Streamlining Everyday Business Meetings

Everyday Business Meetings:

A software development team comes together to discuss how to solve interoperability issues. The staff of a public relations agency meets to discuss the status of various client campaigns. A new product roll-out plan is presented to the sales force of a paper products company. A manager quickly forms a committee to address the issue of salaries. What do all of these scenarios have in common? They’re all meetings.

Most professionals, regardless of their occupation or industry, participate in one meeting each day. In fact, according to the “Meetings in America” series from MCI, thirty-seven percent of employee time is spent in meetings, and approximately eleven million meetings occur in the U.S. each day. Research also indicates more than fifty percent of this meeting time is wasted. The meetings may be conducted with a client or colleague in your office, in the office of your boss or co-worker or across town, the country or even the globe. While meetings have traditionally been conducted by telephone or in person—either around a table or around an individual’s desk—the increase in remote offices and the emergence of real-time, Internet-related technologies such as secure online-collaboration services have changed the very nature of meetings by bringing many online.

There are several things that remain constant, however:

· Meetings in the workplace typically boil down into one of five meeting types: staff meetings, project meetings, presentations, spur of the moment or impromptu meetings, and collaborative meetings.

· With the exception of presentations, which are mainly one sided, the most effective meetings are those with active participation and a lot of give and take (as long the agenda is followed).

Many of these meetings can be conducted online, which decreases travel time and costs while increasing meeting productivity through a streamlined work process.

Meeting Types:

Let’s define the five meetings conducted in the workplace and highlight how they can be conducted online more efficiently by being able to see, hear and share information inside one desktop application.

Staff Meetings:

Staff meetings are designed to transmit or clarify ideas, problems or decisions within an organization. These meetings get participation in problem solving, and they motivate staff to behave as a cohesive group. Take the following example: A government agency holds a weekly staff meeting to discuss the status of various ongoing projects. Traditionally, the organizer of the meeting would solicit items for the meeting agenda a few days before, asking everyone to e-mail what they wanted to discuss. This organizer would then bring copies of the agenda to the meeting or e-mail them to remote attendees. During the meeting, someone would be required to take notes and action items and then distribute this information to attendees afterwards. In lieu of this approach, in an online meeting environment such as that made possible with VIA3, the agenda can be completed online and stored in a secure workspace, with team members able to add their own items to the list. During the meeting, notes can be taken in a visible text-chat window, and these notes can be saved are to the same workspace, along with meeting data such as meeting participants, associated files, start and end times. And not one person has to leave his/her own desk or office in order to attend this meeting.

Project Meetings:

Project meetings are designed to bring together team members responsible for different components of a particular task so that they can discuss progress and decide upon next actions. In other words, every meeting attendee is working on the same goal, but each has different responsibilities to achieve that goal. A marketing department could come together to plan a new product release. In a face-to-face meeting, the team members would bring status reports to pass out at the meeting. Any notes, suggestions or edits would be taken by hand or on a whiteboard, and these notes would have to be typed up and sent out to the entire team. With VIA3, the individual members of the marketing department can save their status reports and any other pertinent project information, regardless of file type, into a workspace that can be viewed, discussed and edited in real time during the online meeting. And not one person has to leave his/her own desk or office in order to attend this meeting.

Presentation Meetings:

A presentation is generally conducted for an audience, such as a new product roll-out plan presented to a sales force, a sales person providing information on a product to a potential customer or a CEO briefing an editor or investor on a new acquisition, partnership or product. While presentations are generally one-sided and offer limited audience interaction, attendees are sometimes given the opportunity to ask questions. In addition, there is typically something to show, such as a PowerPoint presentation. In an in-person presentation, such as a sales demo, attendees or the presenter are usually invited—and required—to travel from dispersed locations to see the presentation on a screen; or they might call into an audio conference to discuss a presentation they’ve received beforehand. Using VIA3, presentations can be given to attendees at their desktop in real time with no travel required. And attendees can either ask questions directly of the presenter with the live audio feature or use the chat features to type questions.

Impromptu meetings:

Often referred to as “water cooler” meetings, impromptu meetings are typically improvised gatherings formed for a specific purpose or situation of immediate interest. A Vice President interviews a candidate and wants his regional manager to meet the person. Or a support services team member has been asked a question he/she is unable to answer, and a colleague is brought into the discussion to provide needed information. VIA3’s instant messaging capabilities make impromptu meetings over the Internet extremely easy. Directly from an instant messaging session, participants can begin a meeting and then use all of the additional VIA3 capabilities such as audio, video, application viewing and sharing.

Collaborative Meetings:

This type of meeting is defined as one in which the outcome is usually a goal. Working together on a contract, marketing plan, presentation or financial report would comprise a collaborative meeting. The individuals in attendance contribute specifically to the result. Another example of a collaborative meeting would be to draft a response to a RFP. Typically, this involves multiple people, often geographically dispersed, each contributing to various sections of the document. An online meeting would be an appropriate starting point to determine who had responsibilities for each area of the response. During the time leading up to the final submission, documents would be created and saved to a secure workspace with access granted to only those team members on the proposal team. Documents would be edited in real-time during these collaborative VIA3 meetings. Throughout the time leading to the final document, instant messaging could be used for answers to quick questions. And the result would be a dramatically reduced time from the initial proposal arriving from a client to final submission.

In Closing:

By taking meetings online, you can reduce travel, accelerate work processes and bring teams together to make your meetings more productive than ever before. Shouldn’t you try VIA3 free for fifteen days? Your competition certainly will. www.VIA3.com

American Telemedicine Association: Guidelines Approved for Delivery of Remote Mental Health Services

VIA3 is a proud player in the healthcare industry, and will continue to grow in that arena. In general news, The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) announced the availability of formal practice guidelines for the use of videoconferencing for the delivery of mental health services. These guidelines are designed to form the standard of care for such services and will be the basis for the development and practice of uniform, effective, safe and sustainable telemental health practices. They will serve as both an operational reference and an educational tool to aid in providing appropriate care for patients.

The use of telemental health has been in existence for over 40 years. It has been used successfully as a tool for treatment in diverse areas such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), providing counseling services in rural areas and offering health medication management for institutionalized patients. A number of payers and health services are starting to offer telemental health service benefits and may soon adopt these guidelines as their basis for coverage.

The guidelines focus on the use of two-way, interactive videoconferencing in the delivery of telemental health services, which now has an abundance of significant research documenting its effectiveness as well as a comparison of outcomes between various approaches used in its delivery. Other modalities such as the use of telephones and email are not addressed in this document.

An evidence-based compendium of empirical research was first established and used as the basis for the guidelines. Both the evidence-based document and practice guidelines were developed by panels composed of experts from the field, representatives from relevant medical societies and other strategic stakeholders. The guidelines and standards generated by ATA have undergone a thorough consensus, a period of public comment and rigorous review, with final approval by the ATA Board of Directors.

The guidelines as well as the evidence-based document are available at no charge on the ATA website at www.americantelemed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3311 : .

The American Telemedicine Association is the leading resource and advocate promoting access to medical care for consumers and health professionals via telecommunications technology. ATA brings together diverse groups from traditional medicine, academic medical centers, technology and telecommunications companies, medical societies, government and others to overcome barriers to the advancement of telemedicine. ATA was established in 1993 as a non-profit organization and headquartered in Washington, DC. www.americantelemed.org

One of the reasons that healthcare organizations choose VIA3 is the low cost of purchase and ownership, the high security (HIPAA compliant), and the depth of features that nobody else provides. Corporate IM is included, as are secure document workspaces for file sharing and collaboration.

A free trial of VIA3 is available at www.VIA3.com

ACALLTOMEN Set to Announce New Strategic Technology Alliance at November Fund Raising Event

A CALL TO MEN (www.acalltomen.org) is a leading national men's organization addressing violence against women and the eradication of sexism. Their mission is to galvanize a national movement of men committed to ending violence against women.

Through seminars, workshops and other educational vehicles, A CALL TO MEN challenges men to reconsider their long held beliefs about women, in an effort to create a more just society. We achieve this by encouraging change in the behaviors of men through a re-education and training process that challenges sexism.

By strategizing with colleges, corporations, government agencies, non-profit and grassroots organizations across the United States, we help to organize communities in order to raise awareness and get men involved in ending men's violence against women. Our vision is to shift social norms that define manhood in our culture, and produce a national movement of men committed to ending violence against women.

In order to improve efficiency, reach, and general communication, ACALLTOMEN has entered into a strategic technology alliance with VIA3 from VIACK, which will provide widespread web conferencing benefits to its global network of 20,000. By teaming up with key corporate and individual sponsorship, ACALLTOMEN will be able to recognize impactful growth and organizational development in ways not previously available. Instead of relying on email, phone calls, snail mail, and faxes, ACALLTOMEN can now be fully connected, communicative, and collaborative with online meetings, presentations, and collaboration. Membership growth, organizational effectiveness, outreach, counseling, and connecting disparate groups will all become instantly possible.

This strategic alliance will be announced at the November 19th ACALLTOMEN meeting in New York City. Tony Porter and Ted Bunch, Co-founders of A CALL TO MEN, will be attending, as well as many known philanthropists, entertainment figures, and business leaders.

As part of the strategic technology alliance coming to fruition with the sponsors, all current and future individuals in the ACALLTOMEN network will be granted a free professional VIA3 license. In addition, all businesses associated with ACALLTOMEN will receive an exclusive price for private deployment of VIA3.

For more information on ACALLTOMEN, please visit their website at www.acalltomen.org, or email info@acalltomen. For more information on the technology or the strategic technology alliance, please email BHodges@Viack.com.

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Top Ten Reasons To Use Conferencing Services

1. It eliminates geographic separation

This can apply to anybody doing business anywhere. You can instantly meet with people in your organization, partners, clients, or prospective customers. With products like Reservationless 800 Conferencing, you can e-mail, text or IM a number and access code from your Blackberry or other PDA and participants can join immediately. The proximity to a geographically separated client base becomes instantaneous.

2. It improves productivity in collaborative research and development

This applies to persons heading R&D in IT, biotech, physical science, product development, marketing, or any other area. The widespread introduction of conferencing and collaboration tools over the past few years has helped organizations better improve research and development among team members. For instance, web conferencing software has allowed company employees in separate locations to collaborate on projects in real-time, greatly boosting operational efficiency. Countless organizations have benefited from this technology and seen time-to-market improve, resulting in competitive advantages not enjoyed before, reduced R&D costs, and quicker ROI.

3. It improves investor relations (IR)

This applies to any and all CFO’s and CIO’s. All public companies are scrutinized in their quarterly conference call and earnings report. When the call does not go seamlessly, it makes a negative impression on the operational aptitude of the company giving the presentation. Investors think, “What type of company has an error-prone conference call?”

The unfortunate reality is that some companies do botch the investor call, whether having not enough seats/bridges open or a complete lack of moderation/order. Often, they utilize products not geared for such large audiences and/or products that don’t support the unique needs of such an important call. The top conferencing providers have solutions geared toward investor and enterprise-level calls, and a wide variety of solutions exist to accommodate such needs and eliminate highly-visible public disasters.

4. It boosts sales - every single time.

This applies to any sales VP’s, Regional Directors, or Area Managers. Any company with multiple offices needs to have management tools in place to meet with the branch subordinates on a regular basis. As a former sales manager, I learned the mantra “inspect what you expect” very early in my career. Having regularly scheduled calls with subordinates will help prepare the organization better and teach a culture of being prepared and organized. It will also keep senior management informed on the sales activities as they are happening, instead of hearing about things in retrospect. This allows the senior sales executive the chance to act on accounts before they are possibly lost, like stepping in and offering better pricing, terms, or service level guarantees. The best organization leaders I have ever worked for personally made it a point to keep in regular contact with the field sales organization, and it showed in the results.

5. It improves corporate communication

This applies and directly affects everybody in an organization. Have you ever worked in an organization where you felt like the corporate office was a world away? Perhaps you do now, as I did at one time. The biggest difference between companies that grow successfully and those that do not is not being like-minded in goals and spirit across the organization. The most successful companies (like Google) convey a sense of togetherness and corporate culture that is inspired from a set of values, such as “thought leadership”, “customer-centric”, “caring”, etc….. The organizations that keep their main cultural values at the forefront do so by regularly communicating with their remote and regional offices. Audio conferencing and web conferencing are two of the simple ways to accomplish this high priority.

6. It speeds training and education

This applies to any C-Level who has a training requirement in their company. Organizations spend a lot of money getting new employees trained on company and industry information, internal procedures policies and methodologies. Many industries, such as education, legal, real estate, technology, manufacturing, and accounting, have initiatives that require constant training in order to maintain current standards in the respective industry. Audio and web conferencing are the dominant training tools to accomplish any organization’s e-learning initiative. Companies that utilize this technology save thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, in hard-dollars savings from travel, accommodations, meals and gratuities, and air-fare. The often-overlooked aspect of savings in using conferencing products for e-learning is that it is a definite boost in productivity. Instead of losing several hours (at best) with flight time, your employee is able to return to work instantly.

The company that utilizes these communications tools effectively trains their workforce more efficiently, save money, and boost productivity at the same time.

7. It improves your internal marketing initiative

This applies to Chief Marketing Officers and VP’s of Sales. Companies that can roll out new products in unison to a geographically disparate workforce have a greater chance of success. The ability to introduce new offerings in a clear, concise manner and in a positive fashion can boost sales’ attitudes about the new product or direction. In addition, the marketing message is the most important differentiator in our highly competitive society. The roll-out is the marketing organization’s best time to convey those vitally important differentiators to the internal sales team as most buyers want to know “what is in it for me”. Differentiators bridge that gap to the prospect and help the sales team close deals.

8. It improves the external marketing initiative

This applies to the direct and indirect field sales force and client retention specialists/account managers. Similar to the internal benefits listed above, the same benefits apply to external customers. When you roll out new products or services, it is easier to demonstrate it in a clear and concise manner. Audio and web conferencing solutions let a sales force introduce new offerings easily without geographic limitation. Retention and service personnel within a company can use the same conferencing and collaboration tools to introduce new products, conduct account reviews, and keep connected with vital decision-makers in an organization. Since sales is all about relationships, keeping those relationships active is vital to protect your customer base and maintaining contact with the most important positions is the key.

And for companies relying on an indirect channel, frequent communication is of paramount importance when driving productivity. Effective presentation done in an entertaining way is the best method to get your channel partners pushing your product and not your competitors.

9. It offers mobile proximity

This applies to anybody with a PDA or cell phone. While it is true that cell phones often can cause a lot of static when they participate in audio conferences, sometimes the urgency of the call overtakes the immediate need for everything to be 100%. Most conferencing providers today offer mobile solutions that allow web features to be accessed from PDA’s, so that you don’t miss any aspect of the call that is taking place at that moment.

10. It will save your company money, boost productivity and is fantastic for the environment

This principle benefits everybody. Whether you measure by hard dollar savings in travel, meals, accommodations, entertainment, or soft dollar savings in areas like boosted productivity, increased sales, and better messaging, your organization will save money.
Further, it will help to lessen the carbon footprint that is of such great concern these days. Instead of consuming more fuel, conferencing adopters are making a socially-responsible decision that lessens the impact on the environment.

Less travel = less fuel = GREEN business = better for the environment.

To try conferencing for yourself, sign up for a free 15 day trial at www.VIA3.com today!

Leading Document and Training Solutions Company Uses Web Conferencing for Strategic Advantage

Michaels and Associates, a high impact custom training and documentation solution company, is thriving during a time when the industry as a whole is retrenching. As an organization, they are raising the bar for quality, while maintaining industry leading turn-around times and pricing. This level of service and deep customer focus is both appreciated and sought after by their US and International clients.

President Sherry Michaels says the firm’s success lies in making each and every customer successful, even in the toughest of environments. “We put in 100 hours of research before we even meet with a client, to know their business better than anyone. That intense business focus continues throughout our client relationship lifecycle, so we are always experts on the various topics, and delivering extremely effective, synchronized and seamless solutions.”

A client once asked Michaels what the “secret sauce” was, after being impressed by the best solution delivery they had ever seen - even though the project was hampered by extremely tough deadlines. Michaels attributes the company “secret sauce” to three main business pillars; hire the very best, fully empower each and every one of them, and make sure they produce the best solutions in the industry.

One of the main tools that empower Michaels and Associates to produce the best solutions in the industry is a feature rich web conferencing solution. Michaels and Associates use VIA3 from VIACK for their corporate communication and collaboration needs to gain a competitive advantage.

VIA3 is one of the few web conferencing solutions which include a secure corporate IM tool, which Michaels uses to connect her dispersed virtual teams. “I’m a big believer in management by walking around, which normally would be hard in an organization that has any level of virtual members. With VIA3 I can touch base on an informal basis, say hello, and have that human interaction.”

The company also enjoys rich audio and video meetings on both an ad-hoc and scheduled basis. The Media Team, for example, collaborates on VIA3 at least six hours a day, and would be “hamstrung” without it. They meet and present using the VIA3 presentation mode, where both the presentation and presenter video can be seen. They share their desktops live with the VIA3 “Shared Desktop” feature. They also brainstorm conceptual ideas together on the virtual whiteboard, as if they were all in the same physical conference room.

VIA3 also expedites the process of creating and finalizing SOW’s, or “Statements of Work”. The SOW process is complex, cuts across several service offerings, must be delivered in perfect form, and must be delivered quickly. The entire executive team is able to come together and “virtually” collaborate in real-time to write and deliver these complex SOW’s in a timeframe that would otherwise be difficult.

Because VIA3 meetings can scale to at least 2,000 attendees, Michaels and Associates will be using it for company meetings, where anyone can present or attend without having to travel. They will also be using VIA3 to meet, present, and collaborate with clients on individual projects as needed.

Michaels likens her company to an Olympic champion swimmer in an event. “In a swim match, everyone swims. What we do is get the gold medals.”

Web Conferencing Quick Start Guide

The best quick start guide for Web Conferencing that the http://www.webconferencingcouncil.com/ has ever recommended same titled “Quick Start Guide for Web Conferencing”, available on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Web-Conferencing-Quick-Start-Guide/dp/1448649781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250795732&sr=8-1

As a test, they had a non-technical relative of one of our testers equipped with a a Dell E6400 with Windows XP, complete with built-in camera & microphone. This relative was able to start a multi-point meeting in 17 minutes, was able to share her desktop and present an online presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint) in under 25 minutes, and even started using the voting and whiteboarding features within 30 minutes - all of it witnessed but uncoached.