Enterprise YouTube vs. Managed Video Systems

“Business YouTube” is a concept that is not necessarily unique to Google’s YouTube platform. According to Gartner Research, Enterprise YouTube helps companies leverage video to improve marketing, training, and communication with internal and external audiences. Gartner also notes that enterprise organizations are intrigued by video-sharing services that aren’t necessarily YouTube but have similar features.

Companies are reportedly interested in: creating and uploading videos that can be shared internally or with business partners and prospects, being able to share videos privately, and being able to share videos publicly if needed. YouTube in its original form falls short. While businesses have long used YouTube to reach consumers, YouTube is not considered suitable or practical for sharing internal videos, such as training videos or corporate communications.

For example, YouTube allows users to mark their uploaded videos as private. However, these private videos can be shared with you and up to 50 other people you designate. Also, the default setting is “public”, which could cause some videos to inadvertently be uploaded and left public. To avoid this, you can use the “unlisted” video feature, which means that the video will not appear in the public list. You can then share the link with everyone in your organization if you want. The problem with this is that anyone who has the link can share it with others.

Apparently, Google heard the message. In December 2010, Google announced an addition to its popular Google Apps service: YouTube. However, this was not your ordinary YouTube. It was positioned for business users as a YouTube business solution. On its Google Enterprise blog, Google highlighted the following benefits of Google Apps Enterprise YouTube:

Public YouTube channel for brands and products.

Central repository/archive of company videos

Channels that support business processes

While this is a step in the right direction, other platforms have been developed specifically to address enterprise video needs. Rather than modify a public video-sharing platform to work for businesses, developers built managed video systems from the ground up specifically for businesses.

As a result, a managed video system tends to be more robust than Google Enterprise YouTube. Various platforms have emerged with a mix of tools designed for business use. A managed video system is a complete media platform that combines YouTube-like private video sharing with other components such as social media, mobile video, web streaming, and collaboration tools. Most managed video systems are not only centrally managed and secured and accessible via desktop computers, but many are cloud-enabled, allowing remote access on laptops, tablets and smartphones.

While you can technically use Google YouTube to share videos privately with internal users, doesn’t it make more sense to use a managed video system designed specifically for the task, and more? Depending on the managed video system you choose, you may even be able to remove other services. For example, if you currently use webinar software for client presentations or an online collaboration system for your virtual teams, switching to a managed video system allows for a single media platform that integrates each of these tools.