What Would the World Look Like Without Business AV Collaboration Tools?

It’s a struggle to stay zen when your Mac monitor freezes or Wi-Fi drops out, especially when working from home. (No IT guy!) But would what WFH be like if this tech didn’t exist? Imagine if the COVID-19 pandemic happened 20 or even ten years ago — before the invention of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, wireless microphones, webcams, and other corporate AV business collaboration tools. How would businesses communicate with remote teams? How would remote teams communicate with other teams?

 

How would business even happen?

It’s a head-scratcher but certainly something to ponder. Even post-pandemic, what would the world look like without business AV collaboration tools?

 

Businesses Wouldn’t Be Able to Communicate So Easy

If AV collaboration tools didn’t exist, enterprises would communicate in other ways — via email, phone, or even snail mail. But while business wouldn’t grind to a complete halt, a lack of AV tools would limit communication, and this limited communication would affect collaboration.

Pandemic or not, remote workers wouldn’t be able to video conference. Or whiteboard. Or screen share. Or exchange information in true real-time. (Yes, even the fastest email response takes a few seconds.)

Interestingly, so many businesses take AV tools for granted, but they couldn’t survive without them.

 

Businesses Wouldn’t Be Able to Grow

Collaboration fuels the modern workplace, and AV tools make collaboration possible. So a world without these tools would make it difficult for businesses to facilitate day-to-day IT tasks, expedite workflows, and ultimately grow.

Around 75 percent of all employees perceive collaboration and teamwork as “important,” and collaboration is one of the four most essential skills for an employee’s future success. So if AV tools, the digital framework for collaboration, didn’t exist, you’d expect businesses to struggle to complete even the most basic of tasks.

Teams couldn’t share spreadsheets. (Money management would suffer.) Or share team calendars. (Time management would collapse.) Or set up digital meetings. (There would be no AV carts or digital projectors or speaker systems or Bluetooth headsets.)

In the context of the pandemic where sectors such as retail and hospitality have suffered enormous financial losses, the lack of AV tools would make the situation even worse. At-home teams wouldn’t be able to collaborate in quite the same way. Many businesses would probably roll down the blinds and lock their doors for good. And these closures would have a far-reaching impact on the global economy.

 

Socialization Would Suffer

There are other positive effects of AV collaborative tools aside from business success. Video conferencing, live events, and group chats foster socialization between remote teams, semi-remote teams, and office-based teams. Without tools like video cameras and microphones, team members would only hear voices on the telephone, read blocks of text in emails, and view emojis in SMS messages.

Socialization at work is critical, but for out-of-office employees, AV collaborative tools provide access to a vital social network where team members exchange information via video calls, screen-sharing platforms, interactive whiteboards, and other technologies.

“These technologies can help support activity-based work and empower individuals while enabling teams and corporate entities to speak with a single voice,” says Computerworld.

Before You Go

It’s hard to imagine a world without audiovisual tools. These technologies have streamlined collaboration, providing communication, growth, and socialization benefits for teams in and out of the office. If you’re as passionate about AV as CTI (CTI), you realize the value of these tools for collaboration in the digital era.

CTI provides unparalleled AV support for video equipment, sound systems, sound services, and system design, with world-class installation, integration, and maintenance services for enterprises that value collaboration. Learn more here.