Video Drives Down Cost for It — How Video Production Brings A Drastic Change In IT

Image courtesy: Lynda.com

It’s happening all over corporate America, and it’s changing the way IT departments are helping and training company employees. That’s because IT departments are now using video as an integral part of doing business. And with the overwhelming success of the video, it’s anything but business as usual.

Each and ever IT department has its own network, computer setup, and firewall protocols, and it can be overwhelming for new employees to become indoctrinated to a new way of using IT. It can also be overwhelming for the company to train new hires and update existing employees each and every time system upgrades are made and new procedures are introduced. Enter video training!

Video training for IT departments can save a company a huge amount of money. Employees no longer have to attend training meetings; IT managers no longer have to travel to outlying offices for training, and the new information is made immediately available to all employees of a company. To make it easier to consider how to use videos for training, we’ve put together a list of the “top ten uses for training videos for IT departments and management.’

1. Security procedures can be easily taught using video training. The video can show how to prevent unauthorized access, protect data from being removed from the computer and other cybersecurity protocols.
2. Solving problems — a call to the IT department to fix computer issues costs money and prevents work from being completed — often for long periods of time. A training video on how to troubleshoot minor problems will eliminate the need for many “routine” calls for help from the IT department.
3. “How to” training videos are basically unlimited; “how to remotely log in, how to print from remote computers, how to use a LAN while protecting company data” are just a few examples of the types of training videos you can add to your training library. Once produced or hire a professional team for video production, these can be delivered via DVD, CD or on the Intranet.
4. Introducing an upgrade or new operating system to the company? Training videos are the most economical way to showcase the system’s new features and ways to maximize productivity using the new software.
5. Certifications and IT designation study programs are perfect uses for video training and supplemental teaching, without having to disrupt an employee’s regular work schedule. Each employee can learn at his or her own pace and set their own schedule for using the videos to earn new certifications. Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA training are just several examples of this type of training.
6. Software upgrades are another opportunity to use video training modules. Rather than trying to coordinate company-wide training groups each time a software update is issued, training modules can be inexpensively produced and disseminated to showcase the software upgrade’s main features. This is another key area of cost-savings for companies, as software training videos help eliminate many calls to the help desk.
7. Now that mobile devices like smartphones and iPads are in wide use, training videos on how to incorporate those devices into the overall IT workflow are being used. Some companies are also doing training videos on specific apps that relate to workflow in specific departments.
8. Wireless networking and server training can be taught by video training modules, eliminating the need for many classroom hours of employees’ and instructors’ time.
9. As more and more companies are implementing a “work from home” environment for many employees, virtual computing is becoming more important. Training videos for Citrix and other virtual computing protocols help employees and IT professionals harness the power of this emerging industry trend.
10. Legal compliance with computer usage is one of the industry “hot buttons” right now, and companies are conducting training on what is permissible and what is now with respect to email, web-use and other aspects of computer use. Training videos that focus on your company’s policies can help prevent problems while protecting the company from improper use down the road.

There are many other uses for video training by the IT department. Obviously, the most available training mechanism for IT departments is the Intranet. Nothing needs to be installed on employee computers, and the training can be managed to be available at the individual employee’s convenience.

It’s also easy to set up and record who has gone through which training module, how long they took and perhaps record the results of a test. Obviously, this helps you maintain individuals’ training records and can be very useful where there is a legal obligation to provide certain training — safety or regulated financial products, for example.

With a little thought, you’ll probably come up with more ideas of your own.