Owl Labs Partners With Ogilvy On 2019 State Of Video Conferencing Report, Finding More Than 80% Of Meetings Take Longer Than 3 Minutes To Set Up And Start

BOSTON, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Owl Labs, the leader in immersive video conferencing technology, in partnership with the Behavioural Science Practice at Ogilvy Consulting, released its "2019 State of Video Conferencing" report, which compiled data from more than 1,000 full-time workers across the United States to better understand sentiment about different communication methods to achieve different business goals.

Each year, Owl Labs publishes the State of Video Conferencing report to share with business and IT leaders the collaboration challenges companies face most often, the preferred collaboration software and hardware tools to solve them, and how businesses can improve employee productivity overall. In fact, 96% of respondents agree that video conferencing is effective for improving the connectedness of remote team members, with full-time remote employees nearly twice as likely to feel strongly about this than those who work on-location.

Most notably, the report uncovered that setting up and starting meetings are taking up respondents' dedicated meeting time. More than 50% of video conferencing users are wasting nearly 10 minutes per meeting on meeting setup, with 83% reporting that it takes more than 3 minutes to set up and start meetings.

The report also found that nearly half of professionals say they're likely to switch to a different video conferencing platform within the next year. The top reasons for wanting to switch were ease of use and cost. Nearly half (46%) of our respondents report that they're likely to switch to a different video conferencing software platform in the next 12 months, and 45% report that they're likely to switch to a different video conferencing camera in the same time period.

Other findings include:

• Starting meetings is the most frequently reported problem (17%) with meetings today.
• 83% of respondents report at least half of their meeting rooms are equipped with video conferencing systems.
• Google Hangouts, Zoom and Cisco Webex are the most used amongst growing companies, yet Slack customers experience the fastest meeting setup times.
• 20% of respondents reported that their biggest challenge with their video conferencing camera is audio quality.
• At companies with 500+ employees, the top issue users reported with their video conferencing camera was its integration with other hardware and software.
• Only 35% of those using video conferencing software have invested in installing a video conferencing system in every meeting room.

Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt states, "We partnered with the Behavioural Science Practice at Ogilvy Consulting to identify how businesses conduct meetings and use different video collaboration tools. Results found that video conferencing is the best method of workplace communication when in-person discussion isn't available, with about 68% of respondents sharing that it is the preferred mode of communication for feeling connected with co-workers or customers. However, there are still struggles that come with video conferencing, as audio quality and setup were cited as the leading issues. This data validates the need for easy-to-use technology that brings distributed teams together to collaborate successfully, which is the mission of the Meeting Owl."

"For a brainstorm to be successful, facial and contextual clues are necessary when remote participants are involved," says Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and Founder of the Behavioural Science Practice at Ogilvy Consulting. "In working with Owl Labs, we set out to learn how companies use video conferencing for meetings, the challenges faced, and what types of solutions they are looking for in order to improve the experience. Video conferencing with the Meeting Owl provides those entering a call with the same level of comfort as those who are meeting in-person."

To find the full report, please visit www.owllabs.com/state-of-video conferencing.
To learn more about the creators of the report, visit www.owllabs.com.

About Owl Labs
Owl Labs is a software-led hardware company dedicated to creating a better workplace experience for today's hybrid workforce of remote and in-office employees. The company's products use emerging technology such as AI to bring teams together for better work. While focused on its core hardware, the company is developing advanced software technology to reinvent the conference room ecosystem and make it smart. Learn more about the company at www.owllabs.com.

About the Behavioural Science Practice at Ogilvy Consulting
The Behavioural Science Practice at Ogilvy Consulting was founded by Rory Sutherland with a global hub in London in order to creatively apply the insights of contemporary behavioural science to diagnose, create and validate 'Unseen Opportunities.' Be it tasked with improving the security of Europe's busiest airports, changing how people interact with the world's most popular social media or leading sustainability projects across the UK, their work spans product design, experience design, organisational change and behaviour change campaigns.

The Behavioural Science Practice is part of Ogilvy, one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world. The company is comprised of industry leading units in the following disciplines: advertising; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; shopper and retail marketing; health care communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing; consulting, research and analytics; branded content and entertainment; and specialist communications. Ogilvy services Fortune Global 500 companies as well as local businesses through its network of more than 500 offices in 126 countries. It is a WPP company WPPGY.

For more information about Ogilvy's Behavioural Science Practice, visit https://ogilvy.co.uk/agency/behaviour-change, or follow them on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/OgilvyConsultUK.

SOURCE Owl Labs