How a downturn in the economy can be an upside in business

The effects of the current economic crisis are being felt right across Europe. We have seen redundancies and bankruptcies on a scale unprecedented since the 1980s if not the 1930s. And while It is easy to focus on short term plans and massive cost-cutting exercises, this is not necessarily the best long-term option. It may be a cliche, but a recession really can be the time to move your business forward.

It's not that reducing costs isn't a good thing. Just the opposite. However, you need to ensure that you are cutting the right costs - those that will allow your business to improve efficiency and create a sustainable competitive advantage.

As simple as that? If only it was. The key to ensuring your business continues to flourish is to make collaboration an integral part of your business model.

So what is collaboration?

In the IT industry, there are many complicated or technical definitions of collaboration. But at a basic level, it simply means working together. And at BT Conferencing, we believe that when people work together, they get things done.

In today's business culture, working together usually involves meetings and their associated travel. As human beings, we are most comfortable working with people we can see and shake hands with. However, it is many of these meetings that generate unnecessary costs for a business.

... an easier way to do business

While there are some face-to-face meetings that can't - and shouldn't - be replaced with an alternative, many of them can easily be held much more effectively. It's a little known fact that many meetings are shorter when held over a conference call. So with a conference call, not only are you saving on the cost of travelling to that meeting and recouping the time lost while travelling - you also 'get back' the additional time you would have spent in the meeting.

Why travel unnecessarily to bring a group of decision makers together when the technology exists to hold the same meeting over the phone or video? You can deliver presentations, share and edit documents using a web conferencing service. Need to ensure your employees understand recent changes or that they have all undergone the latest training? An event call service can help deliver your training and track who's participated. For that matter, why hold expensive events to deliver quarterly results to shareholders and journalists when there are cheaper, easier alternatives?

Discover new ways of working

There are many different types of collaboration tools. At BT Conferencing, as the name suggests, we deal with audio, web and video conferencing.

From simple calls for more than 2 people, to sharing documents over web conferencing, to company wide calls for hundreds or even thousands of people. Then there's the technology that allows you to retain that face-to-face feel. You can choose from HD video conferencing for the desktop, for meeting rooms or even the top of the range Telepresence solutions. The important thing is choosing the right solution for your business, the one that saves your business as much as possible.

Showing that return to your business...

While it's always been important to show a return on investment, this has been amplified by the current economic climate. We know this is of vital importance to our customers. And because we believe in what we do, we work with them to prove the benefit we provide.

By surveying your employees, we can work out the business benefits you've seen. Not only in travel related costs, but also in unproductive time and CO2 emissions. And you'd be amazed at some of the figures that come out.

- We're very proud that we're our own biggest customer. And even more proud that we help BT save a massive EURO200m (£180m) in 2008. That's more than 717,000 avoided meetings.

- But it's not just about us - it's about what we do for our customers: We saved a UK national distribution company and a global bank EURO17.4m (£15.2m) and €16m (£14m) respectively last year.

These business benefit surveys we carry out with our customers also give us an insight into the kind of savings all companies could be making. For example, for every audio conferencing account you have, you could make net savings of €20,800, 11.5 days and 3 tonnes of carbon emissions - every year. Now, think about how many of your employees should have an account. The numbers start adding up, don't they?

... and being green while you do it

Even with the current focus on the economy, we shouldn't forget things like the environment. There are still plenty of discussions at national, European and global levels about the amount of CO2 we emit - particularly in the western world. And if you don't already have to conform to rules and regulations on carbon emissions, it's likely that you soon will.

So, it's a bonus that not travelling to meetings as often means that your business is also emitting less CO2. Again, we can help you calculate this so you can shout about it to the world - if you want to.

Our support teams can help you here. We helped one of our customers set up an internal environmental programme that was promoted on their intranet, using posters and emails, as part of an initiative to become carbon neutral.

Building a culture of collaboration

We feel strongly that it's important to help our customers create a real culture of collaboration within their business. Because if your employees don't use their accounts, you won't see the savings you expect. So we have a team who will work with you and your employees.

It can be as simple as training people to use their audio or web conferencing account, helping them set up a video conference. Or it can be working with your internal communications teams to promote conferencing services via your intranet, company emails or even an on-site event. It's all about what works for your business.

We believe in what we do

So much so, that we'd love the chance to talk to you about how much we could save your business. Email us at greenermeetings@bt.com for your free business benefit evaluation. We'd love to hear from you.