Transform your business with virtual meetings27 January 2005
Web conferencing and other collaboration technologies - tools that help people work with one another through their computers - have become more available and affordable in the past year.
The technological advances - and the more affordable prices - are a boon for smaller companies whose only previous collaboration option was to gather workers in a room with coffee, sandwiches and a flip-chart.
Simple collaborative tools such as instant messaging (IM) can be incorporated into company systems - and even on individual employees' home computers. Calendaring - the ability to check colleagues' schedules or add a meeting their calendar - is now a standard feature in Microsoft Outlook.
Such is the demand for collaborative working that web conferencing is now being bundled into operating systems sold by companies like Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. Such systems will soon or already offer teamware - software that creates virtual workspaces for project groups inside or outside a company.
So which collaborative tools should you choose for your business? Web conferencing and teamware - software designed for groups and for communication, including e-mail, videoconferencing, chat features, and document collaboration - hold the biggest promise of savings in both money and time:
- As the market leader in the provision of phone, video and web conferencing, BT Conferencing offers systems, solutions and services for businesses of all sizes
- The main players offer comprehensive - and more expensive - solutions. Visit Microsoft's Livemeeting, WebEx or IBM for more information
- If you have one of the latest Windows products, you could try using NetMeeting. Visit NetMeeting for more information, or click the icon of the globe with the two arrows in your Program Files folder and you can try your hand at conferencing with up to 10 people.
- Registering with a small conferencing company - such as Centra - will take the mystery out of web conferencing - especially if you have a small, or non-existent, IT department. For a small fee per participant, Centra will set up your Internet meeting place, send out invitations, and register your participants.
- Microsoft also allows companies to set up their own instant messaging networks via Office applications. Visit Live Communications Server for more information.
- Mac users will find an ideal conferencing solution from Apple - visit the Apple iChatAV site for more information.
It may take a small adjustment for your employees or contacts to make the leap from coffee and flip-charts - but when they do the rewards to your business can be great.
