Modern businesses have a lot more room for flexibility than in the past, particularly in regard to meetings and where employees are working from. Remote work has become increasingly popular, leading to different options for meetings as well. With the inception of conferencing solutions, organizations have access to more dynamic tools to make the most of their meetings. Determining the best one for you, though, is not easy. We’ll help you make that choice in the simplest terms possible. Let’s look at some conferencing solutions for the modern business.
Your Conferencing Solutions to Consider
Ask yourself the following questions to determine which conferencing option is the best for your business.
- How many participants does a solution support?: Any conferencing solution should be able to accommodate the maximum number of users at any given time. Furthermore, scalability is important, as that maximum could easily change in the future. Depending on the size of your company, you may choose one over the other based on what the screen looks like when more users are added.
- How easy is it to use?: If the solution is overly complicated, it will get in the way of effective communication, especially if key users miss information. The mobile version should be equally as accessible. Most are very user friendly.
- How compatible is it with your current solutions?: If the solution you want to implement doesn’t play well with your current infrastructure, there is little reason to invest in it, unless you’re considering a complete overhaul. Making it work and having it work immediately are two very different things. We can help implement any conferencing tool you are looking to get involved in.
- What kind of meetings will you be having?: Depending on the types of meetings you’ll hold, your solution will vary. Whether it’s company-wide forums, in-person lectures, or webinars, you will need a solution that can handle your specific needs.
- What else does it need to do?: If you can reuse your communications solution for multiple purposes, it will be more valuable. For example, recording and screen sharing webinars will help you reuse the resource as often as you want in the future. If you aren’t sure you are taking all the necessary steps, we have some more tips below for good conferencing solutions.
How to Hold a Better Conference Call
Having the tools is one thing, but effectively using them is another entirely. Here are some pointers:
- Stick to the plan: Meetings are more effective when you go into them with a clear plan of action. With an agenda, you’ll be able to more effectively manage attendees and presenters. You can also time things so that certain topics don’t go too far over.
- Resist discussing everything: Meetings should have a laser focus. Not everything needs to be discussed in the same meeting. Furthermore, asking questions that don’t need to be asked in the first place creates discussion that doesn’t need to happen, and it leads to a waste of time for all those involved. If something is off topic, schedule another meeting for only those who need to discuss it.
- Don’t pack the meeting: That being said, not everyone needs to be in attendance; only those who are directly involved with the discussion should be there, as room constraints might become an issue. Plus, this will help to keep the conversation on task.
For help with all your conferencing solutions, Symmetric IT Group is here. To learn more, reach out to us at (813) 749-0895 and check out our managed it services page to see more information about how we can give your business the IT support it deserves.
