In an annual survey by one of the leading VoIP providers in the United States, it was found out that majority of small and mid-sized businesses in the country operate by using cloud services to accomplish business-critical tasks.
Moreover, 64% of business owners are confident that they can run their entire business remotely, using mobile gadgets and deploying cloud apps, says RingCentral. The 300 small and mid-sized business owners across all major industries in the US were the subject of a recent study that tracks mobile gadget usage and cloud data trends among businesses.
One of the most popular cloud-based apps among businesses are online meeting or web conferencing apps, which can facilitate team collaboration despite today’s more distributed workforce. 65% of business owners rely on web conferencing apps to substitute for or complement in-person business meetings.
Save dollars on a “virtual office”
The virtual office model for work has become the “new normal” when it comes to business work styles. This more mobile and flexible way of business operation no longer limits a budding business to local employees or business partners, and the same rule now applies with clients.
As a matter of fact, mobile work adoption among businesses and even federal agencies has spread all over the country. More than half of the 27.5 million small businesses in the US are home-based, while 15 to 20 million Americans are working on the road, hence the label “road warriors”. Interestingly, 3.1 million are dedicated to mobile work, full-time.
An American adult takes an average of 6.7 business trips annually, making business travels in the country liable for about $246 billion in spending. And to give you a better picture of the figures: mobile work can generate national savings of up to $700 billion, save businesses $11,000 per employee, and the mobile worker, $2,000 to $ 7,000 a year.
Imagine how much savings your business can rake by employing this work style!
Cloud-based web conferencing apps
Now, managing a virtual office and facilitating real-time collaboration among employees deployed to different states or countries prove to be a challenge. There are, however, cloud-based web conferencing or online meeting apps that can be used to conduct virtual meetings, business presentations, and even training sessions and workshops.
- MegaMeeting
This cloud app can facilitate video conferencing for up to 16 participants, all connected to the Internet and using web cameras. MegaMeeting is compatible to gadgets running on iOS, Android and Blackberry operating systems. Since it uses VoIP, MegaMeeting also allows chats and desktop sharing.
- GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is an all-in-one web conferencing app or a complete online conferencing suite with 3 ways to choose from: Meeting, Webinar and Training. All three allows desktop sharing, chat and phone meeting. However, with Webinar, business owners, managers or team leaders can create polls and surveys for participants; you can also share training materials as well as conduct workshops or aptitude tests online using the Training feature.
- Vyew
Unlike the first two, Vyew is a more basic and flexible cloud-based conferencing app and comes in a version that is downloadable for free. A practical online meeting app for small businesses, Vyew gives you essential web conferencing features like video conferencing, whiteboard and desktop sharing. Beyond simplicity, this app can also archive your web meetings for future review or reference. Plus, a fun side to conducting online business meetings—custom room IDs, color themes and more!
