If Made a Priority, Conferencing Can Deliver Measurable Benefits

The conferencing market is growing rapidly throughout the world. The global recession is certainly lending to this trend as companies are finding it more and more difficult to fit travel costs into their budgets. At the same time, conferencing solutions are becoming more reliable and more reasonably priced and therefore, a more viable option for the small business.

According to Frost & Sullivan's new report, Asia Pacific Hosted Web Conferencing Services Markets, there was significant growth of 37.6 percent over 2006 in the Asia Pacific market for hosted Web conferencing. The three major areas driving this growth included emerging markets, local vendors and the SMB segments throughout this region.

Wainhouse Research has also been paying attention to the conferencing industry, noticing the growth and measuring the value that it delivers to customers. When solutions are flexible and scalable, companies are more likely to implement the conferencing platform and make its use a priority in their communications strategy.

"Our annual survey of North American users of conferencing services reveals that the overwhelming majority (89.1%) believe there is personal value in an integrated audio and Web conferencing service vs. two independent providers," said Andy Nilssen, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, in a company statement.

"The simplicity of being able to initiate a single conference with audio and Web capabilities combined with the ability to visually present audio control elevates the elegance of the entire virtual meeting experience."

When implemented properly, the goal of Unified Communications - which includes conferencing - is to reduce the time, cost and frustration associated with unnecessary delays that can occur in decision making processes. By bringing together the necessary tools of communication, users can make decisions on how best to communicate with each other and drive business decisions according to company strategy instead of communication capability.

Industry research suggests regular business travelers spend eleven days a year on avoidable or unnecessary travel. With access to a viable alternative that drives fluent communications and proficient decision making, unnecessary travel costs can be cut and business initiatives can stay on track.

Business professionals who have access to high definition web conferencing or high quality audio conferencing are able to save their companies money, time and carbon emissions as they have access to a quality alterative to face-to-face meetings and conferences.

Once these business professionals have access to this technology, it is up to the company to enforce its use. The organization cannot benefit from cost savings if it does not incorporate the technology into the way it does business. Once it is a priority, it can become the norm.

Small business problem; problem employees

As any small business owner with employees has learned, finding good employees can be one of the biggest challenges. In small retail businesses, turnover and reliability are big concerns while in other business types, dedication and personalities cause problems.

The net effects of employee problems in a small business are significant; decreased morale, lost sales, lost customers and strained relations with vendors. Employees who have difficult or abrasive personalities can single-handedly ruin the work environment for other employees, tick off existing customers, prospective customers and vendors and hurt profits. How does a small business owner confront problems with a difficult employee?

Preparation goes a long way towards dealing with difficult employees as well as a number of other challenges. Make certain you have a record of every incident where the employee triggered resentment in dealings with another employee, customer or vendor. The disruptive employee needs to be made aware of his or her behavior and the impact on others in their work environment. The employee should confirm that they understand the consequences of their behavior.

At this point, the small business owner or the employee’s manager should coach the problem employee, showing them a more appropriate set of behaviors. As the employee improves, feedback from the owner or manager can help reinforce the employees improved behavior. The pattern of behavior and the corrective steps should be well-documented.

Some problem employees may fail to recognize their disruption and may not be willing to buy into a corrective proposal. Termination should be an option when all else fails.

What your employees want

For the employees who are not a problem but who are not hitting on all cylinders either, there are methods to motivate those employees. Employees like recognition, especially when that recognition celebrates their good work and achievements. Recognition is even more important than money. Let me say that again, recognition is even more important than money. The motivation that a bonus produces is short-lived compared to recognition.

Dr. David Javitch, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Employee Management columnist offers small business owners 10 suggestions for motivating employees. Make a point of praising employees for a job well done or even partially well done. Involve employees, who seem bored, in discussions of job satisfaction and career path promotions based on attaining goals. Make clear your expectations for task accomplishment. Make certain that the employee’s job description includes a variety of tasks.

Javitch continues, ensure that the employee can see that what he or she is doing impacts the whole process. Make certain that the employee realizes that their function and contribution is meaningful. Provide regular feedback, regardless of whether or not that feedback is negative or positive. Provide employees with a certain amount of autonomy based on your experience with their previous accomplishments. Increase the employees’ responsibilities and provide the employee with ‘adequate opportunity to succeed.’

You will notice that Dr. Javitch never mentioned bonuses or spot awards. He clearly differentiates the short-term benefits of a bonus versus the long-term motivation of appreciation.

Benefits of Audio Conferencing Important for Collaboration Planning

As companies in the United States and other industrialized nations have implemented telecommuting platforms and distributed workforces, there is an increased need for collaboration across geographic barriers. The two challenges that immediately come to mind with such scenarios are distance and time. How are these challenges overcome to facilitate collaboration and teamwork among colleagues?

Value of Face-to-Face Challenged

Company officials must ask themselves how important it is to have face-to-face collaboration among team members. If this is an absolute must, then significant budgets should be set aside to support the funding for travel and the cost associated with time taken away from core, revenue-generating activities.

If face-to-face is not as important as simply communication, one very powerful tool to drive productivity and teamwork is audio conferencing. While this technology has been around for a while now – and is facing fierce competition from Web conferencing solutions – solutions available on such a platform have come a long way since their inception.

New Controls Enhance Effectiveness of the Call

One very notable advantage to audio conferencing today is the amount of control a mediator has in facilitating the call. Not only can this individual invite specific callers to participate in the call, he or she can use software that has been integrated with such applications as Outlook to automatically add the scheduled call to participant calendars, ensuring an important call is not missed.

Audio conferencing today is also designed to keep the call moving forward, even if problems arise in the process. It isn’t unusual for an individual who is using a cell phone to participate in the call to drop a line. When this happens, they can easily be added back into the conversation, missing only seconds of the call itself.

Call Capture and Archiving

The ability to record the call and make it accessible for all participants later is also an important feature. Key points during a conversation can be missed if too many people are talking or one person continues to dominate the conversation. The ability to go back and review the information ensures the call was beneficial for all.

Of course the most obvious benefit to audio conferencing is the cost savings associated with the elimination of travel time. The company can cut the cost of covering employee travel cost and employees no longer must take time away from other initiatives in order to travel to a meeting. Audio conferencing allows the organization to maximize the benefit of the meeting while sacrificing very little to make this collaboration possible.

Cutting the Cost of Your Online Presence

how to create a free website for your organization

The challenge for many small businesses and not-for-profit organizations is how to develop a website without spending the entire marketing budget in the process. The answer may be easier than you think.

Wordpress was developed in 2003 as a blogging platform. It was the creation of several developers who collaborated and applied their talents to what would be a free, flexible means to blogging. The original concept grew and thrived until the number of users exploded with 3.8 million downloads in 2007 alone.

During its evolution, Wordpress went from a pure blogging platform to content management system built around the standard features of a blog. With the development of new themes or templates, Wordpress is able to take on more of a website appearance and less of a blog appearance. Here lies the potential savings for a small business or not-for-profit; Wordpress is free.

The original developers of Wordpress wanted to keep their creation a free, open-source project from the beginning and it remains so today. Because the open-source concept means that that Wordpress is enhanced through the work of non-paid volunteers, the organization keeps the blogging tool a free product.

Getting started is simple
So how does a small business or not-for-profit get started with a Wordpress-based website? It’s very easy. Wordpress offers two versions of their product; either Wordpress-hosted or self-hosted. This means that you can let Wordpress host your website or you can do it yourself through a hosting company. The latter is the preferred method since this offers much more flexibility and greater functionality.

To self-host, you would need an account with a hosting service. The hosting service should support Wordpress and should make installing Wordpress an easy task. If you are comparing hosting services, look for those that offer Simple Scripts or Fantastico for installing Wordpress. Also, if your organization doesn’t already have a domain name, you will want to make this small investment and get one. Domain names can be as little as ten dollars a year. Your domain name can only be used if you go the self-hosting route.

Your domain name should be on the name server at the hosting company you use. If you can’t figure out how to do this from the hosting services’ general instructions, then ask a customer or technical service person to do it for you. With the domain name on the hosting service’s name server, you should next use Fantastico or Simple Scripts to install Wordpress under that domain name.

Customize the look of your site without spending a dime
Now the fun part begins. One terrific advantage of Wordpress and the open-source concept is that thousands of web designers have created themes or templates to help style your new website. The Wordpress directory has more than a thousand alone. You can find their selection at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes

A search of the Internet using the terms ‘Wordpress’ + ‘themes’ + ‘free’ will result in pages of additional free themes. While shopping these free themes, it’s important to make certain that the one you select works with the newest version of Wordpress; most likely the version you installed.

In addition to themes, there are hundreds of ‘plug-ins’ that further enhance Wordpress’ capabilities. The search engines like Wordpress, so with the right domain name and keywords, your new site may eventually rank well with the search engines. This is also a function of adding enough good content. The cost of your new website; zero. The benefits; just as great as the site that could have dinged your budget for thousands.