In today’s business environment, it’s no longer enough to be able to video conference between conference rooms. With modern mobile technology, people are used to being able to communicate whenever they want to, wherever they are. That means your video conferencing solution needs to accommodate mobile users.
But mobile video conferencing is far more than simply an accommodation. With the right mobile video conferencing platform, you can improve collaboration and grow your business.
Mobility and Collaboration Go Hand in Hand
Mobility is good. It allows employees to be more productive because they can communicate and collaborate when they otherwise couldn’t. With a mobile video conferencing solution, if key people are on the road and can’t be in a conference room or hooked up to an MCU, they can still participate just as fully as if they were.
And if someone needs to schedule an impromptu video conference, they can pull together the necessary participants, wherever they’re at. When collaboration is needed with colleagues, vendors, or customers, the physical limitations of non-mobile video conferencing technology can keep it from happening. With mobile video conferencing, the collaboration happens when it needs to happen.
As employees, customers, and business partners use the platform and discover how easy it is to video conference—even on the spur of the moment—they’ll be much more inclined to seek collaborative solutions through conferencing, so the increase in collaboration will perpetuate itself.
Device Loyalty Isn’t Challenged
People come to love their own devices, and they don’t like to have to use other technology. This situation has given rise to the bring your own device (BYOD) movement, which is almost certain to continue to grow. Everyone wants to use what they’re comfortable with, even at work.
With a device-agnostic mobile video conference platform, you can let conference attendees use the devices they prefer. No matter what technology they use—browsers (on desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones), video software, room systems, MCUs, etc.—they can still join in the conference.
Allowing attendees to use the technology to which they’re loyal makes it much likelier that they’ll take advantage of the mobile video conferencing platform’s collaboration capabilities. It also means they'll probably get more out of the video conferences because they won't be working with technology that's awkward or deficient to them.
The Cloud Allows Scalability to Growth
Greater collaboration leads to greater internal productivity and improved customer relationships, which will spur growth. A mobile video conference platform allows you to foster that collaboration, and with a cloud-based platform, it won't even involve upfront investments in hardware and software.
For many small and medium-sized businesses, the low upfront cost of a cloud platform makes the technology feasible. You pay for the benefits of mobile video conferencing as you realize them—not all at once. Because the pricing is usage based, its cost is inherently scaled to your growth.
Takeaway
Mobile video conferencing solutions that are cloud-based and device-agnostic will facilitate and encourage greater collaboration within your company and with others. The investment risk is minimized because the cost is tied to your growth.
Mobile video conferencing is, without a doubt, the wave of the future. In a worldwide competitive market, convenience and efficiency are two buzz words that never go out of style. Mobile video conferencing embraces both concepts and provides you and your colleagues the flexibility needed to compete in the marketplace.
What is the Big Deal?
Cloud computing has opened up doors for technological advancements in the office and otherwise like never before. All you need is a device, including mobile devices, that has an internet connection and either an app or a browser that works. With a Easymeeting.net account, you can call a conference for an hour from now that includes up to twenty-five total end-users on any device with the above mentioned capabilities. Henry is out in the field on a business trip? No problem, he can use his smartphone to sign in. Jeanette is home with a sick child? No worries, her iPad will work just fine.
What is the Advantage?
Mobile video conferencing makes it possible for your company to stay competitive. Cloud based services are accessible from almost any device and utilize services that span the full range of available products, from web browsers to video chat apps and yes, even regular land-line phones. This is a serious advantage over your competition as it provides an avenue for problem solving to happen as close to real time as possible.
What about Personal Use?
Mobile video conferencing is just as useful for private reasons as it is for work-related conferences. Consider families today tend to spread out much further than they have in times past. It is not uncommon for parents to live in one city while each of their children live in completely different parts of the world. Scheduling time for everyone to have a quiet place to sit down and use a computer for a Skype call can be very challenging and it doesn’t leave any room for larger get-togethers. An in-person family reunion may not be possible this year but with mobile video conferencing it is possible to have a cyber-reunion. Soldiers who are deployed have the opportunity to speak with their loved ones, children and family members all at the same time.
The Bottom Line
Corporations, small businesses and families can all benefit from the technological advances afforded by cloud computing, including mobile video conferencing. Stay ahead of the competition and improve efficiency and relationships by utilizing this amazing technology.
I do more demo's of the Easymeeting services than I could possibly even begin to count. Our partners call me at various times with their various end users and I get the opportunity to show what we do, while meeting some pretty cool people around the world. This week has been what I can only describe as a "Super Demo" week. As I hang up from one call, I am often being immediately brought into another one.
Typically I will be on a large screen overlooking a conference table full of Scandinavian business people, then broadcast over 4 iPads throughout a company in London, and then make my way across the United States from East to West. It's too bad I can't acquire frequent flyer miles on the cloud -and let me tell you, there is nothing more nerve racking than realizing your face is plastered on a 65 inch plasma screen in front of 30 people you have never met. Needless to say, I have gotten pretty comfortable being on video, and accepting that everyday is not a perfect hair day.
Today I was on a demo with a company in Southern California for awhile doing some demoing and testing of the product. It's always interesting to learn what companies do and how they are thinking of using video conferencing. As soon as we said our goodbyes and finished up our convo on California's superior weather, I received a call on my video system from one of our other channel resellers, and I was suddenly doing a demo in the middle of a park in San Fransisco. The traffic was zipping by, and we were LITERALLY walking the guy's dog while talking about Easymeeting. Like I said, I am not often surprised by demos- but this, was pretty freakin' cool. Talk about the epitome of ad hoc meetings.
(A Snapshot from my iPhone of my walk through the park in San Fransisco, sorry- I didn't catch the dog quickly enough!)
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Our partner was on his new Samsung Galaxy S3 phone checking out our beta Droid app and cruising around San Fran. They gave me a little 360' tour of the park and what other companies were in the general area, and then of course- introduced me to the dog. He's not the first dog I've met over video, as we get to work with a lot of people who have the luxury of working from home, but he was the first dog I ever got to take on a virtual walk.
It's days like today where I get so excited about the technology that is available to us and think about the 100's of people that I have been able to meet from all over the world because of it. I did quite a bit of traveling throughout college and right after and miss the experiences that you have when you are soaking up the culture of a place that is not your own. Needless to say, I still miss traveling to new places, and am looking forward to a few upcoming trips, but I still get the experience of meeting people from different cultures, communities and countries. It's amazing and quite frankly very refreshing how often I get off a call and am amazed by how friendly the people I just met were.
Clearly, it's been a good day for me and our Easymeeting team and I am looking forward to another "Epic Friday" at the Easymeeting offices tomorrow! We hope you are experiencing the same kind of productive, efficient, and exciting job bliss. If your not; try something new. Remember: The definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"- Albert Einstein.
Every once in awhile we like to give our blog followers a little something from someone different. You may remember one of our recent guest blogs from a customer at Risco, sharing his Easymeeting story in the Easymeeting of the Week Blog. Today- we have another guest blogger to share with you.
Gary Luhrman is part of the Easymeeting: West Coast Team. He has years experience in the video field, and has been inroducing our services to channels and end users in the land of California Sun. We have been hearing more and more questions and requests about SIP dialing and the Easymeeting services and wanted to share with you just how easy it is to connect via SIP into our cloud. We keep it simple, and we invite everyone, from SIP to H323, E164, Pc's, Mac's, iPhones and iPads... what else could you ask for!
So without further avail- here is a little something from Gary Luhrman about the never ending possibilities of Easymeeting!
"True story. Recently I was performing a live videoconferencing demo to an interested channel in the San Francisco area. We connected their LifeSize conferencing room to an easymeeting virtual room where our easyExpert – Caity Serra was waiting for us from our office in Mystic, Conn.
Caity put easymeeting through all the paces and demonstrated just how simple it was to bring in other systems to the video meeting along with PC´s, iPad´s and even iPhones. The customer was impressed and it was beginning to look like a done deal for a new channel.
Then, the customer grabbed a Polycom VX1500 videophone from his stock room and began to start it up, declaring “I´ve never seen this videophone work. Let´s see how it works with easymeeting!”.
I knew that Easymeeting was SIP friendly, but I had never actually seen it in action, so I sat back to watch the process. Caity kept her cool and explained that to connect a SIP device was as easy as dialing the easyRoom number along with “@easym.net”. SIP dialing: “####@easym.net”
It connected on the first try! We had systems connected using the standard H.323 and SIP protocols with no problems whatsoever. And once again, easymeeting had proved itself with unsurpassed connectivity and ease of use for resellers, and end users.
The contact was equally as impressed- as his company is a widespread IP integrator, not just video endpoints. Needless to say, there wasn't much more to discuss after that and we are now happy to invite Xtelesis into the Easymeeting Family!"
-Gary Luhrman
West Coast Channel Sales
Easymeeting.net
.... So there you have it, whether you are dialing via SIP, H323, Telephone, PC, or mobile device... Easymeeting has you covered!
We are very excited to welcome the Xtelesis team on board as a new Easymeeting reseller in California, Washington, and whereever video can reach! To check out Xtelesis or sign up for an Easymeeting trial through them, visit www.xtelesis.com
I always start my morning with a cup of coffee as soon as I get to the office. Sometimes, as soon as I walk in the front door I head for the keurig(aka my best friend) and fire things up. However, this Thursday morning--- my day began with a different kind of jolt.
One of our channels was pitching to a rather large customer who has been searching for a way to bring 25 endpoints together, specifically with the capability of a high quality call from and to iPads. In our initial introduction, you would tell that they hardly believed us, "Oh yea we can do that, no problem"!
So as every good sales person does, they asked to see it. And we showed them. Now, being an International company means that we are not all typically in our offices at the same time. I normally have til about 10am EST to chat with our Norwegian counterparts - so we started early- and this, is what happened.
- 1-6. Polycom System, Lifesize System, 3 Radvision Systems,and a Droid Phone, in Tromso Norway
- 7-8. Lifesize System and a Radvision System in Oslo, Norway
- 9-11. Mac Laptop, iPhone, and a Lifesize System in Stockholm Sweden
- 12-13. ZTE System and a Droid Phone from Berkshire, UK
- 14-23. 4 Radvision Systems, 1 Lifesize System, 2 Mac's, an iPad, an iPhone and a PC from Mystic, CT
- 24. Lifesize Softphone in Buffalo, New York
- 25. Radvision System in Santa Cruz California
Thats 16 standard videoconferencing systems, and 9 Mobile Devices, captured below in an iPad Screen shot. And yes, as you can see below- we have room for three more endpoints on continuous presence!
The real beauty of this is how easy it was. We pulled together an ad hoc meeting in less than 15 minutes with 25 endpoints, from four different countires in 5 different time zones. Anyone who knows traditional video, knows that to create this kind of call would have required your company a large monetary investment on the infrastructure, hiring an IT whiz, or an entire department to handle the calls, a whole lotta' bandwidth piped into your office, and probably a lot of planning. With Easymeeting's managed videoconferencing as a service offering-- it was easy, peasy, lemon squeezy- at a quite literally, a fraction of the cost!
If this kind of show stopping technology doesn't wake you up in the morning- than their isn't a coffee in the world that will get you excited about anything at work. But we get pretty excited about what we do here at Easymeeting.net, and I just couldn't not share this particular proof of concept with our readers.
If you want give it a try yourself, check out our free 14 day trial. We can help you find the services that are going to enable your company to work efficiently, and internationally, without having to leave your home office, or your praised Keurig machine. Don't be afraid to reach out to our team during the trial process and ask how we can help solve specific problems in your company by connecting over the cloud!
TGIF! It's August- much of the world is coming back from holidays in July with sunburn and hopefully refreshed spirits! Today's Easymeeting of the Week is brought to you by partner inspiration, rather than the normal customer inspiration! Our partners and dealers are an extension of the Easymeeting.net family, like the cousins you always wished you could swap out with your little brother.
As you may have seen, we have recently signed a new strategic partner, www.PicturePhone.com, here in the US- and we have had a lot of fun demo'ing the Easymeeting way of life to their dealers and customers all over the world. We love seeing customers reactions to how easy it is with our services to bring in a lifesize system, and radvision system, a polycom system, a computer, a tablet, an i phone, and now our Droid BETA tester, all into one call. When our customers get excited, we get excited. To make demo'ing the Easymeeting services just that much easier- we recently set up a demo camera overlooking the beautiful Mystic Harbor- which happens to be directly outside of our office. Our partners now have the ability to call our sales reps, our Easymeeting Experts, our conference rooms, and to check the weather in Connecticut- all in the name of showing the customer the abundance of Easymeeting feature options. Our Easymeeting Experts are always available to touch on different feature questions, and help the customer get the feeling for how they can use the services by showing documents, setting up recordings and inviting far end participants.
If you call into our demo cam at the right time(s) of day, you will see the Amtrak train streaming past; headed to or from New York, and may even catch the Amtrak bridge doing a 360 degree turn to let in the boats entering into the harbor from the open ocean. It's a nostalgic little town here, and we like it so much- we wanted to share it with the entire Easymeeting network!
Thanks to all of our Partners for a great year so far, and to keeping the momentum going! If you are interested in learning more about becoming an Easymeeting certified partner, check out our partner page and fill out the "Contact Us" form!
If you are a reseller already and haven't seen the new camera--- call easyNumber 842 and check it out! Should be a lot of action on a beautiful Friday afternoon like this!
The Easymeeting and PicturePhone Partnership Announcement: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/8/prweb9759683.htm
This is quite a confusing week for business flow, not just in the USA- as we celebrated our Independence Day with millions and billions of fireworks and hot dogs, but Internationally as summer holidays are set into motion. Because of Wednesdays holiday, we have essentially had two Mondays, and two Fridays, which in hind-sight, should I have had two "Easymeeting's of the Week"? Anyways, parts of our team across Europe have begun travelling for their summer holiday(which is typically four weeks, imagine that corporate America!). I can barely begin to comprehend how business was handled, or ever completed before our dear friend the internet came along. Now, the internet is just one of our most basic tools that set the stage for all of today's cloud technology. As I was brain storming over something to share for the Easymeeting of the Week, I thought of all the ways Easymeeting uses our cloud, and others to work efficiently in times like these.
Obviously, our Easymeeting Cloud is a technology that we cannot live without. As our US Sales Manager, Cody Loughlean, likes to say- "You have to eat your own dog food", and we do. We communicate not only with our resellers, customers, and partners via Easymeeting- but with eachother. This week, as people were flying, driving, working from home or not working at all- we continued to use our cloud. If someone is out for the week, their video system is simply, and seamlessy forwarded to another employee, so that all customers are taken care of. One of our resellers in California was on vacation with his family this week, but didn't want to miss an opportunity with a new customer- so he jumped on the call from his PC for 20 minutes, took care of business, and was instantly back on vacation. One of our tech specialists was headed on vacation and called into a meeting from the airplane to tie up some last minute details. A member of our sales team on the East Coast was able to join a video call with another West Coast partner after typical work hours by jumping on his iPhone from the beach. Even with sand between our toes, and a lot of traveling, business at Easymeeting didn't miss a beat this week, but our employees and partners don't have to miss time with their friends and families either. It's the perfect balance!
Part of the Easymeeting Team in action! Oivind in our Tromso offices and Raymond flying through the air!
Now, to take a step back- we have a lot of other "clouds" to thank for our productivity too! Because of these technologies that you can access from ANYWHERE, we can always be working efficiently, and sharing duties with eachother, without having to be with eachother. Thanks to other services and platforms like Citrix, Hubspot, PRWeb, and the good old World Wide Web, Easymeeting, and you can work efficiently and still enjoy holidays, vacations, family time, beach time, and summer time! We only live once, and we at Easymeeting believe that if your going to work hard, your going to need to play hard too!
We are wishing all of our friends, followers, customers, employees and business partners a very safe summer! Don't forget the sunscreen, and don't forget to check out how the Easymeeting Cloud can help you find the perfect summer balance of work, and PLAY! Feel free to sign up for the Easymeeting services and experience cloud life for yourself! We are looking forward to seeing you on the Easymeeting Cloud soon!
While I am a proponent of the use of technology like videoconferencing and related services to be used to the maximum of it´s potential, from time to time it is extremely important to meet face to face and in person. The videoconferencing industry as we know it has long suffered in finding the right mix to position it´s value within the market. Simply replacing face to face in person meetings would require billions of dollars in a global marketing investments to help change work habits and to educate John Q. Public on the benefits of video over everything else " in person". From my experience with the industry the traditional manufacturers nor the largest distributors are investing in product and use awareness...not before the global economy tanked nor when it was glowing hot.
With this in mind one better understands that it is up to more slight changes in work habits, product and services education as well as better and more affordable availability of the videoconferencing tools that will win the day but over time and perhaps a decade or more and most importantly change will come from the outside and from the current "captains" of the industry. It will not be Cisco or Polycom or even the LifeSize division of LogiTech or "you name it" here that will affect change but the user and easier to understand information on the benefits of video and not the latest in "tech ()#(")#(#".
However in order to keep in touch with John Q. Public we do travel and we do meet customers who have and the hoards of customers do not have videoconferencing tools. Easymeeting.net for the majority of our time focuses on events like the coming Connecticut Business Expo in Hartford, Connecticut where 4,000 company representatives ascend on the fantastic Connecticut Convention Center on the banks of the Connecticut River each June. We assume that 90% do not have videoconferencing services as this follows the generally available industry statistics and this is ideal for easymeeting.net as we focus on this who have not yet adopted videoconferencing services into their daily communications routines.
Yes... we have done these events by videoconferencing and yes this year we will have several virtual attendants like the head of our easymeetingExpert team in Mystic, Conn. Caity Serra, Patrik Ankarstad in Stockholm, Sweden and our great team of Experts in Tromsø, Norway. However in 2012 I will attend along with our team in Connecticut and will dilligently work to present the values that traditional and mobile videoconferencing bring to the user. Last year I attended the event via video and it was quite interesting to see and hear the response of the the 90% - some scared, some skeptical and many well without a thought. A year later, a year more mature and I believe we have something the attendees at the CT BIZ EXPO will truly appreciate. Our easyConference services which allow traditional videoconferencing systems to communicate seamlessly with PC,Mac,Iphones and IPAD and a 14 day trial to evaluate the easymeeting.net services. While a desktop hardware product like our easyPersonal or our conferencing room product the easyRoom may be a but much for the 90% our easyConference service can within a few moments enable your PC,Mac, Iphone and IPad to become a videoconferencing system. Humm that is something that should be interesting enough to begin the long process of changing ever so slightly work and meeting habits. Is it not?
Easymeeting.net will hold a drawing for an IPAD2 with 3 months of easyConference services included to an attendee of the CT BIZ EXPO. Come on down to Booth 308 on June 7, 2012 and check out what easymeeting.net is all about.
Please click here for more information on the event.
Two years ago if you, or I would have used the term "cloud" in a business meeting, everyone in the room would have undoubtedly looked to the sky to see what a cumulonimbus cloud could possibly have to do with the topic at hand. Today, it is nearly impossible to make it through a business meeting, an article in a business journal, or a business day without hearing about the cloud, and cloud computing, and cloud technology, and cloud management, and cloud, cloud, cloud.
For some of us, this transition was natural, we didn't even notice that it was happening, everything just went to the cloud, worked better, more efficiently, and we were happy with it. However, we left behind a group of people wondering why everytime we should be discussing business, our conversation turned to the weather. Like my mother (Hi mom! Happy Mother's Day), who looked at my brother and I recently as we discussed our equally cloud dependent jobs, and asked "What the heck is the CLOUD!?".
Ahhh, yes... the forgotten folk that we left on earth.
With that being said, we at Easymeeting.net prefer life in the cloud too. We are always excited and talking about our "easyConference" virtual meeting rooms, which obviously; live in the cloud with the rest of the magic technology we use today! You've never been to the cloud? You've never been on a business class, HD, flawless, videoconference? Okay... let's back up.
Our easyConference, as previously mentioned, is awesome. With the easyConference service you can have a multi-participant video meeting with your customers, partners, co workers, and potential clients all over the world. Joe from the NY office can call in on his computer, Sally in Cali can call in from the airport on her iPad, while the CEO pitches the new company idea from his conference room in London and the investors tune in from Beijing. You're all together, in the cloud, in a virtual meeting room, in an easyConference! It's easy, meeting with your team, while staying in your home bases where you work most effectively. Besides the postive effect that less travel has on the environment, it has a positive effect on your productivity, your work/life balance, and your overall well being.
So give it a try next time, cancel the red eye flight, enjoy dinner with the family, and jump into an easyConference to meet with your collegues in the cloud. You might just enjoy having your meetings in the clouds instead of flying through them while eating peanuts and listening to the guy next to you snore.
Today´s blog is about my typical day at the office. Normal Mondays start with getting myself and the kids ready for the week. Breakfast and lunch are made up, clothes picked out and out the door. Before videoconferencing I would have commuted to the office after having dropped off the kids, which would take me through perhaps 1-1.5 hours of traffic (normal travel time is 28 minutes) during the peak of rush hour so I can sit down and meet colleagues, resellers and end user customers. However this is my typical day.
I started the day out getting the kids ready, my wife took the oldest to school while the smallest was "sleeing in" after a long weekend of playing with his friends, I logged onto my MAC, checked my email and noticed a request for attendance for an early meeting in London to start at 8:00 AM. I happen to live about 10 minutes from the airport but could only with the greatest personal stress and cost make a 8:00 AM ad-hoc meeting. Tele-Conferencing is not an option as this is a reseller partner needing demonstration of our services help. While my youngest on slept I connected at 8:00 AM using our easymeeting.net conference room service number 9875 and held a fantastic 30 minute demonstration with our London, UK. partner. My son woke up, we prepared for the week and he was dropped off at the daycare while I headed to the office (yes sometimes one has to be physically present) after rush-hour had ended. 28 minutes later I am in the office and 10 minutes after that I am working with our partner in Helsinki, Finland again via easymeeting´s videoconferencing services.
My schedule for the day includes meetings with Hameenlinna, Finland & Stockholm, Sweden as well as Mystic, Connecticut. What is great about my typical day is... I do this all without leaving the office and I am home for dinner with my family. Face to face meetings are so much productive than tele-conferences as one feels they are in the same room. Add the fact that I use my fixed easymeeting conferencing room 9875 and my day is as productive as it could be without sitting in traffic or going through airport security or while on the phone in a less productive tele-conference while the other callers are likely paying less attention and multi-tasking.
Looking at the coming week I have meetings planned with Connecticut and Massachusetts, Nebraska, California, London and Reading, UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Australia without having to leave the country. That sounds like Time Well Spent to me.
Check out easymeeting.net´s Free Trial - No obligation and easy to use start taking control of your day -Try it out 14 days