In the United Kingdom, an overwhelming nine out of ten large companies are using some form of virtual collaboration solution, according to a survey of UK manufacturing and service businesses undertaken by Vanson Bourne on behalf of leading unified collaboration and communications services provider, Genesys Conferencing. And, of these, nearly two-thirds have incorporated an element of video and/or web collaboration, in addition to their established audio conferencing capability. Other key findings include:
90%of businesses employing 1,000+ staff have adopted conferencing/ collaboration tools as part of their communications strategy. For businesses with 3,000+ staff, this rises to 96 percent.
74%of these use integrated multimedia conferencing tools to some degree, with only 26 percent exclusively using audio conferencing solutions. This is especially strong in manufacturing businesses, with 81 percent of respondents using multimedia tools.
29%of respondent businesses (nearly one-third) are using virtual conferencing on a daily basis, with a further 45 percent every week. Companies are also using virtual collaboration tools more frequently.
30%of respondents confirmed they would use their conferencing solution more frequently if it could more effectively replace face-to-face meetings, followed by 25 percent who pointed to the need for peer groups to use it more often. The ability to see tangible evidence of cost savings and if it were easier to use were seen as barriers to greater usage, by 22 percent and 14 percent respectively, with only 5 percent expressing an environmental concern in wanting to see tangible evidence of reduced carbon emissions.
