It has been over a year since the advent of work-from-home collaboration is universally embraced. Today, it has been dominating industries like education, healthcare, and corporate businesses. According to a survey from Enterprise Technology Research, the percentage of workers permanently working from home is expected to double this year. The soaring population of telecommuters has ascertained the importance of having a stable video conferencing tool to increase productivity. It is a good thing that most organizations have finally built momentum and invested in normalizing internal, B2B, and even B2C virtual engagements. However, technical issues in video conferencing are still being reported day by day, affecting the quality of communication and overall user experience.

What could be the underlying factors affecting the end user experience in video conferencing?

  • Network issues and instability

    The common setback of companies today is the lack of control in maintaining the allotted speed required to ensure a more seamless digital remote experience given that the employees are dispersed geographically. This shows the need to adapt to work in different network conditions. The network always comes first in the checklist of requirements when working from home. Whenever we disconnect from the meetings, we automatically blame it on the faulty internet. Even before, businesses are choosing workspaces based on internet accessibility and capacity. In some cases, the internet could be the major issue and reason why we are experiencing glitches and responsiveness issues during a call. Each tool has its required speed to accommodate video or audio calls. But, is it just about the bad network performance? An optimized app can reduce the chances of malfunctioning in poor upload and download speeds.

  • Middle mile infrastructure

    While we often blame the last mile infrastructure such as the fiber link or the mobile network, apps can do a lot to improve their own experience. Particularly investing in a robust middle mile content delivery infrastructure. Ensuring that the content delivery infrastructure is geographically dispersed and close to where the customers are using your app can ensure that our apps work even when the last mile infrastructure is poor. Our studies show that Google which has an extensive content delivery infrastructure across the world managed to deliver a decent experience on Google meet even when under poor network conditions.

    Enterprises thus must make a conscious choice of their video conferencing tools based on the middle infrastructure investments that the apps have made in their respective geographies.

  • Poor Device Performance

    Application performance may vary according to the devices or mobile OS. It could be that the application is functioning well in one device but not on the other. Hence, pre-release testing should be conducted in different models and types of devices so issues may be diagnosed and addressed proactively.

The fuel of every business is communication and the availability of video conferencing tools serves as an engine that keeps all communication with remote workers intact. Video conferencing apps are created purposely to enable a seamless connection that will let people feel like they are still interacting face-to-face. With so many factors affecting the end-user conferencing experience, it should be clear that there is no single answer to why users are encountering issues with the VC tools. It takes 3 to tango! All the issues mentioned above should be tested and monitored diligently. Having robust connectivity is as important as having a first-rate infrastructure that can adapt to any device type and model.

Measuring the actual user experience is the answer to ensuring exceptional app performance. In our recent study, we used the MOZARK platform, an industry-first Digital Experience measurement tool to score the conferencing and responsiveness experience in video conferencing tools like Teams, Google Meets, Zoom, Cisco Webex, and BlueJeans. Protocols monitored are the critical user journey in using the VC tools such as the Time to Launch App and Time to Join Meeting. In the video metrics, we took a deep dive on Video Bitrate, Blur, Sharpness Blockiness, Freeze time index, and Freeze event index. More protocols depending on the insights needed can be configured. At MOZARK, we aggregate data from a series of experience-focused app testing in a real device connected to real networks.

The remote working era calls for video conferencing apps to put a STOP to “Sorry, the call got dropped”, “I got disconnected”, “I’m sorry, the line’s bad – could you repeat what you just said?”. The access to robust internet, top-notch apps, and devices have never been this important with the continuously growing population of teleworkers. Get ahead of your peers and get more positive feedback from your users. Schedule a consultation with our in-house Quality of Experience experts through this link: https://calendly.com/perry-jankie-mozark

Written By

Chandrasekar Ramamoorthy