{"id":2708,"date":"2016-04-06T21:26:56","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T04:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=2708"},"modified":"2016-04-06T21:26:56","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T04:26:56","slug":"time-for-a-small-business-virtual-meeting-dont-let-technology-hang-you-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/time-for-a-small-business-virtual-meeting-dont-let-technology-hang-you-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for a small business virtual meeting?  Don\u2019t let technology hang you up."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2684\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/EncorePro_510.jpg\" alt=\"EncorePro_510\" width=\"250\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/EncorePro_510-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/EncorePro_510.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>It\u2019s early Monday morning and you get a call from your small business customer that they would like to meet that afternoon to review the plans you sent over. You suggest a video conference since their office is well over an hour away by car. With today\u2019s video conferencing apps for desktop and even mobile devices &#8211;\u00a0 standalone or part of a Unified Communications platform &#8211; it will be easy to conduct the virtual meeting. In fact, you\u2019ll even be able to conference in the head of sales who is traveling and will be at the airport and have about an hour between flights to participate using his smartphone.<\/p>\n<p>Such is the nature of meetings today. You can be hundreds of miles from your team members or customers and still meet to accomplish most anything, although there are some times when it\u2019s absolutely essential to meet face to face. In fact, considering the impromptu nature of many meetings, some of them happen in the most unlikely of places. We asked Plantronics customers and associates \u201cwhere is the least professional place you\u2019ve ever taken a conference call.\u201d Not surprising, 20.5% indicated they took a call in a coffee shop and another 11.3% were on a plane. However just to show you really can be anywhere and have a meeting, other answers we received included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>9.6% sporting event<\/li>\n<li>9.1% working out<\/li>\n<li>8.4% party<\/li>\n<li>6.9% concert<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While it may be convenient to hold an audio or video conference\u00a0 wherever you are, there can be communication challenges. For starters, you may have to contend with background noise interfering with clear communications. And there can be connectivity issues, especially if you are conducting a softphone call or a video conference over a wireless network.<\/p>\n<p>In Plantronics <a href=\"https:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/smarter-meetings\/\"><em>The Better Meetings Blueprint<\/em><\/a>, we advise that there are several technology considerations for today\u2019s web enabled meetings. They include:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mobility:<\/strong> Among your small business team, the desire to use preferred personal mobile devices and apps known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Bring Your Own App (BYOA) is growing. Support your mobile users with a mobile strategy that outlines which mobile devices you support, what apps are needed for virtual meetings and how to provision security \u2013 set access privileges for your corporate data, for example \u2013 for each supported device.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sound:<\/strong> Mobile users can\u2019t be certain about the noise in their environment; yet good sound quality is paramount to a successful meeting, especially when all users are not present in one room. Noise-cancelling headsets can enable audio clarity among mobile users. Poor acoustics in a conference room also can be offset by noise-cancelling speakerphones.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Network capacity: <\/strong>Without a reliable connection \u2013 especially high-speed bandwidth to accommodate HD video and audio \u2013 you can\u2019t be certain about the productivity of your small business meeting. Ensure that your connection is reliable with minimal latency to maximize uptime across all video endpoints, conference bridges and firewalls. Advise remote users about best Wi-Fi practices to ensure they have the sufficient upload and download speeds to accommodate the demands of a web or video conferencing tool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Security:<\/strong> Make sure to have strict security protocols in place for data transmission and for accessing your small business information stored in the cloud.<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about Plantronics noise-cancelling headsets for your small business desktop and mobile devices to ensure successful meetings wherever you are at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/compatibility-guide\/\">http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/compatibility-guide\/.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It\u2019s early Monday morning and you get a call [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[569,1018,1296,1285],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}