Videoconference: Once a Luxury, Now a Necessity

If a while ago videoconferencing systems were inconceivable for many because they are directly associated with luxury systems, today they are totally indispensable. Collaboration and unified communications have been very popular and ensure a more productive and responsive business. Join us on a journey between the available videoconferencing platforms and find the one that best suits your profile.

Technological trends in conferencing and online collaboration field quickly went from being simply new and attractive to becoming an essential tool in everyone's daily life, because the need for distance communication imposed itself with a pandemic that came hand in hand with the home office. With times changing, wills also change. And that's what COVID -19 dictated: a growing demand for collaborative and conferencing technologies that would allow everyone to stay connected even at a distance. But if it is true that the demand for this type of technology was motivated by a pandemic, it is also true that this virus has left us a positive legacy for the future of all companies. If on the one hand there was a need for greater investment by all those who were not yet prepared to implement remote working, on the other hand it is also true that, once this investment has been made to overcome troubled times, companies can now benefit from several benefits:

• More flexible working hours: working from home is now an option for many

• More productivity: it is proven that employees tend to increase their productivity rate when they are in home office

• Cost reduction in distant meetings: it is now easier and more intuitive to hold meetings using any videoconferencing platform

• Reduction of delays in starting meetings: traffic or time can no longer be used as an excuse because remote meetings are a reality and are accessed in a click

• Greater environmental sustainability: it is undeniable that technology enhances resource savings

According to Vasco Ferreira dos Santos, CEO of Ésistemas, "Immersive and collaborative solutions are increasingly present and are transforming people in their way of being, thinking, communicating and working, that is, they are the impacts caused by the digital transformation. The world is increasingly digitized and both people and organizations are looking to communicate quickly, effectively and without huge costs. Making a "call" or a meeting via videoconference is common nowadays and the solutions we create help our customers to communicate better, simply, uniformly, with great quality and anywhere”.

The webconference is here to stay. There are numerous platforms for online meetings on the market, but not all offer the same reliability. Here are the top 5 in our opinion:

Microsoft Teams: allows up to 10.000 people in a meeting, attaching files up to 2GB, sharing screens and sharing and editing office documents in real time, enabling excellent simultaneous collaboration. With Microsoft Teams it is also possible to warp the user's background or place any image as a background, so that only the user is visible on the camera.

Zoom: it was the first platform to emerge in times of pandemic and gained many fans early on both at a professional level, when teleworking became mandatory, and at a personal level, for family or frinds meetings at a distance. Its free version allows up to 100 participants in a meeting, but with a maximum duration of 40 minutes.

Go Facing: Considered the most secure and scalable videoconferencing service, the GoFacing brand stands out for its interoperability between platforms and enabled installation in the cloud (as-a-service) or on the client (on-premises). GoFacing is the pioneering virtual meeting room service in the world that guarantees the most complete offer for the professional sector, thanks to the maximum data security it offers and its unique feature that allows interconnection with either Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. Totally reliable and user-friendly, GoFacing also guarantees the transmission of images always in high definition.

Webex: Developed by Cisco, Webex is interesting for companies that want to organize events, webinars or online courses with a high level of customization. The number of people who can participate depends on the user's license and varies between 25 people simultaneously in the free version and 200 people in a paid version.

Google Meet: lets you stream internal live events to a total of up to 100.000 people in your domain. Meetings via Google Meet can be free for up to 100 participants with a maximum duration of 60 minutes. Paid versions include a maximum of 250 participants and can last up to 24 hours.