Employee and Customer Expectations Meet Enterprise Video Possibilities

Improving engagement levels and the reach of internal communications is a prime business case for the expansion of mobile for the enterprise. The following findings are evidence of the growth in video based on advances in technology and the evolution of customer expectations:

• Comscore, indicates that the average American Internet user now watches more than 20 hours of streaming video per month on devices ranging from iPhones to PCs.
• According to Gartner’s MarketScope for Video Content Management and Delivery, by 2016, large companies will stream more than 16 hours of video per worker, per month.*
• EDTECH Magazine reports, the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) movement brings along significant benefits, among which is increased end-user engagement due to their familiarity with their own devices.

This changing media landscape is shaping employees’ expectations when it comes to communication from their employers. Combining BYOD, streaming enterprise video technology, and comprehensive viewer metrics,  there is a strong business case for the implementation of comprehensive video solution for enterprise proprietary information easily accessible from mobile devices – including phones and tablets.

Making Sense out of the Myriad of Options

The possibilities for enterprise video are evolving at a rapid pace. If your enterprise is considering mobile video solutions, be sure to consider the following:

Network Performance and Security:  As the number of device types connected to a network expands, it becomes more difficult for IT administrators to ensure network security, performance and video playback across devices. The video solution should offer intelligent routing capabilities utilizing a content delivery network (CDN) or existing network infrastructure. In addition, a solution should integrate your existing corporate directory service, making it easier to control which users have access to video content.  Finally, the video service should understand the complexity of a corporate network – sometimes mobile devices are “on net” via internal, secure Wi-Fi.  Sometimes, VPNs may be used.  And sometimes, devices may be accessing the video from the 3G/4G network.  All of these scenarios have to be fully secure.

Content Optimization for a Variety of Devices:  All devices are not created equal. Their screens have different aspect ratios; they run using different operating systems and are only compatible with certain file types. A comprehensive solution for the enterprise should offer transcoding capabilities, permitting video viewership on any device.

Integrated Social Features and Audience Metrics:  The ability to like videos, comment on videos and embed them as well as the ability for employees to create their own content is essential to take advantage of the increased engagement generated by a diverse array of mobile devices. A comprehensive solution should include approval workflows to prevent objectionable content and a dashboard compiling audience metrics.

It’s important for any organization to stay focused on its core business functions. That’s why many businesses look to a service provider to take care of the heavy that centralizes and simplifies corporate communications. At the same time, this type of solution delivers the benefits of increased engagement and larger audiences afforded by mobile devices.

Is your business doing everything it can with mobility and video? What plans or approaches are you considering to enhance enterprise communications using video

Top 5 Recommendations

1. Get a mobile video strategy!

Before you do ANYTHING, decide on what your goals are:

• Are you selling premium video content to consumers?
• Is it a subscription or pay-per-view model?
• Or are you using mobile video to promote your brand – in which case, is it free to view?
• Are you using video for customer support – for example, recorded tutorials?
• Have you considered using mobile video to train a remote sales force?

Answering questions like these will help you fine-tune your mobile video strategy.

And depending on your strategy, you may find it advantageous to work across a number of channels.  For example, you might distribute some video from your public website without requiring that users identify themselves.  Video content that you would like to “go viral” can be distributed via a public site like YouTube.  Other video may require a purpose-built application to authenticate viewers and protect the video.  If you don’t have a mobile video strategy, consider working with a consulting firm that specializes in marketing with digital media.

2. Website or App?

Websites are easier to develop, and thanks to emerging technologies like HTML5, can offer sufficient interactivity via a touchscreen interface. HTML5 also includes extensions that allow you to play video from a regular webpage.  All of the mobile platforms support HTML5.  Although users will have to launch their web browser before accessing the website, it’s possible to create shortcuts to your mobile website on most mobile platforms.

On the other hand, native applications or “apps” can offer a truly compelling, immersive experience.  The best mobile apps offer an experience that is distinct from their related websites. (Check out the HBO app for iPhone to see what I mean.)  Native apps must be developed for each platform you want to target and they are more costly to develop than a website. And if you want to distribute your app to consumers, you’ll have to seek (and get) the approval of a 3^rd party – like Apple – to have the app included in a centralized “app store” such as iTunes.

To sum up, HTML5 allows you to develop a mobile website that in theory can work well across a number of devices. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of variance in how web browsers interpret HTML5, so you can’t guarantee the same experience across all devices.  And while HTML 5’s interactive capabilities are basic (but growing), they will never match the experience you can get from an “app” running as native code.

My advice is to “dip your toe in” with an HTML5-based website experience.  Test your market and see what devices your customers are using before committing to the development of a dedicated, native app experience (more on this below).

3. Security!

Educate yourself.  Digital Rights Management or DRM has received a black eye in news reports because it complicates consumers’ access to media.  What isn’t often mentioned in those reports is that DRM systems are typically complex and expensive to implement. Unless your business provides premium consumer content, you likely don’t need a robust DRM system.  On the other hand, you can’t disregard security.  If, for example, you are distributing training video that provides a competitive advantage to your employees and select external channel partners, you don’t want that content falling into the wrong hands.  Secure your streams behind logins and use SSL certificates to prevent unauthorized viewing, downloading or recording.  Also consider restricting access to streams based on the user’s domain, IP range or geographic location.

4. Target Your Audience

Don’t bite off more than you can chew!  As I mentioned above, you can start with a simple, straightforward HTML5 web-based experience.  But if you move into native app development, target a subset of devices initially, and move iteratively.  Consider starting with Apple iOS or Google Android devices and moving on to Blackberry devices later.

Speaking of devices, it’s important to understand which ones your customers are using.  Work with your IT department or web hosting company to get the logs for your website.  You’ll want to get a report based on web browser user agent.  This report will show you which web browsers are being used to view your website. From there, it’s easy to quantify and correlate the devices being used to access your website – and easily rank them in order of popularity.

5. Managed Service or Do-It-Yourself?

So how do you go about making all of this work?  Let’s break the solution into pieces:

• Website or app development
  • Whether you are looking at developing an HTML5 website or a native application, you will need developer skills. You may have some of these skills in-house within your IT department.  However, mobile website and application development is a niche space.  Consider working with a software development company that specializes in this type of development.
• Video management
  • It’s likely you already have an internal department or external agency shooting and editing the source video content for your organization. This relationship doesn’t need to change.  However, you’ll want to consider a transcoding tool to re-format video for various mobile devices. There are several software packages available for purchase that can be hosted on your own network and that perform this function.  You can also select from a number of reliable online services.  Either way, automation is very important.  Look for a tool or service that can accept source video files, automatically transcode to your desired video formats, and post the derivative files to the correct location.
• Content Delivery Network
  • A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, helps you deliver a better experience to your customers at a lower cost.  You may already be using a CDN to deliver your website or stream video.  A CDN is highly recommended for streaming video to users’ mobile devices, as mobile bandwidth is more limited. Also, many CDNs now include value-added services to transcode and distribute video for different mobile devices. This means you may be able to source your video management and content delivery needs from one vendor.  Check with your CDN provider.

I would love to hear what some of you are doing to tackle the challenges involved in delivering video on mobile devices.  Comments are welcome.

1. Cutting the Cord

Subscribers are increasingly “cutting the cord” and relying more on mobile devices for their connectivity needs.

2. The Mainstream

The smartphone is becoming mainstream.  As capabilities and ease-of-use improve, media-capable smartphones are seeing increasing adoption among a less technical, more mainstream audience. One recent survey indicates that smartphones are now used by 1 in 4 U.S. Mobile Subscribers.

3. Mobile Tablets

Lightweight, mobile tablets squeeze in a new segment.  Media publishers have long thought in terms of reaching viewers on “three screens:” the PC, the TV and the mobile phone.  Tablets add a viable “fourth screen” to this equation. Signs point to an increasingly active playing field for tablets in 2011.

This mobile “revolution” represents a fantastic opportunity for businesses to deliver compelling content to mobile device users. But there are challenges to optimizing content delivery — especially video – for mobile devices. Here are a few of those challenges:

Proliferation of Devices

Apple has become a significant player in the smartphone market.  With over 70 million iPhones sold since launch, the iPhone has been pivotal in reinventing the space.  Google – with the Android platform – has become a major player as well.  According to comScore, as of November 2010, Google had overtaken Apple for the #2 position among smartphone platforms.  Blackberry continues to command the most market share among smartphone subscribers – almost 34% according to comScore – but over the last few years, Apple and Google have been successful at eroding that share. Although it’s clear that Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do, don’t count out the software giant just yet. Microsoft’s recently re-launched mobile platform (Windows Phone 7) has been met with favorable reviews and a number of mobile devices running Windows 7 were on display at January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The tablet market is hot, too.  Apple sold 8.25 million iPads by the end of the Q3 2010 (and an additional 7 million during the holiday quarter—for a total of more than 15 million iPads sold in 2010.)  Morgan Stanley predicts Apple will sell 40 million iPads by the end of 2011, even as the tablet space becomes more crowded. Blackberry will launch its Playbook tablet in February 2011, and HP is readying several webOS-based tablets for announcement, also in February.  In October 2010, Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab, which runs the Google Android operating system, and Caris & Co. estimates that Samsung will sell upwards of 8 million Galaxy Tabs in 2011. And there are more Android OS tablets on the way. In fact, Google Android-powered tablets were the star at this year’s CES – which included product launches by Motorola, LG, Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba.

Video Format Fragmentation

This proliferation of devices has led to tremendous fragmentation of video formats.

Why?  Each of these devices plays different video codecs and has a different optimal video resolution.  Some of the devices work on 3G (even 4G) networks – others are Wi-Fi only.

What does all this jargon mean?  In short, the same video file that looks great on one device may not even play on another device.  For businesses seeking to reach customers, employees or partners with mobile video, this represents a significant challenge.  Each video file must be prepared individually for each platform – sometimes multiple files per platform in order to address different screen resolutions or connectivity limitations.  As a result, the process of converting from one video format to another – known as transcoding – quickly becomes complex.  The industry has responded by rallying around the H.264 codec.  All mobile device platforms support this video codec in some manner, but core video files can be “wrapped” with a number of different mechanisms.  So the way Adobe supports the H.264 codec is different from the way Microsoft supports the codec.  In addition, Google recently unveiled an open source video format to compete with H.264.  It looks like the problem of formatting video multiple ways for multiple devices isn’t going away any time soon.

There’s a lot to think about before investing in mobile video. In my next post I’ll give some recommendations on where to start and what to think about. In the meantime, what do you see as ways to take advantage of mobile video?

To get the most out of streaming video, Jonathan believes businesses need a well thought out, holistic strategy for its generation and distribution. Measurement matters as well. Exactly how should companies measure the effectiveness of streaming video? Jonathan admits there are challenges inherent to the use of video, including bandwidth issues and the ever-evolving number of mobile devices capable of viewing rich digital media. But what video makes possible—from remote training to collaboration—“will help business move faster,” he says.

Jonathan joined AT&T in late 2008. With a background in software development and digital media workflow and distribution, Jonathan has worked with several large telecommunications companies, including Verizon and MCI. He founded a Software as a Service company, Projecise.

Jonathan was interested in technology from a young age, and as a child growing up in Long Island, New York, spent hours playing ATARI 2600 and toying around on his Commodore VIC-20 and Apple II. At The College of William & Mary, Jonathan majored in history and minored in computer science. “When I sent out my resume, I had no callers for history, but I got plenty of calls for tech,” he says, adding that the communication skills he picked up while getting a liberal arts degree have been “a differentiator” for him.

The multi-faceted Discount is also a musician. Until 2000, he played guitar and piano with Gonzo’s Nose, a Washington, D.C. area cover band he founded in the 1990s. Playing a mix of pop classics from the 1980s and 90s, Jonathan and the band performed tunes like Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” for the U.S. army and allies in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Jonathan lives in D.C. with his wife, two-year old son, and a pair of dogs, including a blind Collie the family adopted and taught to go up and down stairs.