In the modern business world, companies' employees and resources are being stretched thinner than ever. In order to remain competitive it is often necessary to expand the borders of your potential marketplace, sending your sales force into far off territories sometimes even outside of your own country. While this can potentially lead to increased profits and new business opportunities, it also makes the task of communicating with your sales force (and your customers) far more difficult.

Fortunately, modern telecommunications systems make it easy to stay in touch with business associates--no matter how far away from the main office they might be. If your company has been relying on traditional telephone networks to stay in touch, however, you're probably all too aware of the limitations of this technology. Even if you have the best teleconferencing system on the market, for instance, it can be difficult to hold an effective meeting with a large group of people that are spread around the country--or the globe.

Why Video Conferencing Works

People are used to the intimacy of a personal telephone conversation between two parties, but once the group expands to more than three, it becomes difficult to really talk. One of the reasons for this is that we lose the ability to pick up on visual cues while people are talking. This fact, combined with the need to process and keep track of multiple conversation participants usually leads to stuttered conversations with a lot of uncomfortable interruptions and pauses.

Video conferencing solves these problems by allowing you to actually see the person that you're having the conversation with. The experience of a video call may seem a bit odd at first, but very quickly you learn to appreciate being able to see the person's expressions and mannerisms while they talk. This is particularly important in business situations where all the parties may not have actually met each other before.

It is easy, for instance, to have a great conversation with your best friend over the telephone, since you don't need to see their face to know if they're smiling or frowning. In a business situation, being lectured by someone you've never met (and can't see) can be awkward and difficult. Video conferencing is a wonderful solution to this problem.

What You Need for Video Conferencing

There are several different ways you can set up video conferencing calls, and they range (in terms of price) from extremely affordable to incredibly expensive. The equipment you need pretty much depends on how robust your needs are, and this usually depends on how large your company is. If you have a small company with only a few employees, you'll probably be able to get away with using simple Internet-based video conferencing.

Internet video conferencing works using a simple piece of software (sometimes even built into a web page) that transmits your picture and voice over the Internet to a participant on the other end (who is using similar software and equipment). Some websites actually offer this service for free--typically the only piece of equipment you'll need to buy is a simple webcam that is capable of video transmission.

For more complex video conferencing needs (for large corporations, for example) the best video conferencing solution is using dedicated IP networks. IP networks basically allow you to set up your own broadband Internet which has the capacity to transmit incredibly high-quality picture and sound. Used in combination with high-end video conferencing cameras and telephones, this type of network allows to create virtual meetings that seem almost real--even if the participants are thousands of miles away from each other.