Businesses are in a never ending spiral that forces them to keep abreast with technology, improve productivity, communications and efficiencies in order to stay competitive. If technology does involve costs, there are benefits too and some technologies often deliver greater benefits. WebRTC is one such tech that businesses can use to boost productivity and take communications to the next level.
What is WebRTC?
In the simplest terms, WebRTC is open source technology that allows APIs to be integrated into web browsers. This done one can then engage in one-on-one chat or conferencing in audio and video. In addition, WebRTC permits sharing of documents, video within video and on-screen presentations in a secure way, taking care of various media protocols for best use of bandwidth. The best thing is that it works on browsers on mobiles and desktops and does not need any complex software-hardware integration. It goes beyond unifying communications to permitting greater interaction with less effort and expense. How do all the features of WebRTC make it ideal for business productivity? Read on.
- Customer delight
Business is becoming more competitive by the day and one needs to woo customers and keep them delighted by being available at all times through various channels. An employee can use WebRTC solution powered communication platform to call a customer and chat with him using audio or video chat. A customer can call using his mobile phone with WebRTC without having to install specific software and have a “face to face” talk. This in itself is quite satisfying. Taking it a step further, the employee may have to consult another employee or his superior in which case the WebRTC solution makes it easy to include a third party in the conversation. The customer, if he is discussing an issue about a product, can show the product and its defects on the live video. One can avoid lengthy exchange of emails and images. WebRTC is a shortcut to fast resolution of queries. Delighted customers are loyal customers.
- Collaboration
A manufacturing business may have its head office in one location, vendors in another location, buyers in another location and product engineer or designer located somewhere else. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to get them all together to thrash out minor or major issues. Doing so physically is a challenge besides being expensive. A WebRTC platform from specialist WebRTC solution providers makes it easy for everyone to have a virtual meeting, view plans, designs, machines, data sheets and charts and arrive at a consensus in just one or a couple of sessions. Even teams within a company may use WebRTC with ease for collaboration. Productivity increases, cost reduce, brand image is enhanced by resorting to this versatile communication pathway.
- Training for staff
Employees with high and current skill levels contribute and perform better. In order for this to happen, it is necessary for them to be trained in the latest. It may not be practical for employees to attend courses after working hours and if such employees are in different locations, holding in-house training sessions becomes a costly affair. Enter WebRTC software solutions to the rescue. Employees can join the online training session using their mobile phones and update their skills. In a broader perspective, training can be delivered in many different ways to individuals through the WebRTC medium, helping people join classes remotely and study for pleasure or profit. A Yoga guru, for instance, can boost profits simply by being able to rope in more students by offering low, webRTC based training sessions.
- Immediacy and versatility.
There is an immediacy to WebRTC that is not matched by other channels of communications. There is versatility too. WebRTC is a tool. How you get WebRTC solution providers to implement it depends on innovative ways of thought. Stock brokers, for instance can use this channel to help individual investors trade and communicate with experts and thus assure loyalty. Legal professionals, for instance, can offer webRTC based notarization services. Whatever the scenario, there is an immediacy to WebRTC. Instead of emailing back and forth or “I will check and call later” scenarios, one can simply use webRTC to communicate, resolve queries, show demos, share whiteboards and documents and come to a conclusion. Time is money. WebRTC saves time and boosts productivity of executives.
- You don’t need complex infrastructure (and personnel to support it)
In days past if one had to implement a video-audio conference solution it necessitated the use of specialized hardware and software and personnel for support. WebRTC works with desktops with videocam-headphone set, a browser and internet. It works with mobiles that have inbuilt camera, microphone and speaker. Companies need not invest in expensive hardware and then allocate space for it and then have personnel for support. If there is an issue they would have to call in IT support but with WebRTC all these are non-issues. Instead of bothering with setup, people in workspaces can just initiate audio-video chats or respond to them just as easily as they pick up a phone.
Businesses not using WebRTC solutions could fall way, way behind.