WebEx Interactions: A Web Collaboration Blog by WebEx

How to Conduct a Teleconference or Virtual Meeting

Esther Schindler at CIO.com wrote a nice article that gives pointers on how to run effective virtual meetings. As management consultant Steven M. Smith notes at the top of the article, many people in organizations don't know how to run effective in-person meetings. With so many organizations having geographically dispersed workforces, developing those skills and applying them to virtual meetings is critical to productivity. Pet peeves get deserved prominence throughout the article.

One of the first pet peeve examples, a meeting participant subjecting the entire team to hold music, ranks high up there in terms of being disruptive to productivity. Giving the meeting host the ability to mute the offending line really makes a difference. If one participant has dialed in from a phone with poor line quality or a cell phone, it can net the same result, the static or street noise can override other participants trying to weigh in.

Even for people that have good meeting skills, I recommend looking it over. The article is a quick read and positive reinforcement on the basics often lost to hectic workdays, e.g. including meeting agendas in invites, should pay dividends at least for the next month or two of meetings.

On the topic of editorial, I wanted to give my congratulations to Dan Farber and Larry Dignan at ZDNet. Dan Farber is taking over editorial operations for ZDNet's CNet's sister site, News.com. Larry Dignan is taking over for Dan as Editor in Chief of ZDNet. Having worked for Dan when he was Editor in Chief of PC Week (now eWEEK) I can say he is an excellent manager, editor, and writer. I also worked with Larry at PC Week and eWEEK, he too is a top notch manager, editor, and writer, best wishes to both.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Pairing Software as a Service with the right Infrastructure as a Service

Over on ZDNet, Phil Wainewright has an interesting blog post about how SaaS companies should contribute to the SaaS ecosystem by outsourcing their infrastructure. Infrastructure isn't a commodity that is easily replaced by cloud computing, however, especially when it comes to SaaS. The infrastructure WebEx built provides a considerable advantage to our customers in the form of reliability, through the WebEx MediaTone Network.

Phil's post responds to last week's guest blog post on GigaOM by Greg Olson, CTO and founder of Coghead. Greg's post points to the next phase of SaaS, in which next generation SaaS providers rely on infrastructure as a service or cloud computing as part of the go-to-market strategy. WebEx invested considerable resources in building out MediaTone not only to deliver services, but to differentiate from on-premise competitors through greater flexibility and improved reliability. Other SaaS pioneers have made their own differentiated investments in infrastructure for similar reasons. That nascent SaaS companies should want to leverage that experience only makes sense.

Outsourcing infrastructure has considerable benefits for start-ups or companies making initial forays into SaaS. Given the considerable effort required to build an infrastructure capable of delivering applications securely and reliably, these companies should look to established SaaS providers to help deliver their applications. That's why the WebEx MediaTone Network is available to partners looking for a way to deliver their applications in the cloud.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Schedule more effectively in 2008

One initiative organizations can use to start 2008 off right is to more be more efficient and effective when scheduling meetings. Anyone that regularly tries to schedule meetings with participants outside his or her organization knows, a good deal of time can be wasted in email or on the phone trying to find common free time. The more parties involved, the more difficult those negotiations become. Shared calendars can be a way to avoid this, especially for dispersed or multi-organizational teams.

Travel time, even over relatively short distances such as a typical suburban to metro commute, can really add to a person’s stress level. In a previous job, I used to get a lot of requests to meet in-person for briefings either in the city or for breakfast or lunch at a local restaurant. Given the stress of the daily workload, even though I loved meeting with people face-to-face, I did everything I could to minimize the impact of these on my day. After a while I realized even scheduling meetings around off-peak drive times or changing the time I went into the office, couldn't make up for lost time. If you run into resistance or scheduling impasses when planning in-person meetings, go the audio or web conferencing route, it will save time for either you or other team members. Meeting online also benefits the environment by reducing a team's carbon footprint.

Sharing calendars with every partner or customer doesn’t always make sense, so having a standard way to invite someone to a meeting via email can simplify the process and increase the likelihood that invite recipient adds a meeting to his or her calendar. iCal is the standard data format for sending and processing invites. Of course when a shared calendar integrates with a web conferencing application, that integration can save a couple steps for the meeting organizer and makes it easier to track meetings for internal billing purposes.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Guide Helps Companies Go Green in 2008

This year, companies around the globe have resolved to take steps to become more environmentally friendly in order to reduce their impact on the environment.  Even industries that have historically been known for their negative impact on the environment, including the retail and rental car industry seem to be on board (see the recent article on Enterprise-Rent-A-Car in Fortune).  But beyond switching to energy efficient light bulbs and increasing recycling efforts many of these organizations, especially small to mid-sized business, often struggle to find ways make a measurable impact. 

This is why WebEx, in partnership with The Climate Group, created a guide to help companies reduce their carbon output and their overall impact on the environment.  The guide includes suggestions around making your data centers “more green” as well as online collaboration and mobile working to reduce overall impact.  In addition, the guide helps both employees and managers develop action plans to ensure real results.

You can download a free copy of the guide online at: http://www.webex.co.uk/uk/go-green/green.html

In addition, don’t forget about our Plant a Tree with WebEx program with Carbonfun.org.  All you have to do is sign up for a free trail, complete two web meetings and we’ll plant a tree in your name.

Cleaning the air...one meeting at a time.

Colin Smith, Dir. Public Relations, WebEx