Web and Video Conferencing - Mandated

Blogger: Bill Pray

Arizona Senate Bill 1001 proposes a mandate that every state government agency and school to purchase Web and video conferencing:

This section applies to all of the following:
5   1. State agencies, boards and commissions.
6   2. Cities and towns.
7   3. Counties.
8   4. School districts.
9   5. Universities, including the Arizona board of regents.
10 6. Community college districts.
11 B. Each entity described in subsection A shall purchase through its
12 normal procurement procedures sufficient web-based web and video conferencing
13 software...

Officials say the state invested about $400,000 on Web conferencing software for 14 agencies in 2008 and, as a result, saved close to $4 million in travel costs to and from meetings. Based on that success, this bill has been drafted to mandate the technology throughout the state.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of thinking that leads to bad decisions. Workers have conferred for years in physical meetings and over the phone. When are those alternatives still better? In several scenarios:

• When trust needs to established: When people are collaborating synchronously, a certain amount of trust is often necessary. It helps if people know each other's foibles and strengths, and the handshakes and visual cues that can help instill this trust only occur in a physical meeting. Therefore, while web conferencing can work in a synchronous collaboration setting once everyone is familiar with each other, a face-to-face meeting is typically better at the first meeting or the beginning of the project.
• When discussions are local: Although this may be stating the obvious, web conferencing can be overkill when all interested parties can gather in a room.
• When the content needs to be initially created: Initially creating content within web conferencing can be difficult for users. The web conferencing feature set does not lend itself to brainstorming activities and the synergies that result from people working together in the same room. However, web conferencing can work well for reviewing and revising content through whiteboarding and application-sharing features.

Good use of web and video conferencing can lead to cost savings, as the savings of $4 million by Arizona can attest (although I would like to understand better the methodology behind obtaining the number). However, good IT organizations know that it is through the application of the technology to specific use cases, the benefits are realized. Examples are:

• Broadcasting information: Sales demonstrations, marketing presentations, webinars, and internal and external broadcast presentations
• Support and training: Customer and internal helpdesks, technical support, and training or virtual classrooms
• Collaborative work: Co-creation of content, small group meetings, and telecommuting
• Process-specific activities: Emergency response and crisis management

For Burton Group customers, more information can be found in my document Web Conferencing: Getting Green with Web Conferencing and in Mark Cortner's document Videoconferencing: Good Business Value or a Mirage?

In an article by KPHO news, a Phoenix official points out:

Nevertheless, Phoenix government relations director Karen Peters thinks the savings would be less and the cost far higher to buy Web conferencing software for the city.

Peters said, "We are implementing web conferencing for our employees that would use it. We don't really need to be training our field workers to use Web conference software, but this bill would require us to do that. "

Peters said, "It you were to extrapolate and to figure out what just the software licensing would be to comply with this mandate, it would be tens of million of dollars."

She added, "We just can't afford any unfunded mandates right now. "

Karen Peters has the right idea. The value of Web and video conferencing is in identifying and using the technology for specific use cases that benefit the organization. This is a classic example of how not to approach technology investments during tight economic conditions. Arizona State Senator Jim Waring (R-District 7), who is sponsoring the bill, could benefit from Craig Roth's advice in his three part blog series on The Role of Communication, Collaboration, and Content Technology Investments during Tight Economic Conditions.