How To Increase Value Of Video

In 1980 in the US there were more than 1 million computers, and companies used 850 billion pages of paper. Just 10 years later, those figures jumped to 54 million computers and 4 trillion pages of paper. Technology made it much easier to produce high-quality printing.

This content eventually moved online -- and led to information overload. Thus, two new breeds of technology emerged: search and content management system platforms, which according to Gartner will generate almost $8 billion in revenue by 2015. As just one example of this demand, Microsoft's SharePoint is used at more than 40 percent of US companies.

However, the huge investment in search and CMS platforms is at risk. Although these systems have solved the challenges with text-based content, video is entering the enterprise as a new and fast-growing content type. Video is increasingly easy and inexpensive to create and share, thanks to smartphones and tablets, fast mobile networks, and simple-to-use video applications. In many ways, video is the new document. According to Gartner, the amount of video in organizations is increasing by 50 percent to 200 percent annually.

[ Facebook is tapping into the power of video. See Facebook Apps Get Video Ads. ]

Video, however, does not behave like a document. As a binary-content format, it doesn't easily present metadata, transcripts, and other searchable items to CMS and search platforms and is in many ways "invisible." In addition, the sharing and publishing of video is infinitely more complex than documents in that a video needs to be properly encoded, stored, and streamed to multiple devices with multiple formats. So how do you rationalize the growth of video as an important enterprise communication tool with its limitations and the constraints of current text-based management systems?

I offer five tips for making video a "first-class citizen" in your organization -- where its production is encouraged and its contents are engaging and searchable:

1. Give users one place to go for all information -- including video
Content management systems are evolving to handle multiple file types, including video. Chances are your users have been conditioned to seek out content in the CMS -- so by storing video there, you capitalize on an existing investment, reinforce user behavior, and take advantage of the skills users have already achieved with text. If your CMS falls short on video support, seek a video solution that features deep integration to your CMS and search platforms.

2. Keep your video secure
Presumably, you don't want your latest roadmap presentation to the sales team to appear on YouTube. However, making that video available to sales and marketing as they prepare for a product launch helps them do their jobs better. Combining your existing user authentication with third-party integrations to add secure streaming and short-lived URLs will make sure that only authorized viewers can access your video content.

3. Unlock video metadata
Search and discovery is driven by text-based metadata, and historically only a small percentage of a video's overall metadata has been accessible to search engines. By unlocking the metadata (transcripts, thumbnails, tags, etc.) and making the metadata visible on your enterprise search platform, your video can become as discoverable as any type other of document.

4. Deliver video anywhere, anytime, on any device
Tablets and smartphones are transforming the way employees do their jobs. Employees expect to be able to consume content -- including video -- from these devices. Because devices, browsers, and operating systems vary in how they handle video, be sure to invest in video transcoding technologies that will deliver the right video experience for the user's device, browser, and bandwidth.

5. Use the cloud
Video's use of bandwidth and storage is a real concern for corporate IT. Cloud-based video products can offload your video storage, hosting, and streaming and provide a better overall video experience for your team.

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