1. The Physical aspect of collaboration, meaning the surroundings in which we find ourselves to collaborate.

2. The Virtual aspect of collaboration, meaning the tools we use to communicate.

These two components are a way for us to talk, share and interact with each other, which makes use of a variety of technologies.

A more traditional interpretation of collaboration includes web conferencing – screen sharing, audio conferencing and video conferencing and not necessarily Unified Communications.

Roughly 25% of small businesses will have a social media presence in upcoming years. As businesses look for new ways to remain competitive online, a social media strategy will become a more attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

A new breed of collaborative tools embraces traditional and new ways to participate in collective thoughts, ideas and project/people development. CISCO and IBM for example both feel that social networking in the business is a significant way to collaborate – think of it as Facebook for your business, a place to share thoughts and ideas, share files (images, videos etc.) to find people in your organization, to save a profile about yourself and others, to message board or chat. CISCO Quad and IBM Connections both offer these sorts of features, as well as others such as SpeechBobble.

The good thing about social media is that it’s possible for businesses of all sizes to do something – even if it’s small.  From company blogs to collaboration in online communities, there are lots of ways for businesses to make this leap.

Project Sharing

1. Another separate yet relevant web collaboration approach is more directly related to projects and sharing the goals and objectives online in a community, Microsoft Team Foundation Server is an example of this type of tool, with deep integration with IT software project development it caters to a slightly different collaborative mode of working, yet has social network features built in
2. Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com) is another example of an ‘online project collaboration tool’, with a very large user community it is focused on the project approach to collaboration.
3. It also has many of the social networking tool features that are found in the products from IBM, CISCO and others mentioned above, such as message boards, ideas forums, file sharing and more.

So when we talk of collaboration, it is important to distinguish if the tools and technologies are live (or real time) or passive (non-real time). Most of the tools above would be considered as passive tools, and don’t require all parties to be on a call together, communicating with each other at the same time.  ET Group has focused our attention on the active collaboration tools allow conferencing via interactive whiteboards, the web, video and audio.  These are all considered real time collaboration technologies and are part of every company’s collaborative ecosystem.

Most companies have an informal collaborative ecosystem.  But more and more this needs to be formalized and managed to capture the benefits that collaboration has to offer.

If you are looking for a guide to help you with your Collaboration Ecosystem, don’t forget to download the FREE ET Group Guide.

Paul Gragtmans from ET Group along with others go through and answer some great questions on the evolution of Collaboration Solutions.

CLICK TO VIEW THE ARTICLE ON PAGE 16

Video Conference

• Screen size
• HD Codec
• Proper sound
• Lighting
• Bandwidth
• QoS considerations

These considerations are important, along with travel cost reductions, green initiatives, improved quality of life for employees, etc. But, if you drill down into remote collaboration and video conferencing to the core, it is about one thing: COMMUNICATION.

Facts about Human Communication

• 65% of the human population retains information visually as opposed to audibly
• A recent report from Leapfrog Innovators indicates that our knowledge retention is established:
• 10% when we read
• 20% when we only “hear”
• 30% when we only “see”
• 50% when we “see and hear”
• 80% when we “experience”

It is also important to note that when an active speaker effectively aligns the verbal and non-verbal cues during a given presentation/interaction, it establishes a sense of credibility amongst participants.

How Does the Boardroom Fall Short?

If we apply this general rule to a video conference session, most of us would lose a good portion of our credibility simply because the systems in place today do not offer true eye gaze rendering.  In most setups, the active speaker is either too small, too big, too far from the table, looking down, up or sideways, depending on camera placement. The verbal and non-verbal cues are not aligned.  The use of an active speaker pan-tilt-zoom automation offers some help, but it does not maintain the general contextual overview of all the participants in that room.

True eye-to-eye contact plays a crucial role in the regulation of conversational attention during multiparty communications. It also regulates social intimacy that creates greater participation by providing an effective non-verbal cue for managing the turn-taking process in a conversation. In essence, people will participate/exchange more when there is an implicit turn-taking process occurring.

What about Eye-Contact?

True eye gaze angle is one of the biggest challenges in videoconferencing, yet it is the single most important component of non-verbal communication. Why has this not been addressed? First, it is not easily accomplished, as the camera needs to be placed directly in the middle of the screen – which is difficult. Secondly, most solution providers or manufacturers have worked around the first challenge and downplay this design flaw, rather than addressing it. Thirdly, even if some solutions do exist, most of the buying decision making is done by the IT department that sees this added expense as ‘’nice-to-have’’, but not necessary or worth the added expense.

Peter F. Drucker once said, ‘’ The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said’’.

So True

 

 

When you consider all the investments in the corporate communication ecosystems, it stands to reason that there are cases where more attention should be paid to enhancing the human collaboration experience. Certain vertical markets would benefit more than others by using true eye-to-eye systems, human resources for interview purposes, financial services for building and conveying a sense of trust, and finally health care practitioners.

Most video conferencing deployments in an existing boardroom are problematic because:

• The camera captures the table from approximately the same place as the screen at the front of the room.
• Most (95%+) existing boardrooms are rectangular with a boardroom table (that is also rectangular) and are optimized for in-room meeting participation (rectangle within a rectangle).
• Even though a video conferencing remote allows users to Pan/Tilt/Zoom the camera at people while they are actively speaking, most people don’t use this functionality.  In fact, sometimes people even prefer to stop moving the camera around the room because it can disrupt the conversation if it isn’t done smoothly.

So what ends up happening is that the camera is pointed at the room from the front and is ‘zoomed out’ to capture the whole table.  And this view never changes.

People on the other end of the video conferencing call therefore see what can be called the ‘Boardroom Bowling Alley’ effect.  They can’t really see anyone well enough to appreciate the full richness of a ‘live’ experience, which a Telepresence room provides.  But, a Telepresence room comes with a big price tag.  And you need a Telepresence room at each location (mirror images of each other) to achieve the Telepresence experience. 

Telepresence is a great option but it isn’t widely deployed, not only because of the price, but because people want to use their existing boardrooms for video calls.

The Eagle Eye Director’s patented technology addresses the ‘Boardroom Bowling Alley’ effect beautifully!

It uses an array of 7 microphones (mics) in a small stand/shelf with 2 cameras.  As people speak in the room, the mics calculate who is talking and they zoom in on that person.  If two people are discussing something back and forth, the mics pick this up and seamlessly shift the view from one person to the other.    The technology is also sophisticated enough that it compensates for reflections and other distortions of sound waves.  It only focuses on the active speaker.

The participants on the far side of the video conference are now immersed in the conversation as if they were in the room.  No more ‘Boardroom Bowling Alley’ effect.

Take a look at this Collaboration Video  to see a demonstration of the Polycom Eagle Eye II (6^th video on the webpage). 

Video conferencing is a rapidly growing technology and as a result of these kinds of breakthroughs, it is becoming more accessible and is maturing in richness and usability.

“It was really important to have the functionality to exhibit our industry best-practices and cutting edge capabilities to clients and stakeholders,” said Paul Gragtmans, a Partner at ET Group and the head of marketing. “Our new location at 29 Booth Avenue is conveniently located for senior executives to stop by for a demonstration; experiencing our solutions first-hand shortens the learning curve to adoption and demonstrates the limitless possibilities of collaboration technology.”

ET Group’s new space is exemplary because:

• It brings the best of all collaboration technologies together, integrated into a seamless solution that meets the company’s unique needs.  This same model is customizable for clients.
• It makes strategic use of room design and furniture with the available collaboration technology.
• A variety of workspaces have been optimized, for departmental collaboration, individual use, formal group meetings, impromptu brainstorming, video conferencing and more.
• It includes Internet connectivity for audio, video and whiteboarding technology.
• It seamlessly accommodates the changing ways in which people work.

ET Group is now located at 29 Booth Avenue in the vibrant Leslieville community, a trendy, people-friendly neighborhood that is fast becoming a Toronto gem.

“It was important to consider our clients’ collaboration technology needs in building this new space,” said Paul Gragtmans. “But it was just as important to accommodate our staff; the building is a retrofitted factory, with a beautiful loft space.  We also built showers so that members of our team can enjoy the nearby parks, running trails and waterfront during their lunch break and after work. “

For more information about ET Group’s collaboration technology solutions and their new location, contact sales@etgroup.ca.

CLICK HERE to check out ET Groups very own Dirk Propfe!

When you acquire a business, one of the things you are acquiring is the customer base, but there is always an opportunity to assess what you are selling and to whom and to determine your preferred business strategy. This created a great opportunity for ET Group to redo their web presence. The old website did not reflect the customers they wanted to serve and the solutions they wanted to sell.

There are many stages in the buying process and customers today want to educate themselves with many points of information online before they take a next step with a company. Allowing someone to download something, take a quiz, leave a comment or engage online  in a way that tells us where they are in the buying process, allows us to understand how to nurture that relationship online: Right down to the pages they look at, the time they spend on the site, where they came from and what pages they left from.

ET Group launched their new website and for the company, their Web Presence Journey is just beginning.

Find out more about ET Groups Journey and what they will be doing over the next six to eight weeks.
CLICK HERE!

The iPad is changing the mobility landscape. More mobile workers and corporate executives are making the iPad and other tablets their device of choice for mobile computing.

I must admit I was a little sceptical of using the iPad to replace my laptop, but without the need to create documents using desktop apps like Word, PPT and Excel, I find the iPad is light to handle, instantly ‘on’ and intuitively elegant in its user design.

But the real powerhouse iPad apps that I found for mobile collaboration really blew me away, not only in terms of how I can connect but how easily I can participate in active collaboration meetings.

Bridgit and VidyoMobile Apps

Enterprise employees often need to work connectedly and securely, so not just any app will do. SMART Bridgit from SMART Technologies and VidyoMobile from Vidyo are powerhouses in richness and usability. In part 1 of this blog I will talk about the Bridgit app.

Using Bridgit on my iPad, I can connect into meetings and actively participate very effectively. Bridgit lets me see exactly what is going on in the meeting, from whiteboard content to the screen of a PC using PowerPoint or any other application. Not only can I see what is going on, but I can actively join the discussion and annotate on the whiteboard or PowerPoint.

Collaborative Meeting from a Coffee Shop?

To give you a better feel for the power of this app, l will describe a collaborative meeting scenario. The meeting was called to review a section of the company website and make changes. Here is the meeting set-up:

• Meeting room with 8 people, 2 SMART boards (interactive whiteboards) at the front of the room, running off a PC
• 3 co-workers connected via their PC’s from various locations (desktop, home office, laptop)
• 1 road warrior (the dept manager) on his iPad, connected via Wi-Fi from a coffee shop
• Using the SMART Bridgit software to connect the room with all remote workers, as well as an audio bridge connection

The 2 SMART boards are sharing their content with the remote workers. One of the SMART boards is showing the company website page that is being reworked. The other is a whiteboard screen with 8 pages of notes, so far in the meeting.

Each of the remote workers, PCs and iPads, can annotate on either the website image or on the whiteboard screen with a click or touch, without having to ask for control. That is how many-to-many web conferencing works – powerful!

Any of the PCs connected to the meeting can choose to share their screen (whatever content is on the PC) with a simple click, and it will be seen on one of the SMART boards as well as the other PCs and the iPad. The iPad and PC users have the choice of viewing any of the 2 SMART screens or the shared PC screen as the main content window on their device. They can annotate, highlight or take control of the screen.

Back to the meeting …

The manager would like to look at some marketing data that just became available on their ERP system. He doesn’t have access from his iPad, but he can take control of one of the remote PCs that has access to the ERP system and he can navigate to the required report and then display it on one of the SMART boards in the meeting room. Wow!

Then, the manager wants to go back to page 5 of the whiteboard notes to add some further details based on data in the report. He simply clicks the icon of the 5th page on his iPad and it brings up as the current shared screen on one of the SMART boards and easily adds his notes.

Then he takes another sip of his latte in the coffee shop …

Bridgit on the iPad is a free app, but the company must have access to Bridgit web conferencing to join all the different participants as described in the scenario.

Check back for Part II – using the iPad for video conferencing.