communities. Click inside and discover what we learned in our inaugural video collaboration survey.

Uptake & Importance
In fielding our 2018 Video Collaboration Survey, No Jitter sought out enterprise IT professionals who are responsible, either as individuals or as part of a team, for evaluating technology or making strategic technology decisions for their enterprise organizations. Of total respondents, 142 individuals met that criteria, half working at large enterprises with 1,000 or more employees. Among all enterprise IT respondents, 82% indicated support for video collaboration -- with an even larger percentage of respondents at large companies (88%) supporting video collaboration technologies.

This isn't just a nice to have, either. Nearly 85% of respondents said they consider this technology to be important, with 57% characterizing it as highly or somewhat highly important. On the flip side, 15% of respondents signaled that video collaboration is only somewhat or not at all important for their organizations' users.

Usage
While video collaboration has gained a foothold in the enterprise, it's far from fully entrenched, our survey results show. When asked to consider the employee population within their organizations, only 11% of respondents said all potential users of video collaboration are engaging with the technology on a regular – i.e., at least once a week – basis. Not surprisingly, this percentage drops to 5% when looking at large enterprises. Half of respondents report that fewer than half of the potential video collaboration user base taps into the technology on a regular basis. This is a situation that respondents overwhelmingly see changing over the next year; 87% of respondents said they expect the number of regular users to grow within their enterprises within the next 12 months.

Posture
For the most part, survey respondents see video as one piece of a multifaceted enterprise communications and collaboration portfolio, even if used minimally within their organizations for select use cases (as suggested in write-in responses, for instance, quarterly reviews, product design, and client meetings). One-fifth of respondents, however, acknowledged that their organizations are building up their infrastructures and/or adopting cloud video services with a goal of making video a primary communications mode.

Here, There, Everywhere
When enterprises think of video collaboration, it's with worldwide connectivity in mind – as shown above, two-thirds of respondent organizations support video meetings globally. With that reach comes large numbers of rooms; 28% of respondents, for example, said they have more than 100 video meeting rooms at their organizations, with roughly the same percentage of respondents pegging the number of video-enabled spaces at their companies at between 10 and 49.

Capabilities & Device Types: What's Supported
Of eight specific options, shown above, desktop-to-desktop online meetings, conferencing/collaboration among room and desktop participants, and conferencing/collaboration among room systems are well supported across most respondent organizations (by upwards of 80% of respondent organizations). Not surprisingly, desktops and room systems are the most commonly supported device types among respondent organizations. At 96%, nearly all respondents said they support video collaboration on laptops and desktops, while 85% have room systems in use, as well. Here's a percentage breakdown for other device types:

Where Video Meetings Take Place
Given the heavy support for video collaboration desktop to desktop, among desktop and room participants, and room to room (as shown on the preceding slide), that most video meetings at respondent organizations are taking place in formal conference rooms or at user desktops is to be expected. What's surprising, however, is that only 7% of video meetings are taking place in huddle spaces (for about two to eight people), even though 65% of respondents said their organizations have such spaces available. Perhaps this is attributable to another survey data point: 60% of respondents said at least half of all meetings are scheduled in advance rather than taking place on the fly.

Room Breakdown
Corporate meeting rooms come in all shapes and sizes -- and while the basic conference room, of varying size, is most widely available, there are plenty of organizations that offer huddle spaces, as well.

Deployment Model
As in so many modes of communications and collaboration, the cloud model appears to be edging out use of legacy approaches. In our survey, just about one-quarter of respondents said their organizations' primary deployment model is traditional on-premises in-room systems connected via the enterprise network for scheduled meetings. The majority of respondents rely most heavily on some sort of cloud offering -- also known as video as a service (VaaS) or video conferencing as a service (VCaaS) -- or a cloud service plus in-room systems for a hybrid model, as shown above.

VaaS Perspective
Taking a deeper dive into cloud video services, we found that most respondents who said their organizations already are using VaaS consider the technology to be increasingly important if not a critical enabler for them. As another indication of importance, 85% of those using VaaS today are doing so on a subscription basis rather than in a freemium model.

Decision Factors
From ease of use to pricing, we asked survey respondents to rate the importance of a variety of factors in evaluating video collaboration options -- and discovered that they're a demanding bunch. No single factor leaped out as being singularly important, but many received a four or five rating, on a five-point scale, in importance.

Departmental Decision Makers
While not exclusively, IT is the go-to decision maker on video collaboration at most enterprise organizations surveyed. Most respondents indicated that IT is involved in evaluating and selecting appropriate technology, with only about one-third of that number saying AV is involved, and even fewer signaling Facilities' involvement. Separately, as shown above, nearly 70% of respondents said IT holds primary responsibility for making decision at their organizations, with another 70% saying the same regarding management of the video infrastructure.

That ties between IT and AV are strengthening is clear from our survey results as well. Forty-four percent of respondents said IT is taking over more of AV's functions, for example, and 16% of respondents said the AV team is acquiring more IT skills. And while 37% of respondents said their IT and AV teams remain separate, they acknowledged a closer working relationship. One respondent even told us: "We're in the process of IT absorbing AV. Both have been involved in this process with AV having the longest history in this area (nearly 20 years vs. IT's 18 months). Ultimately, this process will be handled by IT, though."

Challenges
Among 11 specific challenges we asked about, from cost to training and reliability, none leapt out as being particularly more onerous than any other. Lowest on the list are "poor quality" and "ensuring regulatory compliance," while the five challenges listed above each got a nod from at least 10% of respondents.

The Boons of Video Communications & Collaboration
If you can't meet in person, the next best thing is... well, video, of course. As one survey respondent pointed out, the ability for meeting participants to see each other's faces leads to better communication. That's a sentiment shared by more than half of respondents, with 53% identifying improved relationships among disparately located employees and business partners as the biggest benefit for their organizations today.

Video Collaboration & AV at Enterprise Connect 2019
Get a deep dive on the latest in video collaboration and communications at Enterprise Connect 2019, taking place March 18-21 in Orlando, Fla. -- registration now open! We even have a special $200 off offer for No Jitter readers; just enter the code NJPOSTS when you sign up for your pass.