There are a several vertical markets using video conferencing technology — telemedicine, law enforcement, education, government and legal. The most common uses outside of these vertical markets are recruiting. Human resource professionals and recruiters use video conferencing to interview candidates. This allows recruiters to seek talent anywhere without the constraints and costs of travel.
Another more common use for videoconferencing is found in the legal business. Most of the top law firms have either their own equipment or access to video conferencing for depositions, interrogatories and expert interviews. Many court reporting firms offer video conferencing to their law firm clients. Currently the technology is more refined and much easier to use. Mobile apps are common. Companies are using video conferencing with the mobile app to support field engineers and field service people. Sales people are using the mobile app to have the home office support the sales process by bringing in engineers and technical staff to answer critical questions. We are seeing more uses with the mobile app. All iPads; iPhones and Droids have forward facing cameras to accommodate video conferencing.
Another very common use is product training. Distributors and manufactures use video conferencing to keep the sales organization and service people up to speed on the latest products. This is certainly becoming much more common as travel becomes more costly and cumbersome. In fact trainers often prefer a video conference as they can instantly collaborate and record the training. This is a very big advantage and the video conferencing technology duplicates and leverages their training efforts.
Franchisors are using video conferencing for customer service training and to help owners build their franchises. Video conferencing is here to stay and new uses will develop as the videoconferencing technology becomes more refined.