I love all aspects of traveling. (Well, maybe not the jet lag). So it’s ironic that I work for a marketing team that promotes the very collaboration technology that can help reduce business travel. How did I end up here?!
Traveling is a passion of mine, but personal travel is not the same as business travel. While personal travel is meant to be leisurely, business travel is no vacation. But the way we conduct business travel is changing and it’s time to adapt.
With great power comes great responsibility. With great technology comes great opportunity.
They say that with great power comes great responsibility. Similarly, with great technology comes great opportunity to use that technology for the better.
In this case, “technology” refers to collaboration solutions. And you’d better believe that Cisco and businesses around the globe are using these solutions for all kinds of “better.”
More specifically, organizations are using WebEx and Cisco Spark collaboration solutions to tackle inefficiencies in business travel and change the way we meet –for the better.
What’s wrong with traveling for business?
Basically, business travel can be unproductive, inefficient and often unnecessary. Let’s look at some statistics based on Cisco research:
- Approximately 25% of corporate travel is non-optimal.
- According to The New York Times, one round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person.
- In 2014, companies spent an average of 10% or more of their total annual budget on expenses related to business travel.
- Business travel mishaps amount to $1,475 in missed work and out-of-pocket expenses, plus an average of 2.3 work days lost.
“But I need to speak with my customers face-to-face!” I can hear the objections already. But before dismissing the idea of technology over travel, let’s dive deeper the benefits of collaboration technology and online meetings and see if I can’t change your mind.
What collaboration solutions take away from business travel
“Taking away” from your business isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, if you take away the right things, you increase productivity and add value. That is exactly what Cisco WebEx and Spark do – take away detrimental aspects of business meetings and add productivity and efficiency.
For example, collaboration solutions take away:
- Corporate costs on travel expenses such as transportation and hotels
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Lost productivity due to employee time spent in transit
- Employee safety concerns
- Distance barriers and time restrictions
What collaboration solutions add to business travel
Now that we’ve removed the ugly aspects of business travel, let’s consider the ways you can add value to your business by optimizing meetings.
Our collaboration solutions can help increase:
- Geographic flexibility, allowing your employees work from anywhere
- Time back that an employee might have spent traveling
- Convenient recording capabilities to review meetings or trainings – and make them available on demand
- Ability to include diverse parties in global meetings
- Streamlined communications with workspaces to share documents or chat
Are you convinced yet?
Collaboration technology is advantageous to the environment, companies, and employees alike. But not any collaboration technology will do… You want the best of the best. As the industry leader in web and video conferencing, Cisco focuses on quality and efficiency. Anything is possible! Whether you’re in Beijing or the local Starbucks down the street, you can reap the benefits of business travel without the hassle and especially the jet lag.
Check out our collaboration resources for corporate travel teams.
Interesting research- that’s a lot of money and bad emissions that can be saved. Great blog, Jordan!
Congratulations on your first post for the collaboration team. Looking forward to getting your insight on many more topics.
Great post Jordan. Look forward to hearing more from you.
Cisco’s collaboration tools are a game changer. We are able to have meetings on the fly and not fly to our customers! Using Webex and Spark to collaborate not just with meetings; but with Spark rooms we are able to upload documents in a customers room.
I am still amazed when companies don’t use this robust technology as a means to control travel costs and increase collaboration.
Use Collaboration Technologies to meet more customers in less time. Save those travel days for the relationship building and first meetings where a handshake is needed but from a routine business perspective most people would rather jump on a WebEx and get work done rather than wander down to the conference room. Whether it be down the hall or across the ocean. Unless, of course, the business is in Hawaii!