Communicating Face-to-Face, Globally Videoconferencing helps build business relationships by providing more personal communications.
By Brian Gauler
We all are aware of the rapid and continuous changes that are being made in personal computers, and their established importance in today’s business communications. For example, e-mail provides the international manager with one of the best tools that has ever been available for communicating globally.
But e-mail is not a substitute for personal, one-on-one communication, which is so vital for establishing good global working relations. It is critical that e-mail be augmented by personal communication that provides eye contact. However, what do you do if you can’t be there in person? Videoconferencing Current technology has reached the point where videoconferencing can be accomplished anywhere in the world where a laptop computer can be connected to a TV and an Internet broadband connection.
Sound difficult and only for the “techie?” With a minimum amount of training and the right equipment, you can set up your own videoconference from your hotel room anywhere in the world, if you just know how. China Connection Recently we exhibited at a major trade show in Shanghai, China. While attending the show we thought we would try using our laptop computer to set up a videoconference with the home office managers back in Columbia, Mo.
Prior to our trip, we had outfitted one of the training rooms at the home office with some standard videoconferencing equipment, basically a small teleprompter with a single lens camera and microphone hooked up to a TV monitor and connected to a DSL telephone line. We had successfully videoconferenced with our Chinese director of operations from his office in Fushon, China, but had not tried communicating from a hotel room.
Our director of operations brought with him the portable teleprompter unit he uses in his office. We plugged it into the hotel room TV, connected the unit to the hotel DSL Internet connection through the laptop computer, and rang through to the home office.
With the 13-hour time difference between China and Missouri, we had previously arranged for the home office managers to be in the videoconferencing room at 8:30 a.m. that day (9:30 p.m. in Shanghai). The connection was made, and soon we were speaking back and forth as though we were in the same room. Not only did it give us instant communication, it also made us appreciate how important all the other aspects of communicating—body language, gestures, voice tones and attitude—are to good communication. Even the room had an impact as the colorful walls and bright lighting in the home office facility provided a clear backdrop that spoke to us visually. What’s Needed? Internet-based systems require basic equipment for two purposes: connectivity and hardware. It is important to note that for acceptable video-cast performance, broadband access to the Internet is required. Broadband means a high-speed connection, usually DSL or cable access. A “standard” DSL service (usually 128 Kbps upstream and 768 Kbps downstream) is a minimum recommended speed. An upstream value in the range of 256 to 384 Kbps is considered ideal.
There are two recommended options that provide for a smooth video image and clear audio for business-grade videoconferencing.
The best equipment option is a Polycom VSX 7000 unit (retails for about $5,000) with a minimum 19” color TV. This system has a built-in duplex speakerphone with add-on speakers (much like P.C. speakers), and the camera “tracks” the voices of participants as they speak. The addition of Visual Concert provides for PowerPoint presentations and other computer-based information communication.
An alternate minimum system is a D-Link i2Eye DVC-1000 with a Polycom VoiceStation 100 Speakerphone (lists at about $250) with the same minimum 19” color TV.
Numerous alternate videoconferencing systems are available, but these other systems may not perform as well. Also consider that some select additions can greatly improve the capabilities of a system. A flat screen monitor dramatically enhances a system, both in the quality of the video and the perception of the videoconferencing.
For your clients that do not have videoconferencing, there are two resources you might want to consider. Kinko’s currently has over 150 videoconferencing locations in the U.S., plus select offices in Australia, Canada, England and the United Arab Emirates. Another source is Mivnet, a database of public room videoconferencing facilities around the world, available at www.mivnet.com. E-mail As effective as videoconferencing can be, it is enhanced by, not a replacement for, e-mail. As you probably already experience in your business communications, e-mail has become indispensable, particularly for most international markets.
You can support your videoconference by using e-mail to send agendas before connecting, and for transferring documents that need to be discussed. Often, we find that we use e-mail during a videoconference session so we can have all parties involved working from the same document. It’s also invaluable for confirming immediate changes that might require “approval” prior to release of a document.
B2B ”Business-to-business” is somewhat misleading, because businesses don’t do business, people do. That is particularly important to keep in mind when establishing global business working relationships. And, people value face-to-face communication.
Successful international managers know that the personal relationships they establish with their foreign intermediaries or customers are what truly make them successful. Applying today’s technology in telecommunications, especially using videoconferencing that adds a more personal touch, can be instrumental in establishing and maintaining those personal relationships.
Brian Gauler is director of Business Development for Environmental Dynamics Inc., in Columbia, Mo. He can be reached at (573) 474-9456 or .
