We’re more comfortable with ever with the idea of meeting virtually. The enabling technology has vastly improved in recent years, and using online video tools to chat with friends and family is now a habit. We’re ready to move virtual collaboration into our business lives.
Companies are realizing the potential benefits of a total collaboration management strategy that includes virtual collaboration. They’re considering how employees already are collaborating virtually; calculating how much they’re spending on face-to-face meetings; and weighing whether a shift toward more virtual meetings would align with their corporate goals. Once companies have done their homework and discovered that virtual collaboration might be a good fit, they need to build the business case for making it happen.
Business travel consultancy Advito contends that travel managers should take the lead in shaping a company’s virtual collaboration strategy because it’s a natural extension of the corporate travel program. In a white paper that explores how virtual collaboration can enhance business travel, Advito advises travel managers on how to build the business case for virtual collaboration. A few key points:
Don’t ask for immediate investment in virtual collaboration technology. Instead, present potential benefits and request permission to research the opportunities in depth as a formal project.
Don’t oversell the potential. Be honest about the limitations of virtual collaboration. For example, virtual tools will not replace travel-related sales and after-sales activities.
Quantify savings, including cost avoidance. Projects offering a direct return on investment are most likely to win senior management approval. If virtual collaboration replaces a trip, then clearly that can be a financial saving. After all, the cost of virtual collaboration technology could be recovered by avoiding the cost of one long-haul business trip. But it’s harder to show that something was avoided. How can you prove that something was going to happen, but didn’t?
There is a way, Advito advises. Track the reason for travel for every trip for a period of time—preferably six months or more. Then focus on the Top 10 routes traveled by employees for internal meetings, which offer the most potential for a shift to virtual. Finally, use this information to calculate the potential ROI of converting some portion of these frequent internal meetings from physical to virtual.
Explain your employee engagement strategy. ROI can’t be achieved if no one uses the virtual collaboration technology your company puts in place. That’s where businesses struggled with virtual collaboration tools in the past. So, your business case needs to explain why current technology is better and friendlier to users, and it needs to include your strategy for helping employees understand the benefits of using virtual collaboration. By avoiding some trips, they’ll have more time to get work done, and they’ll have more time with their families.
Virtual collaboration can help employees reduce stress while also generating savings for the company. Having a plan for how you’ll explain that to employees will help you sell virtual collaboration to upper management.
Once you’ve built the business case for virtual collaboration, it’s time to consider how you’ll get the technology to make it happen. Smart procurement strategies outlined in the Advito white paper will ensure your company ends up with robust, user-friendly collaboration tools that fit your employees’ needs and your corporate budget.
