business - Tag Archive

Five changes in video conferencing for the next decade

9 Replies rash799

The collapse of the global economy has left big business needing to cut costs in every coroner it possibly can. For many executives the solution lies in finding high tech alternatives to many of the most costly aspects of business. One of the most effective ways this is being done is through video conferencing.

The constant stream of meetings and sales pitches being presented all over the world in the flesh accompanied by high priced business class air fairs and four star hotel rooms are coming to an end. More and more organisations are looking to replace this with video conferencing, making international meetings a far quicker and cheaper process.

As the quality of video conference technology improves and the experience gets closer to that of a real life encounter the adoption of video conferencing technology is only going to become more wide spread.

Video conferencing is already available in extremely fast frame rates at full HD resolutions, but what else can be done to help make the form of communication seem more real. What are the technological developments we can expect in the next decade?

Skype's Logo

Skype can be used as a video conferencing tool

1 – Translation software

With video conferencing making global operations affordable for even smaller business, more business are going to be looking to have presence over seas and this will call for low cost translation services.

Translation software is quickly developing; two years ago we saw the iPod app that used it’s camera to instantly translate any written text, and this will quickly be combined with high quality voice recognition technologies that are become standard on the new generation of smart phones. We are not far off software that will quickly and efficiently translate the spoken word.

2 – Holographic projection

Previously the types of light needed for this kind of projection were too hot to be used in the kinds of small devices available in offices. However laser lighting means that holographic projectors will soon be able to be built small enough for not only office use, but could also be built into many portable devices such as smartphones.

Flash memory in smart phones could soon be replaced with a new storage format based on this technology, holographic memory. This will greatly increase storage capacities as the same area of a storage device can be used multiple times by projecting the light at different angles, read speeds will also become much faster as holo-memory can be read from many different points in parallel. This eliminates many of the large file size issues that have been hindering the spread of video technology

3 – Video takes over from the written word

As high quality webcams become more standard features on modern netbooks and better integrated with communications services such as Facebook, it is expected that people will begin to move away from writing emails and instead compose video mail instead.

For many a video message is quicker and easier and also seems more personal, now that it is as easy as clicking a button on Facebook to send one it is only a matter of time until they over take emails in the frequency with which they are sent for personal communication. The paper trail that emails leave behind may mean it takes longer for them to be used in business.

4 – A rise in personal broadcasting

YouTube videos are increasingly becoming an entertainment format that rivals television. The content on You Tube that is produced by individuals or very small companies is now genuinely entertaining yet far cheaper to produce than more traditional formats. With cost cutting becoming more essential these lower budget forms of entertainment are only going to increase. This could shift the way the entertainment industry is structured with more talent choosing to run there own company and be there own boss broadcasting themselves over the web.

5 – Increased usage of Telehealth

Also expect to see the medical industries developing more technologies based on video conferencing which will allow doctors to diagnose and treat patients from a distance. Telehealth hardware is already on track to be a $990 million market by 2015 and predictions are that this will continue to $6 billion five years after that.

At the moment telemedicine technologies are very much focused on developing countries, where there are shortages of doctors in rural communities. As telemedicine technology improves though it could be adopted in the west too allowing anyone to be treated by the best doctors in the world, no matter there location.

What we now know about Facebook

21 Replies Christopher Roberts

As you may have heard, Facebook plans to become a public limited company (plc) and float on the stockmarket. It hopes that this will raise around the sum of $5 billion USD (this is only about half what most people thought it would try to raise) in finance for the business, a colossal amount!

Facebook's LogoThanks to the flotation it is estimated that around 30% (roughly 1,000 people) of the companies employees will become millionaires! That said, Mark Zuckerberg is reducing his annual salary to just $1 as of January next year. Why? Because he will have shares estimated at the value of around $100 billion!

Anyway, due to Facebook wanting to become a plc, it needed to release more detailed financial data than it ever had before, into the public domain. This means that we now know much more about this previously rather secretive internet giant, than ever before!

Finances

Thanks to its choice to become a plc, we now know that Facebook makes 85% of its income from advertising. Furthermore we know that last year it made almost $4 billion USD! Out of this, it turned an impressive 25% into profit, bringing it in $1 billion (supposedly exactly) in net profit.

It is now possible to value to company as a whole, and it is thought to be worth $100 billion USD. To compare that to other industry giants, Amazon is valued around the same amount, eBay is values at about half that figure, and Google is thought to be worth double that.

Ownership

Facebook will still be owned and controlled largely by Mark Zuckerberg. He currently owns 28.4% of Facebook and has a majority in terms of voting rights with over 50% of votes. Basically Zuckerberg owns Facebook still, and he seems to want to stay in the driving seat for a while yet!

Mark Zuckerberg the founder of FacebookUsers

We now also know that Facebook have around 845 million active users around the world, of whom, around 450 million visit the site very regularly – that is a crazy amount!

The Future?

Facebook would be worth nothing without its users. Some people say that its users are not Facebook’s customers, but in fact the networks products. If people get bored or move on, the site will die.

If you were buying shares in an internet based business, Google would probably be a much safer bet than Facebook, as its future looks much more certain. Facebook may pay massive dividends to investors in the future, or it may go into decline and cost investors a collective $5 billion!


Friends Reunited was once great, now it stands in Facebook’s massive shadow, as does Myspace, Bebo, Foursquare and many other social media sites. All these sites how now been superseded by Facebook, the question is, will Google Plus or something else dwarf Facebook? Personally I believe that in 10 years, there will be something bigger, but we will just have to wait and see 🙂

The positives and negatives of outsourcing work for SMEs

18 Replies Andrew Doyle

In challenging economic times small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have to look at costs and reduce overheads in virtually every area possible. One of the first things that small businesses look at in order to free up time and resource is to outsource work in order to focus on other aspects of their organisation.

Outsourcing of work can have a hugely positive impact on the output and growth of an organisation.

However the decision to outsource important work to freelancers and professionals across the country and overseas should not be made lightly. It is important to outsource work for the right reasons rather than employing someone in-house to complete the task.

There may be times in business in order to progress that you will take on projects that you just don’t have the necessary skills to do so. Outsourcing enables SMEs to improve their specialised skill sets via third parties, to improve their reputation and get the job done quicker.

Here are some of the many other pros and cons of outsourcing work that businesses must consider to determine whether it is the right option for your organisation.

Pros:

  •  Increased speed and quality of delivery – If your business is willing to take on work in areas which you don’t particularly specialise then outsourcing work can significantly enhance the speed and quality of completed work. Not only will you be able to complete work on time and within budget, you will be able to focus your energies on other pressing projects better suited to your expertise.
  • Free up office space – Space is precious in commercial properties and by outsourcing work within a particular department you can minimise the number of workstations and employees required, with the ability to communicate and work with third parties online with minimal fuss.
  • Ideal for business start-ups – In the infancy of any business outsourcing work proves significantly cheaper than hiring full-time staff with the same level of support. However, as businesses grow it is prudent to re-evaluate the outsourcing of particular tasks as it may prove more beneficial to employ a full-time employee to work in-house and adapt to your growing and changing needs.

Cons:

  •  Concerns over quality control – Many small businesses are frightened to work with third parties as they lose the ability to manage projects in-house. This can have a significant impact on quality control, particularly if you make a poor choice of freelancer to complete a specific project.
  • Communication frustrations – If you choose to outsource a task overseas there is always the risk of work demands getting lost in translation. This can lead to hold ups in work which may result in frustration from clients and potentially the end of lucrative working relationships.
  • Difficulties selecting appropriate vendors – SMEs inexperienced with the process of selecting a freelancer or professional for outsourced work may find it hard to decipher reliable proposals from the downright shady.

Unfortunately outsourcing work is not an exact science, but with a little common sense and research you can work successfully with third parties with the necessary knowledge and work ethic.