AT&T Networking Exchange Blog » Lisanne Powers

Don’t Be Blindfolded In Business Meetings

Lisanne Powers — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:10:03 +0000

Grasping a big idea without a visual aid is like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. It’s extremely difficult (unless you’re a master magician, of course). At work, it’s a task that can put you in a really tough spot—one that we like to call the blindfold bind.

Blinded by the “ballyhoo”

Imagine that you are Ed of “Extreme Ed and Ted,” a thrill-seeking magic duo. Your Vegas spectacular is just weeks away and you’re still brainstorming ideas. While on a web conference with Ted, he pitches his concept for the show, “The Great Ballyhoo.” Before you can say “Bally-WHAT,” he describes an opening routine with “snake jugglers, boomerang dancers, and interpretive bull riders.” By the time he gets to the “sticky noodle escape,” you’re as confused as a levitating physicist.

Even if your ideas aren’t as fantastical as Ted’s, it’s always a good idea to watch out for the blindfold bind.

Seeing ideas clearly

With a “fit to whiteboard” feature, you don’t have to fear the blindfold bind. Sharing documents and presentations is easy. The “fit to whiteboard” feature enables web conference participants to see the full image in the whiteboard area. You don’t have to scroll back and forth to see the complete view of what is being displayed. If you need to take notes on the whiteboard, you can type, draw, and erase objects in real time—so everyone stays on the same page. That way, ideas can spread freely without losing their magic touch.

Have you ever been caught in a bind during a web conference, where you haven’t been able to see everything that’s being presented? Could you benefit from the magic of the whiteboard?

Trend Alert: Passing Notes During Business Calls

Lisanne Powers — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:10:09 +0000

Have you ever been in a conference call and wanted to say something discreetly—like “you need to mute your microphone,” or “be sure not to share that that email,” and an opportunity to privately communicate a message is nowhere to be found?

To speak, or not to speak?

Let’s say you’re a sales rep for Pearl E. White’s “Be Brite,” a popular home teeth whitening system. You’re on a video conference with other reps and your regional manager, Dwight, eagerly anticipating this month’s performance numbers. As Dwight makes his virtual grand entrance, he smiles, revealing a large chunk of green between his two front teeth. Is it broccoli? Spinach? Algae? No matter what kind of plant life your boss has been consuming, you’re faced with a choice: do you publicly call attention to the green smile saboteur? Or do you let it slide, forever holding your peace—and your upper lip? You’re trapped as precariously as the vegetation in your boss’s grill.

As far-fetched as this case of dental irony may be, this conundrum can strike at any time. Workplace opportunities can present themselves and you may not have the chance to seize the moment. Watch this video to see a workplace scenario where the ability to send a note privately can mean catching a golden opportunity:

Conundrum cracked

With an integrated audio, Web, video conferencing solution, you don’t have to worry about the whisper conundrum. The “send a note” feature allows a video or Web conference participant to type a message directly to another team member, while simultaneously interacting with the group. That way, the right person gets the right information. Virtual conferencing offers a wide array of features and capabilities for communicating and collaborating. You have a selection of choices for communicating publicly and privately, from broadcasting an announcement, by voice, video or written word, to one to one communication with the ability to send a private note to a colleague.

Have you ever been in a Web, video conference where the ability to communicate quickly and discreetly was critically important?

“Step Out” Of The Conference To Avoid A Pickle

Lisanne Powers — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:10:24 +0000

We’re not referring to the classic sandwich sidekick. We’re talking about “being in a pickle”—a tough situation. And just like the fermented fruit, the situational pickle comes in as many varieties as there are shades of green. However, there’s one particularly nerve-racking type to watch out for: the Web conference pickle.

Hold the dill—and the phone

Imagine that you and your colleagues at Peter’s Peppered Pickles are in the middle of an important Web conference with Duke’s Cukes. While discussing a potential partnership, you hear that there’s an emergency on the factory canning line. Pickles are piling up everywhere—fast. Do you abandon the conference and put the business deal in jeopardy? Or do you stay on the call and risk a “code green” emergency? You’re stuck between a cured cucumber and a hard place.

Of course, even if you don’t run a gherkin factory, there are plenty of situations in which the dreaded Web conference pickle can pop up.

Fortunately, there is a solution designed to help anyone avoid this spicy situation. The “Step Out” feature allows a participant to leave and rejoin a conference without disrupting the discussion. When enabled, the “Step Out” feature alerts others that you’ve stepped away and mutes your microphone. It’s just one of the many features that makes collaboration easier—and keeps pickles safely between two slices of bread.

Have you ever been caught in a tough situation during a Web conference?

10 Little-Known Conferencing Features That Offer Big Productivity Gains

Lisanne Powers — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:10:28 +0000

Ah…the requirements for success in our increasingly competitive business environment…continually seek productivity gains, cost savings, and employee satisfaction by enabling the ability to work wherever you need to be. Web conferencing offers accessibility, reliability, and scalability. With an integrated audio, web, video conferencing solution, day-to-day meetings can be conducted virtually. These meetings may be as productive (sometimes even more so) than meetings in the brick and mortar world, as participants can join in the conference from an increasingly mobile environment using a diversity of devices, touching ground around the globe, then going about their business when it’s finished.

Web conferences can be scheduled easily when participants can join from almost anywhere, anytime, using their smart phone, tablet, or laptop. Participants can appreciate the simple, easy to use features such as viewing and editing documents in the whiteboard area, sharing an application, video conferencing with a web cam, and a participant list with an active talk indicator so you can associate a name with a voice. Let’s take a look at some of the other very useful and often unsung features of web conferencing:

1. Personal meeting rooms. Your personal meeting room link means that you have a conference room available whenever you need it. Send an instant message to a colleague: “Got a minute? Let’s meet. Here’s my link.” Enter your conference room, and you can review documents and share applications in real-time.

2. Record a conference and send the file to participants and colleagues. You can record your conferences and file them in your documents folder. Many conference recordings can be converted to different formats such as mp4 or /wav.

3. Allow remote control in the meeting. When a colleague needs to show an application or demonstrate a tool, offering remote control can allow a participant to provide instruction or conduct a demonstration.

4. Expand whiteboard to see more on the screen. A colleague may be sharing a particular area of an application. You can be sure that you’re seeing all that’s being shared by expanding your whiteboard view.

5. Conduct a web tour. As you click on different sites, your colleagues travel with you. A web tour feature allows participants to follow you as you click on links in an application.

6. Track conferences and meeting history. Need to check the list of participants that attended a recent meeting? You can look up recent conferences and find information about them such as the date, time and the attendees listed.

7. “Call Me.” The conference can call you to join the meeting with audio. Joining a web conference is easier when the phone rings, prompting you to join by phone or voice over your computer.

8. Hide the participant list. Hosting a marketing webinar where you hope to attract new customers? As a courtesy, you can hide the names of the participants. This feature can be very helpful when participants from different organizations join the conference.

9. Send a note. You can send a public note or announcement to everyone in a meeting or send a private note to a participant. Communication can be public or private.

10. Conduct a poll. Ask participants yes or no questions, multiple choice questions, and save the information. This information can be helpful for future meetings.

What conferencing features have you found most helpful? Do you have any examples you’d like to share about how conferencing has worked for you and your company?

Lights, Cameras, Action – What Kind of Event Support Does Your Business Need?

Lisanne Powers — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:10:52 +0000

As communication channels evolve from telephone and paper to the digital world of the Web, organizations large and small are exploring digital pathways for bringing teams together internally. Businesses are also leveraging the power of digital communication to share information externally and generate market awareness. Web conferences offer the ability to share information in groups of all sizes and across a wide range of participants, from internal teams of co-workers and colleagues to external groups of suppliers and customers.

Organizations are increasingly discovering the benefits of hosting webinars to communicate product information, conduct market sensing, and develop brand awareness. These events are gaining in popularity, as the number of events grew at a substantial 24.5 percent in 2011. Key trends that support this growth are the increase in content development and syndication across media, such as company and industry Web sites, as well as the penetration of content across social media and mobile devices.

In terms of hosted events, a large Web conference provides an opportunity for organizations to reach a wider, more diverse audience. These events are often delivered via audio, Web and video conferencing.

Managing the lifecycle of the large Web event

While the event itself is an obvious part of an event strategy, proper planning and project management of the event are also required to make it successful. A comprehensive event solution offers the additional support needed for the planning, management, and delivery of web events through an integrated audio, Web, video conferencing platform.

With a full palette of features and capabilities in event offerings, it’s important to look for features that best fit the needs of the business. Common features include a whiteboard for sharing and editing of documents, application sharing, and the ability to conduct polls, surveys, or a Web tour.

Since an event has a life before, during, and after it occurs, businesses should consider an event offering that supports the entire event lifecycle. Features to look for include the following:

BEFORE…

E-mail marketing that drives an audience to your event.
Custom registration pages that collect key data on your attendees
Automated event confirmations and reminders to increase event attendance.

DURING…

A professional moderator to host the conference
The ability to list participant names for all to see, or withhold them from view.
An interactive white board that participants can write or draw on, or point to an area of a document being discussed.
Muting of individual audio, muting of all by the host.
A panorama of features for comprehensive meeting environments.

AFTER…

Access to post-event recordings and collateral that continue attracting visitors to your site.
Analytic capabilities for measuring the ROI and evaluating the overall success of the event.
Tracking and detailed reports to help you analyze ROI

Production matters – Another step toward a successful event

How an event is received depends largely on its production. The ability to manage unexpected interruptions is important. So is a smooth transition from the presentation to a moderated question and answer session. Key production needs range from content preparation, scripting, and rehearsal, to on-air event moderation, to archiving and on-demand replay.

An integrated audio, web, and video conferencing solution can facilitate improved communication and collaboration in forums large and small. You can expand your reach while reducing travel and overall costs – all while engaging participants around the corner and around the globe with rich content. This seamless exchange of ideas and information can deepen your business’s pool of possibilities for new opportunities.

Have you recently participated in a large Web conference? What features and capabilities of the event service were most important to your event experience? Has your business begun conducting Web-based events? What are some of the challenges and benefits you’ve seen?

Don’t Be Like Theodore, a Technology Dinosaur

Lisanne Powers — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:46:00 +0000

Evolve your conferencing style from audio only to an integrated audio, Web, and video conferencing solution. You’ll have a wider array of conferencing tools for more productive conferencing. Expand your business toolkit! You’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish in one meeting. In Transform Your Business with Online Collaboration, the owner of small business, Theodore, has preconceived notions about new technology … until he discovers the power of virtual conferencing!

How Is a Web Conference Better Than an Audi-Only Conference?

Web conferencing integrates with your calendar. Scheduling a Web conference is as easy as scheduling an audio-only conference, but offers much richer capabilities. As you schedule an audio conference, you can just as easily schedule the conference as a Web conference and have an array of features available for communicating and collaborating. Instead of taking valuable to time to search for a document, and confirm that you’re all looking at the right documents and on the right page, the team can look at the document together in the whiteboard. No more questions like, “Does everybody have the document open?” Do you see…?” The presenter can share a document for all to view in the whiteboard. Everyone can be working on the same page.
With an integrated conferencing solution, you can participate in a discussion, work on the whiteboard, and share an application.

Participants can view a document together, make edits real-time, and if desired, go on a Web tour. In a Web conference, listening, writing, or annotating can be done real-time. In addition, cross-functional teams can be brought together to provide helpful input, accelerating the development process.
You can see the names of the participants and associate a voice with a name. In a Web conference, you have the option of seeing the names of the participants. Some conferencing tools offer a speaker identification feature, such as a microphone appearing next to the name of the active speaker. You can associate a voice with a name. This is especially important for teams that work in separate offices, often in different geographic locations.
Web conferencing tools can help you communicate non-verbally. In an audio-only conference call, you’re very limited with non-verbal communication tools. In a Web conference, you can indicate that you have a question, without interrupting the flow of the discussion, by clicking on a “raise your hand” icon. Some conferencing tools have icons that allow you to indicate that you’ve stepped away momentarily. You can also send public notes to everyone, or a private note to another participant.
Video conferencing allows you to build relationships while reducing travel and overall costs. A conferencing solution can provide an array of features for collaborating day to day. Desktop video conferencing offers a richer conferencing option for building relationships. Rather than travelling to meet in person, desktop video conferencing using a simple and inexpensive webcam, allows you to meet virtually, with the ability to see facial expressions and read body language. With desktop video conferencing, you can reduce travel, carbon emissions, and your overall costs.
Mobile apps for conferencing on the go. Many conferencing solutions have mobile apps so that you can join a conference when you’re away from the office or on the road. The whiteboard feature allows you to be a full participant in the conference, hearing and seeing what’s being presented. When you’re on the road, you can take your conferences “to go!”
Gather data real-time. In a Web conference, you can conduct polls. A variety of polls are available, such as yes/no, multiple choice, and polls with open-ended questions. You can send a poll to participants, instantly receive their responses, and share the responses with the team. The polling results can be saved in your documents folder.
Record your conferences. Many conference solutions have recording capability. For later review or for those who cannot attend, you can record your conference and send the conference link to invited participants. You can save the conference in a format such as mp4 for viewing on you PC, Mac, or mobile device.
Accelerate business processes. Bringing cross-functional teams together to review proposals and make recommendations real-time can speed up development, accelerate decision making, and offer the possibility of bringing a product to market more quickly. Teams can be brought together to refine or recalibrate a strategy as easily as sending an email or as simply as sending an instant message with your conference link.
Conference almost anytime, anywhere in today’s work-anywhere world. Our colleagues work in the office, at home, on the road, and in other continents. The rapidly evolving technology for improved communication and collaboration across many devices, and the increasing demands on our time, necessitate the need to work smarter through time saving, integrated, IP technologies. Work nimbly with as rich an array of collaboration tools as possible, all within a single interface, increasing your productivity and reducing your overall costs.

Watch a team create a fictional game Bugz, using the rich collaborative features that are available with Web conferencing. This team works side by side, although team members are geographically far and wide.

Are you using integrated Web conferencing to enrich communication at your company? If so, how are you using the combined features of audio, Web, and video to collaborate better?

Looking to Evolve Your Unified Communication (UC) Strategy for Productivity and Efficiency Gains?

Lisanne Powers — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:25:50 +0000

As you strive to improve productivity and reduce costs, staying on the cutting edge with technology means considering technology resources that allow you to work collaboratively and affordably, integrating with existing platforms, while offering productivity efficiencies to help grow the bottom line and expand your reach around the globe.

Unified Communications (UC) can boost productivity and accelerate business processes. But if you’re still struggling with disparate UC and telephony applications, you may not be getting all you can from these powerful solutions.

UC is about more than simply unifying voice, video and data. It’s a lot more.

It’s about integrating multiple communication tools with presence, behind a single user interface.
It’s about making communications accessible from almost any device, virtually anywhere.
It’s about optimizing and accelerating business processes.
And it’s about delivering it all on a single, global converged network.

Register to join us at 11 a.m. ET on June 20^th at the UC Zone to Evolve Your UC Strategy, and discover:

How to create a solid foundation for supporting advanced communications and collaboration

What you can do to connect with customers and partners more efficiently and effectively

How to enable advanced communications for a new breed of employees

The event’s keynote will be delivered by Neil Lieberman, Executive Director, AT&T Unified

Communications Services. Neil is a passionate advocate for how unified communications can

be used by today’s forward-thinking organizations to transform their business.

During the 60 minute virtual event, experts will share what’s to come in the future of unified communications including virtualization, mobile applications, extending to a global ecosystem, and how these upcoming enhancements will give consumers new ways to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Participants will learn about:

Trends affecting today’s organizations
The need for a new generation of unified communications
How collaboration and communication are helping transform organizations
What’s coming in UC
Benefits to the business

In addition to our live event, we’ve also created a comprehensive resource filled with information and tools showing how unified communications can benefit your business. It’s divided into four areas:

The Solutions Stage

Learn more about unified communications and integrating a complete communications suite.

Productivity Pavilion

Find out how unified communications offers valuable new ways to increase productivity for

your users.

Case Study Center

See how other organizations are already using unified communications tools to enhance their

businesses.

Social Space

Discover where you are on the path to unified communications with our interactive planner.

Small Businesses Can Act Like Big Businesses with Web Conferencing

Lisanne Powers — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:25:27 +0000

We’re all too familiar with the good ‘ole conference call. “Hi, who’s on the call?” “Who’s that speaking please?” “Did everyone get the document, and could you please open it up?” Everyone tries to find the document, follow along, and not miss what’s being discussed. The final output is emailed to the team, and then the next team reviews what the previous team developed. Several cycles of reviews occur, over a period of time, before the final project is completed.

Integrated conferencing solutions offer the opportunity to improve productivity by bringing cross functional teams together to collaborate more easily and frequently without incurring additional travel. Different functional groups can work together, offering input in the early stages of a design, thereby reducing development cycles and costs. Teams can shape a plan early on, with the needs of the various teams being addressed, moving a project quickly towards completion. Internal and external teams can work together, seamlessly, from almost anywhere in the world, at almost anytime.

Innovative IP solutions, accessible from a desktop, laptop, or smartphone, can help you improve productivity, accelerate decision making, and ultimately help your bottom line. With the ability to work remotely and flexibly, you can reduce travel while also helping increase employee satisfaction. One converged IP solution can offer audio, web, video conferencing, and integrate with core business applications. Using their meeting calendars, employees can schedule a conference as easily as sending an email. Meetings can be scheduled on the fly, or in advance. A single pane window hosts a range of conferencing functionalities that can scale and be used simultaneously, from audio to web to video.

Real-time collaboration means accelerated productivity. A rich array of conferencing tools allow participants to hear each other, see who’s speaking, even see each other via webcam if desired, building relationships while facilitating teamwork. Participants can review a document, present an application, or draw an idea on the whiteboard. Teams can be brought together, quickly, regularly, and seamlessly. Collaborative features, such as having participant names listed in a side pane in the conference window, promote a smoother flow of discussion. Joined by audio, and with the project document before the team in a whiteboard area, participants can provide comments, propose changes, and move more effectively towards project completion. Some of the features that facilitate this real-time collaboration include:

A whiteboard area for viewing documents, sharing applications
Annotation tools for writing, drawing on the whiteboard
Listing of participant names
Ability to save whiteboard contents
An Active Talker Indicator
Emoticons to signal an opinion
Ability to send a public or private note and save it

Here’s an example of the transformative and cost saving power of a conferencing solution: A new product is being announced and training for the new product needs to be conducted for internal teams as well as for external partners who sell the product. Rather than travel to conduct in-person training’s in various cities, perhaps around the world, web conferences can be scheduled for different groups, at regular intervals within a limited time-frame. The training calendar can be shortened when large groups do not need to travel to distant locations.

Take a look at this hilarious video that will help you discover how the power of collaboration can improve productivity and transform the way you do business…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDvt9X1I3Fw

By utilizing a collaboration solution, teams can work together remotely, yet fully with the rich array of communication tools that are available. Organizations can help reduce costs, such as the costs for the conference site, hotel rooms, meals, and travel. With workers increasingly more mobile, productivity is increased and greater participation is likely when team members can join from on the go, across a broad selection of communication devices.

Increasingly, businesses of all sizes are realizing the benefits of enabling IP conferencing technology to transform the way you conduct business every day.

How are you using real-time, collaborative conferencing to get work done? What have been the benefits to you? Your comments below will help others.

Mobility and a Unified Communications (UC) Strategy Give Businesses a Strong Advantage [WEBINAR]

Lisanne Powers — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:13:58 +0000

“Permanent fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity.” – General George S. Patton

Today’s workforce is mobile. We operate not only from the office, but we take the essentials of the office with us wherever we go. The power of the Cloud, coupled with the right mobile tools, allows workers today to communicate and collaborate from wherever business needs to be done.

Many IT professionals today see a mobilized and remote workforce growing larger all the time. This new lifestyle of working helps to not only increase productivity, but it increases the loyalty of top, coveted talent who desire a more flexible work and lifestyle.

This trend stresses some key points that both small business and enterprise are embracing. These are:

Mobility needs to be a part of your UC strategy
The power of mobile UC can help transform your business
Mobilizing UC is imperative to business transformation

Businesses who understand the power of combining their UC strategy with mobility can realize the power of flexibility in an always-on business environment. Remote workers are enabled to get the job done from the location of their choice whether that be the office, home or a third place of their choosing.

Register for the free live Webinar “Mobilizing Unified Communications” on Wednesday July, 13

When businesses can be with customers at the point of those customers’ needs, they see a transformation of their operations —- and increase in the bottom line. The organizations which can respond to critical needs faster and to the pleasing of customers, are in a much better position to capitalize on opportunities. By empowering workers with the right tools that can be used wherever needed, that business gains a competitive advantage.

Businesses around the world are being transformed today in light of the always-on, “I need it yesterday” economic climate. Those businesses who empower their employees with the right tools and allow them to bring the power of that expertise to customer problems win the race today.

You can find out how successful businesses are deploying a mobilized UC strategy and increasing productivity and profitability through a Webinar being held Wednesday, July 13, 2011. It will be available at 9 am and 12 pm US EDT (2pm and 5 pm UTC in the UK).

This 1 hour webinar will feature Forrester Research’s Robert Whitely, VP Research Director, on the intersection of UC and the growing number of mobile and remote workers.

You’ll also get the opportunity to hear Kathy McKenna, Director of UC Applications for AT&T, as she explores the need for enterprises to include mobility in their unique UC strategies.

If you are a CIO, General Manger, IT Director, Business Owner or just want to know more about a mobilized UC Strategy, this webinar is a must-attend.

You’ll be glad you did.

There’s an App for That: Web Conferencing And Smart Devices

Lisanne Powers — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:00:17 +0000

As workforces become more mobile and more global (nearly 90% of participants in a recent study by Nemertes Research claim they operate a “virtual” organization, and an additional 52% of participants said their companies have a global presence), companies are looking for easy-to-use, low cost solutions to connect and collaborate. As these solutions become commonplace, having a meeting no longer means that everybody gathers in the big room in the center of the office. These days, employees are just as apt to talk about web conferencing as they are the conference room. With the continued proliferation of smart devices and improvements to networks on the way, web conferencing, notes Melanie Turek, Industry Director, Frost and Sullivan, is “poised for significant growth.” Turek makes the comment in a recent blog post, “Key Trends in the Web Conferencing Market.”

Apps in the Conferencing Space

Several companies, including AT&T, have created apps to make it easier for remote workers to participate in web conferences. In 2010, AT&T introduced its Connect Mobile Conferencing app, currently available for download to the iPhone and BlackBerry smart devices. This enterprise app transforms voice and web conferencing from multiple point tools, into one, core conferencing and collaboration solution. To join a Mobile Connect app-enabled web conference, participants can click on an online calendar or email invitation, dial in, or choose to have the meeting “Call Me.” During the conference, speakers and listeners are identified and participants use emoticons to “raise their hand,” give feedback, or signal that they’ve stepped out. Depending on connectivity, the app provides other functionalities, including voting in polls and the exchange of notes—public or private—between participants. In addition to smart devices, workers can join the conference via their PCs or Macs.

Social and Video: The Next Big Trends

As the web conferencing space emerges, Turek and her Frost and Sullivan colleague Roopam Jain believe the next big trend will be the integration of enterprise software and social networks. Customers have also added videoconferencing to their web conferencing service checklist, so expect to see more of it—especially for applications like virtual classrooms, training and customer-facing events. “With the next generation of smart phones and impending arrival of 4G, video on mobile devices is fast becoming a reality, making that market the next hot thing for conferencing providers,” explains Turek.