Eddie Clifton, Pexip VP of Strategic Partnerships, is guest posting to the Skype for Business blog this month to discuss what to consider when bringing legacy video teleconferencing (VTC) end-points into Skype meetings.
In addition to guest blogging this week, I am also joining @Delanda Coleman live on the Skype for Business Broadcast on Friday, August 18th at 9:00 AM PDT. In this broadcast, we cover the 3 ways to bring your existing VTC into a modern meeting. The challenge of managing a mixed environment of hardware and software that may not provide a fully integrated meeting experience to users is a common scenario. In the case of legacy video teleconferencing (VTC) systems, a well-thought-out video interoperability solution will need to be considered.
As the digital transformation continues to change how we all do business, interoperability issues can come up as companies work their way through the life of existing investments in traditional and legacy video teleconferencing (VTC) solutions. Depending upon the size of the company, these investments can run into the millions of dollars. Often, these legacy systems experience less use, or are used only by a select group of executives within the organization. The challenge is to streamline organization workflows so that both Skype for Business and traditional VTC users can easily meet across technology barriers. With a well-thought-out strategy in place, organizations can democratize video for everyone, not just a few executives with their costly VTC suites and systems.
With Pexip’s recently certified for Skype for Business gateway, Pexip Infinity Fusion, we offer a video interoperability solution that can scale to the largest organizations, allowing VTC users to seamlessly join Skype calls, all while retaining the user experience of each participant.
If you are looking at interoperability solutions that allow existing VTCs to join modern meetings, there are three fundamental concepts to consider:
Interoperability: More than just audio and video
Anyone should be able to join Skype meetings and benefit from the Skype experience. With a certified gateway, VTC users can take part in Skype calls without even knowing it. Behind the scenes, there is more magic to interoperability than just translating video and audio. A fundamental question to ask is: Can the VTC user see the content that was uploaded to the meeting and can the VTC user easily share a presentation back to the meeting?
Scale: Does it work for your large organization?
Scale is not just about how many people and VTC participants you can allow into a single meeting. It is also about how it works for your organization. How many VTCs can you have in that single meeting and how many such meetings can you have at the same time? Along with scalability, there should be a way to manage the solution from an IT professional’s point of view?
User experience: For the user – and the administrator
The user experience is key to technology adoption. If it is too difficult or unfamiliar, you risk it not being used at all. In the case of interoperability, any solution should allow both the Skype for Business user and the VTC user to retain a familiar meeting and call experience. Joining scheduled meetings, making direct point-to-point calls, or escalating meetings by adding participants should all look familiar to the user. But there is more to it. From an administrator’s point of view, the solution itself should also make it easy to plan, deliver, and operate.
If you would like to learn more about how to extend the Skype for Business experience to everyone in your organization with Pexip Infinity Fusion, please join me and @Delanda as we discuss this in details and take your questions during our live Skype Broadcast on August 18th 9:00 AM PDT. Join us at http://aka.ms/sfbcast.
