Jan Correll

Are your workplace tools driving the business results you need?

April 5th, 2012 by Jan Correll Posted in Collaboration, Conferencing, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Uncategorized, Video Conferencing
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Last month I attended the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit where Tom Austin presented on People-Centered Strategies (PCS).  In his presentation, Austin defined PCS as an organizational strategy that (1) empowers people to take on demanding, non-routine tasks, (2) enhances employees’ abilities to make valuable contributions that has an impact on the business and (3) increases the workforces ability to do what they do well.

Although many organizations are moving to a PCS approach, I have wondered if those same businesses are giving their employees the tools and technology they need in order to deliver the results they are looking for.  With IT spending per employee expected to reach an all-time high of $13,303 in 2012 according to Gartner, it can be a costly mistake to invest in the wrong technology…especially if it’s a technology for collaboration that is used by the majority of the workforce.

With almost 85% of companies having a remote workforce, the office of the future is no longer an office at all.  As such, communication and collaboration tools will play a greater role in how business gets done.  But the question remains, are companies arming their workforce with the right communication and collaboration tools?  With so many players in the market how can you ensure you’re investing in virtual meeting solutions that will positively impact the organizations bottom line?  Here are a few things to look for when comparing audio, web and video conferencing solutions:

 
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Cora Rodenbusch

Digital Nomad Tip #30: The No-Hour Work Week

April 4th, 2012 by Cora Rodenbusch Posted in Cora the Digital Nomad, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Telecommuting, Tips and Tricks, Virtual Meetings
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Greetings from St. Kilda beach in Melbourne, Australia. After two weeks telecommuting in Sydney, PGi’s Asia-Pacific headquarters, my husband and I made our way to the Brisbane office and then down to Melbourne for our final Australian stop before Tokyo.

Australia is one of the most stress-free mobile work environments I’ve worked in all year. Setting up my mobile office has been easy with several pay-as-you-go mobile options and WiFi on every street corner. However as most global workers know, working 15+ hours away from your key stakeholders means it’s nearly impossible to work “in-person” as a team. Even the most global-minded workers struggle with just an hour overlap each day, and that’s only if we stay late or start early.

Remote working in your future? Take a look out our newest team member’s account of what it’s like to be managed from half way around the world.

Although working alongside my APAC colleagues has been invaluable, I have missed out on my US team’s last-minute meetings and impromptu announcements, which is why for the next two weeks, I’ve decided to shift to US hours. Working through the night might turn me into one of those adorable nocturnal Koalas, but making the shift isn’t as unreasonable as it sounds.

For me, conventional work hours are not as important as flexibility in location. And I believe this shift isn’t much of a tradeoff for me or PGi.

Kayaking the Milford Sound in New Zealand

Recently, I read Fast Company’s controversial article, “The No-Hour Workweek: Reinventing Employee Expectations For The Modern Economy.”  Don’t let the title fool you. The article is not a how-to guide for achieving a zero hour work week. In fact, it’s just the opposite. John Stein, CEO and Founder of Betterment gives us a look at his recent startup and a peek inside the future of the workplace, where office hours and location limitations are lifted and the focus is shifted to what’s most important to the business and the employees.

John shares, “In designing a working environment that would bring out the best qualities in our team, we had to come up with a model to satisfy the demands of a startup while balancing the needs of individuals.”

In exchange for unpredictable or additional hours, John offered associates flexible work hours, team R&R, the opportunity to define quarterly goals and low- or no-cost benefits that motivate more just a paycheck can.

In order to ease the demand on his team, John’s new model rejected the outdated, time-consuming corporate standards of yesteryear and focused on a new way of business where employees are given the freedom to meet team objectives on their terms, whether it’s at night or on the weekends, in-person or virtual, in between parent teacher conferences or in the office.

One of my favorite studies to come out this year is from TeamViewer, which found that employees would be willing to give up their smartphones, shopping and showers (strangely enough) and even make sacrifices that would affect their compensation and benefits packages in order to have flexible working hours and locations.

 
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Todd McCormick

Best Practices for Communicating with Customers Online (Part 1)

April 3rd, 2012 by Todd McCormick Posted in Collaboration, Conferencing, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Tips and Tricks, Video Conferencing, Virtual Meetings, Virtual Sales Strategies, Web Conferencing
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Want to learn more about video? Sign up for our webinar on 4/10 with Josiane Feigon—#Vote4Video: The Sales Tool You Can’t Do Without.

It’s highly likely that your prospects don’t have time for long, face-to-face sales pitches. That leaves salespeople with email and the telephone.

Of course, the people you’re trying to reach receive 200+ emails a day. Of those, perhaps a handful are relevant and wanted. According to InsideView, over 90% of C-level execs never respond to email blasts or cold calls.

When you limit communication to email and telephone, you miss out on one of the most important aspects of closing the sale: nonverbal communication. With a phone call, you lose body language but retain vocal cues; with email, you have even less to work with.

Many sales professionals are correcting this problem by finding new ways to leverage nonverbal communication during online meetings and video chats.

At least 55% of communication is nonverbal—93% if you include tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. During online meetings, you can use nonverbal cues to reinforce your message. Some experts say these meetings can be even more powerful than in-person meetings because you can use technology to focus in on the most important source of nonverbal communication: facial expression.

Here’s the first of three major areas where you can harness power of nonverbal communication in an online meeting:

Mirror and Match

Researchers at Boston University Medical School studied people in conversations. As conversations progressed and rapport was established, the participants began to coordinate movements such as blinking, hand motions, and head nods. They even began to match one another in voice pitch and rhythm.

Mirroring and matching is the process of entering your prospect’s world and matching your mind with theirs during conversation. This sends the nonverbal message that you’re in tune with their state of mind, and helps establish rapport.

Watch BNet’s Carol Kinsey Goman discuss effective mirroring:

 
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Todd McCormick

10 Immediate Benefits of Video for Sales Teams

March 27th, 2012 by Todd McCormick Posted in Conferencing, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Tips and Tricks, Video Conferencing, Virtual Meetings, Virtual Sales Strategies, Web Conferencing
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Want to learn more about video? Sign up for our webinar on 4/10 with Josiane Feigon—#Vote4Video: The Sales Tool You Can’t Do Without.

How do sellers benefit from incorporating video into their sales calls and sales management processes? Here are 10 quick gains sales teams can see as soon as they turn on a webcam:

  1. Reduce the costs

    2. associated with travel for field reps. Using video, outside reps can leverage their in-person selling skills – such as nonverbal communication – without the time and expense of travel.

  2. Spark more engaging interactions between inside reps and customers. We’ve all heard the phrase “death by PowerPoint.” When you’re on a faceless conference call or hiding behind a PowerPoint, you missing out on fully connecting with your customers. Getting face-to-face adds dimension to the online sales call.
  3. Maximize sales and marketing investments in inbound leads and nurturing campaigns. The cost-per-lead for inbound leads is substantially less than outbound leads. More companies are investing in areas like social media to supplement or enhance their marketing efforts, and building out their inside sales forces. With video, you allow inside sales reps to retain the human component of selling.
 
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Blakely Thomas-Aguilar

Go Mobile or Go Home! Welcome Spring with the March PGi Newsletter

March 21st, 2012 by Blakely Thomas-Aguilar Posted in Favorite Things, Meeting Tips, PGi, Telecommuting, Web Conferencing
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We’re in the first week of Spring, and the golf course beckons! As the season turns and the sun comes out of hiding, the PGi March newsletter helps you get the job done and hit the links as businesses everywhere go mobile, social and in the cloud to keep up with the newest tech trends.

  • Go Mobile or Go Home! Explore today’s mobile trends with these helpful hints to integrate mobile technology into your IT strategy.
  • Host glitch-free web meetings with these tips and tricks.
  • Learn how to manage remote workforces and telecommuting teams with these fantastic tips.
  • Experience SXSW, Austin’s incredible music, art and digital festival, from the comfort of your laptop.
  • #Shift to social good and help your business make a difference with today’s most innovative entrepreneurs, Brian Solis, Warby Parker and Joe Huff.
  • In the beginning, man created the business meeting. Learn how PGi can help you rid your world of soul-sucking meetings with crazy good online meetings tech.

Want to receive the newsletter automatically every month? Simply visit the PGi Learning Space or email me directly at blakely.thomas-aguilar@pgi.com.

 
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Managers: Why you should encourage your workforce to go mobile

February 28th, 2012 by San Sharma Posted in Meeting Tips, Telecommuting, Tips and Tricks, Virtual Meetings
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In London, big companies are warming up and stretching off for the 2012 Olympic Games. The city is expected to receive millions of spectators, along with the usual high number of tourists – and commuters are being encouraged to take up flexible working to avoid a potentially congested transport network.

In anticipation, mobile phone provider O2 trialled a day of flexible working for employees at its European HQ – and saw benefits beyond the Games themselves.

O2 UK’s business director Ben Dowd said: “In terms of productivity, one of the things that comes out is that people who are flexible workers are 15-20 per cent more productive because they’re happy with the responsibility they’ve been given to get on with the work themselves.”

You don’t have to be in an Olympic host city to enjoy the benefits of flexible working. Seven months ago, PGi’s Cora Rodenbusch left her office in Austin, Texas, and is currently travelling Europe and Asia with her husband, working and visiting PGi’s global offices along the way. (Cora shared her tips for ‘Digital Nomads’ on the WorkSnug blog).

But what about managers? Why should you encourage your workforce to go mobile?

5 reasons to encourage mobile working

  1. Mobile employees are happier employees. Based on a survey of 2,600 workers and IT professionals in 13 countries, 66% said that they would take a job with less pay and more flexibility in device usage, access to social media and mobility than a higher-paying job without such flexibility.
  2. Mobile employees are more responsive. Thanks to a boom in mobile devices, mobile workers carry with them smartphones and tablets that enable them to respond more quickly on the move, in the office or at home. According to research by iPass, 42% of mobile employees occasionally work from their smartphone or tablet in the evenings and on weekends.
  3. Mobile employees make things better. We talked to Cora and flexible working employee José Reyes, and they described how meeting the challenges of mobile working meant introducing new technologies and systems that were a benefit to their organisations.
  4. Mobile employees are more focussed. iPass’ Mobile Workforce Report revealed that mobile workers don’t waste much time during the day on tech distractions – only about 28 minutes on average. According to the same report, most mobile workers described themselves as highly proficient when it comes to technology (69%), and only contacted IT as a last resort (81%).
  5. Mobile workers are more productive. According to a Cisco study, 3 out of 5 workers say they don’t need to be in the office to be productive. 45% of mobile workers surveyed admitted to working between 2 and 3 extra hours per day. In fact, if 50 million people in the US worked from home just half of the time, it would recoup almost two weeks of free time per year – time that is otherwise spent commuting.

Employees: What you need to know

If you’re an employee wanting to break out of the office, send your manager this post! But first take Cora’s ‘What’s my work style’ quiz to make sure you’re a right fit for mobile working. If you are, make sure you get your stakeholders on board and follow these tips to make your teleworking experience a success.

What do you think?

Manager or employees: what are your concerns about mobile working? Do you think work could be carried out well – or even better – outside of the office?

San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug, a mobile app and website that helps you find laptop-friendly workspaces near you. For more from San on Blog.PGi.com, read Five Things a Coffee Shop Can Do to Attract Loyal Mobile Workers.

Photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

 
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Blake Gruber

Even Dickens’ Knew: Nothing Substitutes Face-to-Face

February 23rd, 2012 by Blake Gruber Posted in GlobalMeet, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi
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An email passed through my inbox this week containing a quote from Charles Dickens inspiring me to write this blog post. It’s funny how some ideas resonate through time, despite the vast differences in settings and circumstances.

“Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.” –Charles Dickens

Paradoxically, these words reflect rather closely the processes behind the publishing of Dickens’ works.  A literary genius beyond his time, many of the complexities in his novels weren’t fully appreciated until contemporary academics and critics explored them more deeply. His distribution, or communication, method could have played a role in this: Dickens’ published his works serially via monthly installments in magazines. While Dickens’ novels are rich with insights and wisdom, one can only wonder how impactful a face-to-face conversation with the great author might be.

 
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Todd McCormick

Is Your Workspace Set Up for Virtual Meeting Success?

February 21st, 2012 by Todd McCormick Posted in Collaboration, Conferencing, GlobalMeet, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Telecommuting, Tips and Tricks, Video Conferencing, Virtual Meetings, Web Conferencing
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Your physical working environment sets the tone for virtual meetings. Are you making that first online impression count? In this blog I’ll share 7 ways savvy sales reps can use their physical environment to improve online meeting performance.

Over 70% of industry average organizations don’t maximized their use of video conferencing technology, according to Aberdeen. Want to make sure you’re not one of that group?

 
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Cora Rodenbusch

Digital Nomad Tip #27 – Go Mobile or Go Home

February 13th, 2012 by Cora Rodenbusch Posted in Cora the Digital Nomad, Meeting Tips, PGi, Telecommuting
1 Comment »

2011 Was a good year for the mobile phone. Coldwell Banker went so far as to name 2011, “the year of mobile” in their recent whitepaper, The State of Mobile,  Last year, the compact little guys made their way into the hearts (and pockets) of nearly three quarters of the world’s population leading to a tipping point in mobility and forever changing the role of the mobile phone, far surpassing its humble beginnings as simply a means of making phone call.

On the move, headed to my office for the day

Mobile phones are cheaper than ever, 3G is easy to come by and you can now do just about everything with them thanks to information in the cloud and an abundance of mobile apps.  Your grandma, your neighbor, even your grandma’s neighbor has a mobile phone and they’re not the most recent converts – Having just traveled through some of the most rural and developing parts of India and Thailand, I can confirm the widespread use of mobile phones from texting and talking to streaming music. Forget most modern must-haves, it looks like the world wants life untethered and while we’re at it, a cool ring tone to go with it.

But going mobile doesn’t stop at owning a phone. Nearly every aspect of the office went mobile in 2011 and it looks like the trend will continue in 2012 and beyond.

In iPass’  2011 Mobile Workforce Report, 24% of mobile workers surveyed said they plan to use their laptop less in 2012, while more than half said they plan on using their tablet and smartphone more. iPass also predicts that by 2014 more people will connect to the internet via the mobile web than on PC.

As a striving Digital Nomad, this is an exciting shift. Forget the fancy teleworker title, whether it’s joining a conference call on the fly or editing a last minute presentation, it looks like everyone will take some aspect of their business out of the office in 2012. The fact that I won’t be the only person sniffing out 3G or asking my hotel to restart the router, will certainly make my mobile office easier to come by. But aside from my personal situation, the rise in mobility means that business – from corner-shop retail to Fortune 500 – must shift to accommodate the mobile world.

 
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Todd McCormick

Overcome sales objections better with video

February 7th, 2012 by Todd McCormick Posted in Conferencing, iMeet, Meeting Tips, PGi, Tips and Tricks, Video Conferencing, Virtual Meetings, Web Conferencing
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In today’s busy world it’s harder and harder to get time with prospects. Decision-makers are more difficult to reach. The sheer volume of options on the Internet has killed the sales pitch.

Unfortunately, when you finally connect with prospects on phone or email, it’s hard to gauge their true reactions and respond appropriately. A face-to-face meeting is almost always more successful, but they’re expensive and time-consuming. In many cases, setting up an online meeting is the perfect way to get your foot in the door.

Here are tips from my experience on what it takes to use video and make your case, overcome objections, and get prospects to say “yes”—quickly and decisively.

 
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