In today’s business world, video is no longer a nice-to-have - it’s an absolutely positively must-have if you want to get ahead of the competition - but what if your kit is a bit cruddy? Glitches, dropped signals and the dreaded screen-freeze all send a less than professional image - but what to do about it without spending a fortune?
Here’s a fact: when they’re used properly, managed IT services and IT consulting significantly improve video conferencing. They help reinforce your network, safeguard sensitive data, and make remote working a whole lot more efficient. In fact, many companies also use related strategies – things like LinkedIn videoÂ
marketing tips for MSPs – to strengthen their outreach efforts as well as their general communication.
In this article, we’re sharing our step-by-step guide to upping your game when it comes to getting the most from that all-important screen time.
Enhancing the Infrastructure
Coherent and fluid video calls start with a solid foundation - and here’s where IT folk get their chance to shine. Through proactive maintenance and tweaking the tech, IT personnel can help to ensure that important calls are memorable for all the right reasons.
Optimizing Network Performance for Video Conferencing
Your average video call uses a
whole ton of data to get the job done. And if your network can’t keep up, your comms will be littered with lags, not to mention deeply unflattering pixelation which you very much want to prevent. How’s that done? Well, managed IT services streamline your virtual meetings and limit interruptions, by monitoring bandwidth and then giving your calls the green light for priority traffic.
IT consulting teams configure Quality of Service settings to allocate resources effectively. So for example, this limits tasks that use heavy bandwidth, like large file uploads during meetings. It’s also possible to identify weak points in real time, allowing quick fixes before problems get worse.
And by optimizing network infrastructure, businesses can see improved call stability even during peak hours. All this is especially valuable when you consider that
42% underuse IT tools says CloudSecureTech, which means that many companies are nowhere near using the full potential of their systems.
Ensuring High-Quality Audio and Video Delivery
We’ve talked a bit about the visual aspect of your online conferencing but this is all moot (or worse, mute) if your audio isn’t up to scratch. As well as recognising the need for speed, Managed IT Services are able to (techy stuff incoming) adjust the audio codecs, which is a fancy term for tweaking the algorithm that’s in charge of your audio data. This limits distortion and makes sure that you’re wired for sound in step with your visuals. This clever tech monitors and analyses the allocation of bandwidth to ensure that your important calls are always given priority over other tasks. Noise-cancelling microphones are also a great investment here for crystal-clear, professional communications.
Advanced Security Measures
As if it’s not bad enough that hackers are angling for your data through phishing, they’re also able to snoop on your video calls if you’re not careful. Cyber threats can disable your business at lightning speed and so keeping your communications safe should always be a top priority.
Protecting Data During Video Communications
Managed IT Services can also help to keep prying eyes and ears away from your conferencing through comprehensive security tools like ferocious firewalls and detection systems that monitor, identify and block threats in real-time.
Encryption plays a key role here. That’s because
end-to-end encryption protects shared files, messages, and (of course) live sessions from unauthorized access. This means that everything is totally secure at every stage.
Implementing Secure Access and Encryption
Multi-fac authentication is your business’s first defence when it comes to keeping the baddies out - and that includes your video calls. End-to-end encryption, role-based permissions and multi-factor sign-in are all valuable tools that can help to keep your conversations confidential.
Integration with Business Tools
These days, it’s not enough to have great business tools that talk to you - they need to be able to talk to each other too. Integration is all about connectivity; meaning that all of your tech works together with your video conferencing to produce seamless communication, file sharing and workflows. Just like in your personal relationships, a lack of compatibility leads to disjointedness and services that don’t do what they’re supposed to.
Compatibility with Video Conferencing Hardware
Managed IT Services make light work of compatibility through smart tools that can tweak equipment like microphones and cameras to bring them in line with your platforms, including the usual suspects like
Zoom and Teams. These services are also able to whizz through your systems to analyse and adjust setups for the ultimate in integration. For you, this means clear, uninterrupted calls (and quicker ones too).
Scalability and Customization
Most businesses have at least one eye on growth and, as great as that is, you need to make sure that your tech doesn’t get left behind in the dust. This means finding a service that will allow your IT to grow with you; keeping everything perfectly aligned however fast you scale.
Tailored Solutions for Growing Businesses
Your business growth goes through different stages - from teething to those tricky teenage years and you need the right people for the job when it comes to making sure that your tech can keep up without breaking the bank or becoming impossibly complicated.
Yep, you guessed it - managed IT services are on hand to streamline your operations, and to personalize them. This makes teams stronger and more collaborative, but also way more flexible.
Conclusion
Businesses are at their best when everyone works to their individual strengths. And for many, this means bringing in external people to make sure their video calls stay on track.  This leads to better management of security, infrastructure and integration, which means that staff are freed up to focus on more pressing tasks.
If you'd like to learn more about what we provide, why not take a look at how we can help?
Boost your skills with our market-leading online courses at super-low prices.
