8el
8el Services
Home → News → Technology News → Businesses' online communications 'stuck in the 20th century'
Businesses' online communications 'stuck in the 20th century'
Big businesses need to sit up and take note of the changing corporate climate, particularly when it comes to engaging with customers and other companies using the latest online communications technologies.
That is the verdict of a new report which looked into the current communications habits of FTSE 100 companies and concluded that the UK risks being "left behind in the 20th century" through this refusal to adapt.
Central to this backwardness, it is claimed, is an unwillingness to compliment audio communications - such as voice over IP - with visual communications advances.
Of those companies studied by the BroadView agency, one third currently don't have web videos in place on their websites, while of those that do, in 68 per cent of the cases the content is standard webcasting of investor briefings.
This means that a majority of the UK's largest businesses are unable to interact with each other or with their clients using online visual communications systems, despite the fact that social networking sites and other online media have already served to highlight the popularity of this medium.
Stuart Maister, managing director of BroadView, commented: "This research shows that most large British companies are behind the curve in digital communications."
He added that this reluctance to embrace visual communications tools meant that "UK businesses really [are] missing a trick since this content is often aimed at the web 2.0 generation who expect much more than text-heavy pages."
This trend contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm with which businesses of all sizes across Europe have embraced VoIP and other online telephony systems.
Earlier this year research carried out by Data Integration in partnership with Extreme Networks found that market penetration of VoIP across western Europe to be currently standing at almost 60 per cent, with 90 per cent of corporate users giving the technology positive feedback.
In comparison, of the 3,000 businesses polled by the study, only 32.1 per cent had plans to roll out video IP in the foreseeable future, with Paul Phillips, Extreme Networks' regional director for the UK and Ireland, putting this down to a "significant lack of understanding when it comes to the benefits of video in the enterprise."
However, given that it took some time for the cost-cutting benefits of VoIP to be fully realised and for the technology to be widely adopted by UK businesses, it is likely that video IP will soon become popular.
And, with the National Computer Centre recently reporting that 58 per cent of businesses plan on increasing their IT budgets at an above-inflation rate over the next few months, it may be the case that the challenge of the global economic slowdown will be enough to push the country's top firms into the 21st century.
About Us