The rise in virtual meeting solutions at the onset of COVID-19 put increased pressure on enterprise leaders. They had to ensure all employees could access the right technology to maintain consistent communication with colleagues, customers, and clients while working remotely.
The quick adoption of these tools helped teams continue to collaborate, despite the geographical distance.
But now – as more businesses move towards a hybrid working approach of both remote and in-office work – enterprises should take time to review these digital meeting tools from an expense management perspective.
As reliance on these platforms is expected to continue, enterprise leaders should follow these steps to rationalize their meeting solutions.
1. Review Your User Base
Gartner predicts that by 2024, only 25% of meetings will take place in person. This suggests that the vast majority of meetings will be hosted on enterprise collaboration tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts.
For these tools to work as intended, you have to ensure that all employees have convenient access to them at all times.
So, to start, take the time to review your user base. This will allow you to gain a better understanding of who uses each service and who needs access. Once you have better visibility over your user accounts, you can work towards filling any service gaps like offering corporate devices and software subscriptions to those that need them.
2. Get a Handle on Costs
Many meeting solutions aren't inherently expensive.
But when you're juggling potentially thousands of users, all needing access from different devices, maintaining financial visibility can be a nightmare. Add device deployments and service expenses into the mix, and costs quickly creep up.
So, it's important to get a handle on your spending and streamline financial management across your mobility infrastructure.
This is especially true for large enterprises. You need to proactively monitor your financial health and identify, implement, and track cost control measures, so you never pay more than you need to.
3. Make Sure Access Is Secure
Addressing security concerns is essential for business leaders looking to support a remote workforce. One way to do this is to ensure that all access points and connected devices are secure.
Laptops, phones, and other mobile devices can be a great way to access remote working tools, attend meetings, and collaborate with colleagues while working from home or on the move. But these endpoints need to be secure and effectively managed to ensure that the security risk is minimized.
To make sure your access is secure, you need to:
- Teach risk prevention
- Employ strong password protections
- Enable two-factor authentication
- Use effective rights management
Secure access is becoming increasingly important as organizations begin to rely more heavily on remote tools to connect and collaborate. Make sure security risks are kept to a minimum by employing the above strategies.
Rationalize Your Meeting Solutions
Meeting solutions helped enterprises remain resilient in the face of disruption. These solutions are vital for an increasingly hybrid workforce, and will likely remain for the foreseeable future.
However, to ensure that you're not overpaying for these services, compromising security, or denying employees access to key software, it's important to continually review your meeting tools. This will help you identify overspend, security risks, and help you get better visibility over your user accounts.
To find out how Cass can help you get started, get in touch with us today.
