Before you can take action you need to identify, qualify and quantify the drivers of change. Research undertaken by Shure in partnership with Frost & Sullivan does exactly this and paints a picture of the road ahead with regards to improving virtual meetings.
Shure, in partnership with Frost & Sullivan, has conducted extensive market research to get the lay of the land. The research quantifies and qualifies the changes that are driving the evolution of technology and its intersection with people and spaces. As IT and business leaders prepare for the future of work, they are replacing old technologies and upgrading how they communicate and collaborate.
Research reveals that top reasons cited were 35% faced quality and reliability issues, while 34% had security concerns and 26% had limited interoperability with 3rd party solutions.
These findings are made even more relevant in light of the changing work environment. We all ‘know’ that virtual meetings have become the norm, but the research from Shure highlights the degree to which it has now become part of our working routine. The average length of a meeting has increased 10% in the last 15 years and the average duration of a meeting is now between 31 to 60 minutes. In addition, the average meeting now has up to nine participants!
Shure’s research does not just focus on usage. It also delves into user perception and evaluation of the virtual meeting experience available today. The key findings are that participants say an average of 33% of meeting time is unproductive. In addition, more than 70% of senior managers agree that meetings are unproductive and inefficient.
From these key findings, we can start to pinpoint the drivers for technology investment that can help businesses be proactive and get ahead of the curve.
The big one is improving effectiveness. With virtual meeting usage increasing, the time identified as ‘unproductive’ by participants starts to pile up and this can have a detrimental impact on any business. On top of that, if senior management classify ‘meetings’ as unproductive and inefficient at a time when meetings are required more than ever before to keep businesses going, it is time to upgrade.
Because people spend so much time in meetings, it is imperative to ensure that it is time well spent. High quality audio is essential to drive inefficiencies out of meetings. Shure solutions can help give your teams seamless high-quality audio in meeting rooms to fi lter out background noise and enhance focus; reduce the need to repeat information; and lessen participant’s fatigue and frustration.
Improving teamwork is another outcome enabled by Shure solutions. Whether working from home or in office spaces, all meeting participants, require excellent audio to be fully engaged. And with 82% of managers expecting to have more fl exible work-from-home policies post-pandemic, it’s time to prepare for the future of distributed teamwork.
Hybrid work is a critical component for businesses to tackle. Statistics show a massive shift of professionals to working from home during Covid-19, with many wanting to continue with this after the pandemic. They’ll need great equipment, including headphones and earphones with built-in microphones, to ensure flawless engagement with their customers. Shure provides audio solutions that are flexible and scalable to help you on every step of your journey of creating hybrid work models from conception to implementation.
But most importantly, Shure systems can allow you to act without breaking the bank. The traditional deployment of conferencing technology is costly and outmoded. The world has shifted to flexible cloud-based deployment and consumption models, reducing operating costs and offering richer functionality that addresses a variety of use cases. With Shure’s diverse portfolio of products and services that play well with the cloud services being adopted today, there is sure to be a solution that is a fit for you.