A long time ago, web meetings were created to augment face-to-face meetings. They were yet another tool technology was offering to bring us closer. Then, the economy crashed and web meetings became the only way to get close to anyone, be it your colleagues, partners, customers or prospects. This technology, created to be an aid to interpersonal communications, became the whole shebang. And, frankly, it just doesn’t work.
Think of it. Have you ever had a web meeting that was actually satisfying? Or even actually worked? Traditional web meetings have a horrible track record and a bad reputation, which is unfortunately well deserved. But you know all this. Enough with the problems. What about the solution?
We wish the simple solution was to double that travel budget of yours, but that sure isn’t happening anytime soon. So, instead, here are the top three pitfalls of traditional web meetings and some ways around them:
1) It’s The Download, Stupid: Let’s face it, most of the reasons why web meetings don’t work is that they aren’t really, simple web solutions. They require downloads. In this day and age, no one should have software sitting on their computer. Say no to downloads, say yes to the cloud.
2) Roam Where You Want To: The whole idea of the mobile office is to be mobile. It is ironic that in this time of virtual everything, people would be tied to their desks to have a meeting. Think of it, when you meet people in person, you aren’t always stuck in the board room. So, find a solution that works on any device and get out there.
3) A Little More Conversation: Traditional web meetings are all lecture, little conversation. You don’t actually share anything, unless it’s those awkward glimpses at someone’s mailboxes or an unfortunately timed IM from the presenter’s boyfriend. There is a whole new world of interpersonal relationships out there in cyberspace, people! It’s called co-browsing and it will let you take people with you to find what they need and even to fill out online forms (like purchase orders—you get where we are going with this!). Now, this is what web meetings should be about!
So, long story short, there is hope out there! So clear your hard drive of any of those dinosaur web meeting solutions you might have, and start anew! You’ll be glad you did…although we’ll all kind of miss those awkward glimpses into our co-workers’ email! Hey, we’re only human after all!
There are certain terms that have become passé in the tech space, words that have lost all meaning in their over-use, words such as best-of-breed or cutting-edge (or our personal favorite, bleeding-edge, whatever the heck that is). But a few years ago would you ever imagine that an innocent term like collaboration could become so loaded?
In today’s world of all things social, collaboration has started to signify everything from editing photo books as a group to creating budgets as a team. Everyone and their brother claims they have a solution that will let you work together in ways never before dreamed possible.
Consider this definition from Wikipedia:
“Due to the complexity of today’s business environment, collaboration in technology encompasses a broad range of tools that enable groups of people to work together including social networking, instant messaging, team spaces, web sharing, audio conferencing, video, and telephony. Broadly defined, any technology that facilitates linking of two or more humans to work together can be considered a collaborative tool. Wikipedia, Blogs, even Twitter are collaborative tools. Many large companies are developing enterprise collaboration strategies and standardizing on a collaboration platform to allow their employees, customers and partners to intelligently connect and interact.”
If everything from Wikipedia itself to Twitter are collaborative tools, how can you possibly decide what tool is best for your business? Well, we at YouDazzle wanted to offer some simple criteria: present and share, keep your information central and accessible on all your devices.
How can you apply this to your business in a simple way? Deploy a simple solution that combines web meetings, screen sharing and online file sharing:
Present and share—creating Cloud-based data rooms where you can share files is a simple, organized way that you can present information and see what people are viewing when, accessing analytics that will help you give your partners, colleagues and customers what they need to best do their jobs. Add to this a web meeting solution that doesn’t require any downloads or other fuss, as well as some co-browsing features and you have an easy way to communicate, present and share.
Keep it centralized—having an online space where you can store all of your files in an orderly way, including tracking revisions, makes all the difference in the world. Forget about complicated platforms as they just mean more IT support headaches and endless passwords, create a branded data room that can build your image while controlling your content.
Accessible—having that online data room means that you can share documents, track projects and involve people as needed all from one simple place. Best of all, with a Cloud-based solution you are fully mobile, you can accomplish collaboration from anywhere, meaning you have way more options than ever before.
See, once you get past the hype, not everything has to be coined “collaboration .” After all, people are looking for an easy way to share and present information without all the complexities. And if that isn’t best-of-breed, I just don’t know what is!
2012 is looking to be a great year as we have some exciting news to share! We have been chosen by PCMag.com to be featured in their “25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012”. PCMag.com has chosen their 25 favorite apps ranging from cloud services to financial services and everything in between. What they have in common is the ability to enhance, grow and improve the success of your business. YouDazzle is ecstatic to be apart of such a great list. YouDazzle has been working hard to provide you with the tools you need to grow your business through affordable online file sharing, easy web meetings, seamless integration with Dropbox and a professional way to present your company through custom branding. With 2012 off to a great start we will be continuing to provide you great service and great features to help you succeed! Check out the article at www.pcmag.com Do you use any of the apps on the list? If not, then what are you waiting for? Get started today!
So, you use Dropbox regularly to sync files with your colleagues and peers across all of your devices, right?
But, wouldn’t it be great to be able to extend Dropbox capabilities with features like:
Customized Dropbox folders with your own branding
Instantly share Dropbox files via web meetings without any downloads
Add comments to your Dropbox files
Or view who’s been accessing your files
Well if you’ve answered yes to any of these questions; then we have some exciting news for you, now you can! YouDazzle has integrated with Dropbox to bring a richer experience!
Now it is easier then ever to offer a professional experience that is second to none! Need to upload your files to your YouDazzle account? With the Dropbox integration there are more ways then one now! Hate lengthy downloads to conduct web meetings and share files? That’s a thing of the past now! With YouDazzle you can easily be conducting a web meeting and simply drag and drop a file into your Dropbox for a seamless flow. Need to ensure your files can be accessed from anywhere in a safe and secure manner? Now you can access your files in more ways then one! You can access your files through your mobile browser or through your Dropbox app.
Businesses are defined by borders – cube walls, office walls, building walls, even fire walls. We put walls around everything. And each time you hit one of these walls, you encounter friction; you get stopped. There is always a new app or site to launch, always a new password to enter, always one more thing to click.
Think about it. To access the information you need to get your job done might take 5 clicks, 5 separate steps. Imagine if 5 clicks became 2 clicks became one click became no clicks. This is the new frontier: frictionless access and sharing of information, the ability to access and share information at any time, any place and any device.
Today’s technology is giving us the opportunity to become frictionless, to share online easier than we ever could offline. In the cloud, on the Web, there’s no distance to slow us down, no custom infrastructure we have to build, no paperwork to get lost. We can make connections, harness resources and start interacting without ever having to wait for physical stuff to happen first. This on-demand access to information and resources has already transformed long-established industries such as bookselling, classified advertising and music publishing.
We have started to do this with the new Facebook. Up until now, sharing on the social Web has largely been a manual process. You click a Facebook “Like” button, you click the “Check in” button in Foursquare, and you click a button to “Re-Tweet” something. With Facebook’s frictionless sharing, once you approve a media partner app, all of your activity—be it reading, listening or watching– in that app is automatically shared to Facebook. No need to click any buttons.
And, as often happens today, what is happening in our online social networks has resonance for our businesses. Indeed, many of the ingredients of frictionless access have come together to create the modern online subscription business model. A pay-as-you-go service like ZipCar would not be economic without smart devices, self-service web pages, a distributed workforce, real-time information updates and a cost-effective cloud infrastructure for automatically processing bills and payments. With all of those ingredients in place, many innovative new businesses become possible across a swathe of industries, all building on the game-changing foundations of being frictionless.
The successful modern business is one that is not fixed in place, contained within its own walls. It has to transcend physical walls and boundaries, harnessing the cloud to share information, coordinate resources and interact with customers, prospects and partners wherever they are. The new paradigm is not only flexible but frictionless.
