March Madness Aftermath – How did your Business Fare?

Employers listen up: do you know where your staff was this March? Now, my intention of asking that question is not simply to sound like one of those old school commercials that calls-out bad parents for not knowing where their child is. The fact of the matter is this – decrease in employee productivity every March is a real issue for companies in all industries; so much so, that Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm, conducts a yearly survey to assess the financial impact due to lost productivity. The survey, known as the Challenger March Madness Productivity Report, estimated the financial impact as a result of lost employee productivity to surpass a shocking $192 million.

To combat this, PGi and iMeet have created their own "final four" tips to help keep productivity high in the midst of March Madness:

1. Be on time – sounds pretty obvious, right? Every office seems to always have at least one person (Tom, Dick, Harry, or whatever other name you’ve chosen for him) who's habitually late. This can pose a problem when meeting with important or potential clients. If you need Tom in that meeting on time, shoot him a reminder email, text, or IM a few minutes before the start of the meeting to make sure he gets there on time.
2. Spice up your meetings – adding user friendly features to your meetings keeps participants actively engaged. Bland, boring meetings are easily tuned out, and seem to slow to a snail's pace. Implementing content such as videos, polling, and Q&A sessions and other unexpected content keeps your meetings moving forward and participants interested.
3. Be where you are – with the technology that’s out there today, it's easy to physically be in one place while your thoughts are somewhere else. Being actively present in your meetings is important; and you can start by putting the smartphone down (unless you're using it to access your meeting, of course). Yes that YouTube video of a squirrel waterskiing is out-of-this-world adorable, but save it for after-work hours.
4. Skip the strip search – avoid the hassle and invasion of privacy the TSA is famous for and hold virtual meetings as opposed to in-person ones. Sure, you might have participants watching NCAA games in another window, but on the bright side, at least you’ll be able to get updates as you wrap-up your calls.

PGi hopes these tips will help you beat the buzzer so you can get back to what matters this March: gloating about the status of your bracket to your coworkers and friends.

Source: Conferencing Services

One Reason to Look Forward to Summer – Microsoft Office 365

Rain, rain go away,

I wish it was a summer day!

Yet another reason to start looking forward to summer: InterCall will take one more leap into the cloud by launching Microsoft Office 365. As part of the next generation of cloud services, Microsoft Office 365 streamlines the way your business gains insight, shares expertise, finds information, communicates, and enables your employees to deliver effective experiences across numerous devices – anytime, anywhere, and from any device.

Microsoft Office 365 lets you access your information wherever you go with the guaranteed reliability and proven security expected from Microsoft. Designed to meet your unique IT needs for reliability, user productivity, and security, Microsoft Office 365 combines Office applications you’re more than likely already familiar with, such as Exchange, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint Online, Word, and Lync Online. Moreover, since Microsoft Office 365 is part of the cloud, there’s no need for a dedicated IT staff or worry about upgrading your equipment or applications.

Microsoft Office 365 provides:

• Best-of-breed data centers with ISO 27001 and SAS 70 certification
• A virtual office – whether on the go on in the office your employees have secure access to their contacts, email, calendars, and documents with the latest anti-spam and virus protection
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – guarantee 99.9 percent uptime with a financial backing
• New productive ways to communicate – work together in real-time with the advantages and tools of cloud services blended with Microsoft Office
• Server upgrading, updating, and patching – eliminate your need to worry about purchasing or maintaining the latest version, hardware, or software your business requires and focus on mission-critical issues that matter to you most
• Cost-effective flexibility and predictability – pricing plan options that include the ability to pay-as-you-go, allowing you to more accurately forecast your predictable annual expenses and IT costs
• Powerful privacy standards, controls, and security; business grade, geo-redundant disaster recovery and dependability with automatic failovers and multiple data centers to safeguard your data

For over 20 years, InterCall has been a part of the cloud, dependably and safely delivering their conferencing services over their network. InterCall understands how important security is whether you’re in or out of the cloud, and has created Microsoft Office 365 from the ground up for enhanced performance, dependability, and availability; it was built to work with the devices, browsers, software, and phones you’re already accustomed to.

Source: Conferencing Services

One More Reason to Employ Conferencing Services

As if you didn’t have enough reasons to start using conferencing services already, I’ll give you one more – germs.

An estimated one of every five working businessmen and women travel for work roughly five times a year, with trip lengths averaging three nights. While there is nothing wrong with business travel, (aside from the fact that it is time-consuming, expensive, and at times quite inconvenient) the hotels that employees find themselves in can often be a greater magnet for germs than you are led to believe.

Hear me out, there is no reason to panic – but there are some things you should know and remember the next time you find yourself in a hotel room. For instance, hotel maids launder bed sheets regularly, but the bedspread is generally not washed unless requested by a guest. Doctor and TV daytime show host Dr. Oz suggests removing the bedspread immediately upon entering the room. According to him, it is “full of bacteria from prior clients,” and that removing the bedspread is a practical decision to make with no downside.

Next on the list of harmless looking germ traps is the remote control. That’s right, the number one tool many people make a beeline for once they find a little free time. Arguably the most used item in a hotel room, your remote control has likely never been cleaned. Fortunately, there is a quick and simple solution to this problem: a plastic bag. Slip your remote into a small sandwich bag, such as Ziploc, and it’s good to go (so long as you don’t go and rest it on the bedspread).

Moving on to the ice bucket. Unfortunate as it may be that those tiny in-room refrigerators usually do not have their own ice makers, it might not be worth the trip down the hall to the ice machine. Ice buckets have been known to be used as ash trays, and the even less appealing barf bucket. If ice is something you really can’t live without, ask the staff if they have a plastic bag – or five – to line the inside of the bucket.

Which leads us to our next item: the drinking glasses in the bar or bathroom. If the glasses you were provided are made of glass, chances are they have only been wiped clean with a towel as they are not often sent down to the dishwasher. If you don’t bring your own drinking container with you, you’re better off with individually wrapped plastic cups, or asking for a fresh one to be brought to your room.

Obviously audio and web conferencing eliminate all of these issues because they do away with the need for business traveling. But for those times when meeting in-person is a must, your choices are few and far between. You can take the above suggestions to heart, or you can opt to fork out more cash for a pricier hotel with the hopes that it will be cleaner – but that’s not always the case. As many of my OCD friends will tell you, antibacterial/disinfectant wipes are an absolute must have, and should be used on any surface you come into contact with (but keep in mind how they may react to some clothing, jewelry, and wood furniture. It’s best to read the manufacturer’s label before using). Good luck and stay clean!

Source: Conferencing Services

Conferencing Services

Modern Internet Protocol technologies have drastically revolutionized the audio conferencing industry. The increasing affordability and accessibility of modern audio conferencing services due to advances in IP technology has caused the widespread availability of audio conferencing for a wide range of users worldwide. Nowadays, users can enjoy the efficiency and convenience of modern day audio conferencing services to cater to their unique conferencing needs.

Select the Perfect Conferencing Solution for Your Business

Today, audio conferencing services are mostly marketed online by the leading communications providers. Unfortunately, consumers have a fairly difficult time keeping up with the latest in audio conferencing technologies, not to mention the different conferencing services of various conferencing service providers. Typical audio conferencing packages range from free standard conference hosting to massive conference applications capable of supporting hundreds of participants at any particular time. Prospective audio conferencing consumers have the option to select their own unique conferencing solution from a wide range of conferencing packages – not to mention choosing from the plethora of conferencing service providers proliferating in the market today.

Sustain Business Competitiveness with Modern Conferencing Technology

Internet-based audio conferencing applying modern day IP conferencing technologies has greatly modified current competitive business practices. Businesses are now capable of conducting highly interactive, online conference session at a moment's notice. Conference sessions can be instantly set up from any computer console, at any time of the day, with session participants coming from all over the world.

There are many benefits and advantages to using audio conference services – from real-time collaboration with colleagues, employees, and customers to instant information sharing with corresponding instant feedback. Audio conferencing increases savings for businesses by allowing you to conduct business meetings, group projects, and business status updates without the corresponding travel expenses. Multi-national companies in particular are saved from hefty international travel expenses by conducting business meetings with participants from different continents all from the comfort of an office desktop.

Needs Assessment Assistance

The majority of communications service providers offer a wide range of audio conference services. Most include Reservationless Conferencing services for instant, on-demand conferences. Operator-Assisted Conferencing services are also available for massive conference sessions requiring third-party assistance for facilitation and management. Most Audio Conferencing Services also offer user-friendly features for convenient conference management and moderation such as line muting, session recording, as well as participant dial-out options.

Consumers should effectively assess their unique conferencing requirements before proceeding to avail of any of the various conferencing packages offered by service provides. Consumers should always consider latest audio conferencing technologies as well as the option of operator assistance.

Source: Conferencing Services

Out with the Old and In with the New

Gone are the old days of expensive, time consuming business travel to meet prospects and partners face-to-face.

Since their debut, conferencing services have continued to grow and flourish. Today’s workers are under more pressure now than ever before with employers trying to squeeze out as much as possible from them, so the more time spent focused on mission-critical issues the more productive that employee will be. Much to the delight of travel-weary executives, conferencing services eliminate the need for business travel which, in turn, increases productivity by keeping staff in-house.

Conferencing services are finding a home with companies in all areas of industry, especially with the rise of remote and satellite offices are acquiring broadband. According to a worldwide survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 81 percent of executives believe providing remote access is a crucial network goal. In addition to increased productivity and reduced overhead, conferencing services also offer a more diverse hiring pool, as employers are able to reach out beyond their previous geographic limitations.

In a survey sponsored by Global IP Solutions and conducted by Research Now, professional businessmen and women across multiple industries indicated that they already utilize or plan employ conferencing services in an effort to collaborate and communicate more clearly and effectively within the next 24 months.

Conferencing services are not limited to large businesses alone; small and medium sized companies are commonly restricted in their ability to travel or provide space for boardrooms, and therefore can benefit greatly from employing conferencing services. Providers understand that the key is access to information, and they aim to put the power back into the customers’ hands in the most straightforward way possible, and are continuously on the hunt for more user-friendly, advanced features.

Web portal, so customers can look at billing details by department, date or moderator … it’s a dashboard, and you can also log in by PIN number and to see who is dialed into an audio call.”

The productivity gains attained through conducting online PowerPoint presentations, whiteboarding, Visio-graphs, etc. are hard to argue with. Additionally, conferencing services are typically integrated with other business applications, and features such as instant passcodes and online management further streamline the process.

At ConferenceShopper.com, we have partnered with the finest conference call services providers in the industry. Our providers have passed through a strict selection process of network stability, financial strength, and excellence in customer service to ensure that our customers have the best audio conferencing and web conferencing experience possible.

Source: Audio Conferencing

Event Conference

Event conferencing offers an easy, professional way of getting in touch with up to thousands of your remote business partners, employees and clients from the convenience and comfort of your own desk. From pre-call rehearsal to post-call follow up, event conferencing solutions provide an expert team of professional meeting facilitators, and event service and account specialists capable of handling any of your corporate events.

Event conferencing lets you to view your meeting participants in real-time on the web. Interactive features, such as a question and answer sessions and polling, make it ideal for product roll outs, sales kick offs, employee seminars or webinars, and press releases. With the addition of power point demonstrations, white boarding and document sharing, event conferencing offers quality that rivals face-to-face meetings. A record and play back feature give participants the ability to return to the event, even after it is over – to assist in information retention and so those who missed the meeting have a chance to catch up on their own time.

Source: Audio Conferencing

Choosing Modem

When selecting a modem there are two choices: internal (integrated) or external. Broadband Internet connections, such as Cable and ADSL generally require an external modem. In the event that you choose an external modem, you have two options:

An external modem – an external modem offers easier installation (simply connect the telephone and power cables) diagnosing of problems because you are able to see indication lights. Furthermore, in the event of a problem, external modems can be easily replaced.

An internal modem – generally the least expensive option, internal modems require a direct connection to the motherboard of the computer, making installation more difficult and risky (inner hardware can be damaged if installed improperly). Also, in the event of an issue, there is a chance the computer’s motherboard could be affected – especially if it’s an electrical problem.

Source: Audio Conferencing