Virtual meetings = business as usual

Meetings are core to the success of a business. Whether meeting clients, prospective customers, board members or staff, people meet every day and organisations build from the meeting upwards. Today, we operate in an international marketplace where organisations deal more and more on a global scale. Globalisation has changed who, where and why we do business thus resulting in an increasing need to connect and communicate globally.

What therefore would happen if businesses could not communicate or meet? A lack of communication can lead to costly mistakes or delays, loss of productivity and a drop in revenue, ultimately leading to possible failure. If communication is so important, then why do businesses all too often fail to protect it?

The recent eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, brought the realisation of these risks crashing down on the business world. For almost a week, European airspace was practically shut down when thick plumes of volcanic ash spewed from the Icelandic volcano and tumbled across European skies grounding almost all flights arriving in and departing from Europe. The whole event opened up the business world's eyes to the fact that many of those companies affected by the travel disruptions did not have a contingency plan in place to deal with such an outcome.

In a global business environment fraught with dynamic change, natural disasters, pandemics, civil unrest and strikes; planning for unforeseen events and developing a contingency plan must be considered a key element of strategic management. During the volcanic flight ban, thousands of organisations relied on audio and web conferencing to maintain business continuity. By seamlessly converting to online audio meetings, their employees and clients were able to communicate regularly, safely and effectively whilst sustaining normal operations and maintaining productivity and efficiency.

PGi, an industry-leading provider of audio and web conferencing solutions, saw usage of its conferencing service shoot through the roof during the volcanic flight ban. In response to the disruptions, PGi's customer care team provided clients with on-demand, instant access to meetings offering free web services to those affected by the ban enabling clients to interact and communicate just like a traditional meeting. By switching to virtual meetings, global companies reported business as usual.

John Stone, PGi Executive Vice President EMEA, highlights the importance of contingency planning in our world today: "No matter how carefully a firm formulates, executes or evaluates its strategies, unforeseen events can make a planned strategy obsolete in no time. With an unstable economic environment and the ever increasing need to communicate globally, virtual meetings are a crucial part of risk management as business critical meetings cannot be cancelled without there being some impact to business productivity". Stone stresses that not only is a business continuity planning essential to maintaining efficiency and workflow but, "added to increasing cost pressures and an onus on businesses to demonstrate corporate social responsibility, organisations need to also now look at more cost-effective, productive and environmentally friendly ways of communicating and doing business".

By reducing travel and converting to virtual meetings, organisations can save dramatically on the cost of flights, accommodation, transfers, travel expenses and employee downtime whilst also reducing carbon emissions. Statistics show that by eliminating the travel of one employee European trip per month, an organisation could save approximately €5977 per year, reduce their carbon footprint by 3.5 tonnes and could save 21 hours in employee downtime.

As the ash cloud disperses, the risk of travel disruption fades temporarily, sleeping like a dormant volcano. What this incident has taught us is that future events cannot be predicted and the business world ultimately is at the mercy of an uncontrollable and unpredictable environment. The only way that an organisation can control and lessen the risk and impact to business is by contingency planning: creating alternative strategies that allow businesses to maintain business as usual. As more and more organisations adopt a virtual meeting strategy, the benefits and results of conferencing cannot be overlooked.

Biography

John Stone is Executive Vice President of PGi EMEA, India and Canada. PGi is a leading provider of conferencing collaboration solutions.