Posts Tagged ‘cisco webex’
Are you using online meeting software? If not, you are probably traveling more than you need to or missing out on valuable face to face contact with coworkers, clients and prospects.
In a move to help small business owners make the most of their time, Cisco is rolling out a special deal worth blogging about. Small businesses can now tap into Unlimited WebEx meetings for up to eight people for just $19 a month.
In case you aren’t familiar with WebEx, it’s a Web conferencing solution that lets you connect with anyone, anywhere, in real time. It combines desktop sharing through a Web browser with phone conferencing and video.
Citrix’s GoToMeeting is a similar product. But Cisco is undercutting the popular service with its new pricing. GoToMeeting costs $49 a month, or $468 a year.
“While executives are clear they need a powerful communication’s arsenal … smaller businesses and individuals aren’t yet reaping the rewards,” Cisco wrote in a blog post. “WebEx wants to make video conferencing accessible to everyone in any sized company—from the 90 percent of employees who work offsite cited in the report, to freelancers, home businesses, start-ups and more.”
Essentially, Cisco is offering WebEx 8, which offers all the same features and functions of the traditional WebEx product, only with a smaller meeting room and a smaller price. You can host up to seven people with WebEx 8, and it also works with WebEx Mobile, which means you or your participants can join in from a mobile device.
Here’s some of the cool stuff your small business can do with WebEx 8: share your desktop or a single file for faster collaboration and communication in a group, record meetings so you can replay it later or publish it online somewhere, and schedule WebEx meetings tools like Microsoft Outlook.
At $19.95 a month, this is a no brainer for many of you. If you aren’t sure it’s right for you, you can take a 14-day spin during a free trial period. But this is the wave of the future, for sure.
Did you see the recent webinar on alternative workplace strategies? The webinar was titled, “Alternative Workplace Strategy: Aligning for Action.” This is a solid webinar that anyone exploring the notion of alternative workplace strategies should view.
In the webinar, Jeff Root, vice president of Product Marketing and Management for PeopleCube and Diane Stegmeier, president of Stegmeier Consulting Group, discussed some of the secrets to success of an alternative workplace strategy. At the core of the message: getting buy-in from key stakeholders and proactively addressing possible objections.
“Develop your change management strategy proactively, and as early as possible in the process of developing a new workplace strategy,” Stegmeier said in the webinar. “Don’t wait until you might face resistance. I guarantee you will face some.”
Davinci Virtual Office Solutions can help you execute your alternative workplace strategy. Whether your company is headquartered in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, or some other part of the country, Davinci has virtual office space at attractive rates.
But beyond virtual office space, Davinci Virtual also has various other virtual office communications solutions. Virtual receptionists, for example, can handle calls for any number of employees working from virtual offices. And virtual assistants can provide support to your virtual office workers. Davinci also offers virtual communications solutions like Live Web Chat and Cisco WebEx for online meetings.
Of course, we realize from time to time that you may need access to a physical office space. That’s why Davinci Virtual Office solutions offers you options like day office space, meeting room and conference room rentals by the hour. The bottom line: Davinci has all of the virtual office tools you need to executive your alternative workplace strategies.
I saw an Associated Press article that asked a provoking question in its headline: “Winter’s coming – time to let workers telecommute?”
That’s a good question, considering the blizzards in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and other parts of the Midwest. The article offers a thought provoking look at the pros and cons of telecommuting.
“With these early signs of winter, small business owners may want to think about letting workers telecommute rather than contend with snow, sleet and ice. And maybe think about allowing them to telecommute long-term,” writes Joyce M. Rosenberg of the Associated Press.
“Telecommuting employees fall into two categories. Many do it periodically, during an emergency such as bad weather or because they have to care for sick children. But workers at many companies have been telecommuting full-time or almost full-time for years.”
The article goes on to discuss the management issues involved in telecommuting, when employees should put in a “guest appearance,” and dealing with technical issues. Many of the technical glitches can be avoided from the start by using a reputable virtual office provider with state-of-the-art technology.
Virtual office technologies like Cisco’s WebEx are proven reliable, and they are even more affordable as part of a total virtual office package Davinci Virtual has put together. You can create an end-to-end virtual office solution for your company that includes virtual office space, a virtual receptionist, virtual assistants, Live Web Chat, web conferencing and more.
So as the weather chills, consider if you want your business to be considered for one of those ‘best places to work’ lists. Many of those companies, large and small, have a common trait: telecommuting and virtual offices. If you aren’t ready to buy into a virtual office solution for telecommuting on a regular basis, wisdom dictates at least putting a plan in place for snowy days when it’s not safe to get to the office.
It’s a proven fact: telecommuters balance work and family life better than office workers. But it’s also a proven fact that telecommuters can maintain that balance even while sometimes squeezing in a couple extra days’ worth of work each week. So say researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU).
BYU analyzed data from 24,436 IBM employees in 75 countries. Given a flexible schedule and the option to telecommute, employees were able to clock 57 hours per week before experiencing an imbalance between work and personal life—and not all of those 57 hours are telecommuting hours.
According to E. Jeffrey Hill, a professor in BYU’s School of Family Life, the typical high-flexibility work arrangement includes a mix of office time and firing up the laptop from home, the venue depending on the task at hand. Virtual office space can help with the latter.
“Telecommuting is really only beneficial for reducing work-life conflict when it is accompanied by flextime,” Hill says. “Managers were initially skeptical about the wisdom of working at home and said things like, ‘If we can’t see them, how can we know they are working?’”
Nowadays more than 80 percent of IBM managers agree that productivity increases in a flexible environment. In the current economy, the scenario is being repeated with other businesses feeling the pinch. Virtual office space can enable flextime at large and small companies.
“A down economy may actually give impetus to flexibility because most options save money or are cost-neutral,” Hill says. “Flexible work options are associated with higher job satisfaction, boosting morale when it may be suffering in a down economy.”
Virtual office space is also an economical option in a down economy, both for the company and its employees. Employees can save on gas and even lunch expenses by working at home from a virtual office a couple of days a week. And companies can lease less office space if workers are distributed more evenly across the headquarters and the home front.
Virtual office technologies ensure that employees don’t miss a beat in terms of client or staff meetings. Virtual office technologies like Cisco’s WebEx, for example, enable seamless meetings from anywhere. Whether your employees are stationed in your city or road warriors traveling from place to place, virtual office technologies can drive greater productivity—and greater employee satisfaction—at your company.
I read an interesting article in the Miami Herald today about how higher fees and packed planes are frustrating passengers as they “travel less-than-friendly skies.”
The story was spurred by Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who walked off the job after giving a public speech, then took a beer with him as he slid down the emergency chute. Apparently, his story resonated with the American public. He has nearly 200,000 fans on Facebook now. He’s also facing criminal charges.
The moral of the story is that fewer and fewer enjoy flying. The Miami Herald cited a Department of Transportation (DOT) study that points to just how unhappy air travelers are. The DOT registered 5,757 complaints from consumers in the first half of 2010. That’s up from the 4,355 complaints filed during the year-ago period. That’s an increase of 32 percent even though traffic increased less than 1 percent. Telling.
When you use virtual office technologies, you avoid the flight delays and cancellations. When you work from a virtual office space, you don’t have to worry about lost bags, long ticket lines or security check hassles. When you tap into virtual offices, you can do away with getting stuck on the tarmac, dealing with rude co-travelers and all the rest of the non-sense that goes along with air travel.
So why not use virtual office technologies more and deal with less hassle? Sure, sometimes your business dealings demand face to face interaction. But you can accomplish plenty with a Cisco WebEx web conference. You can also do a lot in your virtual office with video chat, GoToMeeting and other virtual office technologies. You’ll save time. You’ll save money. And you’ll be more productive.
Virtual office technologies won’t try your patience the way rude flight attendants do. Virtual offices won’t charge you an arm and a leg to use them—many of them, like Skype, are absolutely free. And, perhaps the best part, when you work from a virtual office, you don’t have to settle for a bag of peanuts and a small plastic cup of diet coke for lunch.
So far as Slater, I bet if he was working from a virtual office, he wouldn’t have been so overstressed in the first place; stressed enough to abandon ship. Don’t let your stress levels pile up to a Slater-like fury. Start tapping into the power of virtual offices today.
In case you missed it, watch this video on Steven Slater’s story:
Demonstrating the value of virtual office technologies, Skype on Monday announced that it has filed papers with the Securities & Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering (IPO).
Skype, the real-time Internet communications platform that allows VoIP phone calls, instant messaging, video chat and desktop and file sharing, is hoping to raise $100 million.
Skype isn’t solely a virtual office technology, but the software is enabling the virtual office. Skype is one of the most popular instant messaging services available with 23 million users online at peak times of the day. This virtual office technology, as the company likes to say, “connects business colleagues, saving them time and money and allowing them to stay ahead of the competition.”
Virtual office users can tap into Skype. Although web conferencing solutions offer a more robust experience, this virtual office technology sets the stage for GoToMeeting-like screen sharing and file sharing on the fly—and for free. That allows you to hold a conference call where all parties are looking at the same thing at the same time. You can even use this virtual office technology on your mobile phone by downloading an app for your BlackBerry, iPhone or Android-powered device.
But Skype’s IPO is more about the functions and features the company offers. Skype’s IP speaks to a larger trend in the marketplace. There is an increasing demand for virtual office technologies. Whether it’s Cisco’s WebEx, Citrix’s GoToMeeting or Skype, virtual office users and others in the world of work are relying more and more on technologies that drive productivity and collaboration.
What’s more, these technologies prove that collaboration is possible with a distributed workforce. Even if you have some employees in Manhattan, some in Miami and some in Los Angeles, you can tap into the power of virtual office technologies to get on the same page any time of the night or day with a few clicks on your computer keyword.
Check out this video on how Skype screen sharing works and leverage the feature in your virtual office today:
A dense smog shrouded Moscow on Friday, grounding flights at the city’s international airports, seeping into homes and offices and stinging the eyes of residents as wildfires raged to the east and south.
That’s the lead to an Associated Press story on Friday morning that describes smog that is so bad it has grounded incoming flights to Moscow. Moscow’s three main airports are rerouting flights in the wake of smoke from forest fires. Moscow and several surrounding regions are in a state of emergency.
Raging wildfires and other natural disasters cause business interruptions that could cost companies thousands of dollars in additional travel costs and productivity. Business travelers planning to land in Moscow now have to fly in to other cities and make alternative arrangements to get to the capital city. And this isn’t a one-day event. Moscow officials expect the situation to continue for another week.
The Moscow smog is another example of the value of virtual office technologies. If it’s not absolutely necessary to meet in person, why fight the smog, the travel reroutes and the additional road time to make a business meeting in Moscow? Virtual office technologies offer a cost-effective alternative to business travel under the best of circumstances. How much more in the midst of an emergency situation?
Virtual office technologies like Cisco WebEx let you hold online meetings and virtual conferences from your computer—or even from your smartphone. Davinci Virtual offers its virtual office customers special monthly rates on the service that lets you launch and even record virtual meetings.
And for companies or individuals who are in Moscow and don’t want to try to fly out of the region during the smog, Davinci Virtual also offers virtual office space in Moscow. You can rent virtual office space on the 19th floor of Northern Tower Business Suites in Moscow from $200 a month. You can also rent virtual office space at Moscow Executive Suites on 11 Timur Frunze Street in Moscow from $160 a month.
So whether you are in another nation trying to do business in Moscow, or you are in Moscow and need to tap into virtual office technologies that you don’t have access to in your home office, Davinci Virtual offers the tools you need to minimize business interruptions.
Check out this video on the crisis in Moscow:
The Globe and Mail is running an interesting story today on virtual offices and web gadgets. The story chronicles several professionals who are no longer tied to traditional offices. Steve Hampton is one of those professionals.
As the Globe and Mail reports, Hampton is a marketing specialist at BIGLocal.ca, a search engine advertising agency in Ottawa. He runs a virtual office and communicates with his employees and vendors off site. As the story goes, Hampton loves using Skype while on the road. And I’m sure he uses it from his virtual office space as well.
Professionals in many industries use virtual offices and web gadgets hand in hand so they can stay connected with clients while they are on the road, or even on vacation. Virtual office space gives you a permanent, prestigious address, whether in Toronto, Montreal, or Manhattan. Virtual office space also comes with a local or 800 phone number that can follow you anywhere you go in the world.
It’s not just high-tech companies that use virtual offices. Law firms are tapping into the convenience of virtual office space. Small medical practices more and more are turning to virtual receptionists. Even large enterprises are renting virtual office space as they expand into new territories. But combining virtual office space with web gadgets like Google Docs, Skype and Cisco’s WebEx offers the ultimate flexibility.
The Globe and Mail story also offers the example of Rich Hayman, president of Just Moulding Franchising, who now uses a Motorola Droid instead of a laptop or netbook as he travels. Meanwhile, the story reports, Lee Deas of Obviouslee Marketing in Charleston, uses Google Apps to share documents with fellow workers.
The number of virtual technologies and web gadgets are growing. It’s no longer necessary to stay chained to a traditional office space. By combining virtual offices and virtual technologies, you can get more done in less time from wherever you are.
Check out this video on how Google Apps can be a complement to your virtual office space.
Workers of all ages have a new appreciation for company stability when making career decisions, suggests a new study from Robert Half.
Yet, for many, getting to firmer ground may entail a career change: Four out of 10 professionals polled said they are more inclined to look for new opportunities outside their firms as a result of the recession.
“Many employees, particularly Gen Y professionals, are biding their time in their current employment situations and plan to make a move when they feel the economy is on firmer footing,” says Brett Good, a Robert Half International district president. “Now is the time for employers to take action and outline career paths within their company for strong performers. Compensation reviews also should be conducted to ensure that pay is competitive.”
What wasn’t mentioned in the survey was how flex work arrangements could impact recruiting. I would bet that Gen Y professionals would be especially open to companies promising work-from home days where they could rely on virtual office technologies to keep in touch with the office and with clients. Gen Y grew up with the Internet and other technologies, so the chance to tap into virtual office space to maximize the productivity and find greater work-life balance would be a natural benefit to offer.
Virtual office space can help companies reduce overhead, while also helping recruiters attract the best and brightest of Gen Y. With a virtual office, Gen Y workers can have their client calls seamlessly forward to any number, including home office, mobile phone or some other temporary location. Virtual offices technologies also make it possible for Gen Y workers to continue having meetings with employees working from the company headquarters. Cisco WebEx is a good example of how virtual office technologies are saving businesses time and money, and offering greater flexibility.
Despite the recession, the economy is recovering in some areas. Some businesses are hiring—and not just any worker will do. In the medical devices industry in Cincinnati, Ohio, for example, companies can’t find workers with the right skills to fill the jobs they have open. I would imagine the same holds true in other industries. While virtual offices and manufacturing aren’t compatible, the point is that the next generation of skilled workers is open to technologies, and virtual offices play into that trend.
Check out this video on how Gen Y thinks. It’s eye-opening:
Only half of small businesses that tried to borrow last year got all or most of what they needed, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. That’s one reason why Sam’s Club is planning to make loans available to its small business customers.
Sam’s Club is launching a business loan pilot program that will make $5,000 to $25,000 loans available to qualifying members. The program also includes low-rate merchant credit card processing, convenient order-ahead programs and early shopping hours.
“Access to capital is a major pain point for our members and the small business Main Street community,” says Catherine Corley, vice president of Membership at Sam’s Club. “We believe this pilot program is a step in the right direction to help fuel small business growth and create jobs to stimulate our economy. It’s also simple to apply and costs less, which is consistent with our goal to help our members make smart choices and provide superior value.”
That $25,000—or even $5,000—will go a long way if you rely on a virtual office system instead of traditional office space. Leasing traditional office space, installing a phone system, furnishing your space, hiring a receptionist and some staff members, and so on would more than eat up $25,000 in the first year alone.
By contrast, you can set up a virtual office system for a fraction of the cost. A virtual office system includes a virtual office, which gives you a premier business address, an 800 or local phone number, mail drop off services, and access to a day office or conference room when you need one. Your employees can telecommute from their home offices, if you have any. Virtual offices start at just $50.
With a virtual office system you can lower your full-time staffing costs by leveraging part-time virtual assistants on demand and using a virtual receptionist who can complete various other administrative tasks. And virtual office technologies like Cisco’s WebEx let you coordinate virtual staff meetings with employees, customers and partners all over the world without every having to step foot on a plane, or even drive across town.
So whether or not you qualify for a Sam’s Club loan, consider the cost-savings you could enjoy with a virtual office system. You may discover that you don’t need a loan after all.
Check out this video for more information on Sam’s Club loans:
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