FOSTERING EASIER, MORE PRODUCTIVE MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Transcription

1 FOSTERING EASIER, MORE PRODUCTIVE MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE A FIRST-OF-ITS KIND APPLIANCE TURNS MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION FROM A SPECIAL EVENT INTO AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE WORK DAY A MITEL WHITE PAPER

2 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...2 WHY IS COLLABORATION SO CRITICAL?...3 COLLABORATION IN THE NEW WORKPLACE...3 MAKE IT NATURAL THE COLLABORATION CHALLENGE...4 MITEL MIVOICE VIDEO UNIT: NEXT-GENERATION MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION...5 SPONTANEOUS COLLABORATION...6 SIMPLE COLLABORATION...6 COST-EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION...7 NO ADDED WORK FOR IT...7 FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS...7 COLLABORATION AS A NATURAL PART OF THE WORK DAY...8 ABOUT MITEL...9 The information conveyed in this document is confidential and proprietary to Mitel and is intended solely for Mitel employees and members of Mitel s reseller channel who specifically have a need to know this information. If you are not a Mitel employee or a Mitel authorizedpartner, you are not the intended recipient of this information. Please delete or return any related material. Mitel will enforce its right to protect its confidential and proprietary information and failure to comply with the foregoing may result in legal action against you or your company.

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Effective collaboration with co-workers, partners, customers, and others is critical for meeting an organization s goals and driving its productivity. And in a world where work groups are spread throughout a building, across a country, or around the world, fostering productive collaboration is more important and more challenging than ever. In response to customers who ve said give us a simpler, more spontaneous and cost-effective way to foster multimedia collaboration, Mitel developed a first-ofits-kind device that lets people do just that. Mitel MiVoice Video Unit is an all-in-one multimedia appliance that combines in-room presentation display and multi-party audio and visual collaboration for remote participants in a single unit that fits easily into the personal office meeting space. With the MiVoice Video Unit, collaboration becomes more spontaneous. Its intuitive touchscreen display makes starting and managing a collaboration session simple. It costs a fraction of what you d pay for a traditional solution. Deploying it is as simple as plugging in a phone. And the MiVoice Video Unit is SIP-compatible and standards-based, so it fits seamlessly into existing infrastructures. Mitel MiVoice Video Unit solves a range of multimedia collaboration challenges to make next-generation multimedia collaboration a natural part of any productive work day. MITEL WHITEPAPER 1

4 FOSTERING EASIER, MORE PRODUCTIVE MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE WHY IS COLLABORATION SO CRITICAL? [If] firms come into being in order to enable human beings to achieve collaboratively what they could not achieve alone then the main focus of executives attention should be on how to foster collaboration within their companies. Just about everything that gets done in an organization is the result of collaboration. Only by working together, by sharing knowledge and resources, and by building consensus about goals and how to achieve them can teams of workers accomplish what none of them could alone. Collaboration within an organization drives productivity and competitive advantage. Collaboration with partners extends those benefits across the enterprise. Collaboration with customers builds profitable relationships. In short, collaboration is a critical ingredient for achieving any organizational goal. This, combined with the changing nature of the workplace, makes it both more important and more challenging than ever to foster simpler, more spontaneous and productive ways to collaborate at work. COLLABORATION IN THE NEW WORKPLACE It s no secret that the traditional workplace is changing. The once centralized and homogeneous organization is becoming increasingly widespread and diverse all the time. The classic warren of beige cubicles in a single location has been replaced by offices across the country and around the globe, by remote workers in satellite locations, and by individuals teleworking from home offices. With all of these changes, it s not surprising that workers aren t what they used to be either. The evolving workplace calls for new ways of working, and the best workers are eager to embrace ways that will make their lives easier and help them be more productive. In particular, those entering the workforce the Millennials or Net Geners, whose skills and talents make them such a hot commodity are revolutionizing how work gets done. The collaboration and relationship generation, they grew up in an environment where spontaneous, technology-based collaboration is a normal part of life, making them natural collaborators with a need for speed. In a world where speed characterizes the flow of information among vast networks of people, communication with friends, colleagues, and superiors takes place faster than ever. And marketers and employers should realize that Net Geners expect the same quick communication from others. Net Geners bring a culture of collaboration with them to work, and they are comfortable using new online tools to communicate. This challenges organizations to provide the new tools that workers want and need to turn creative collaboration from a special event into a spontaneous and natural part of their work lives. MAKE IT NATURAL THE COLLABORATION CHALLENGE Bad collaboration is worse than no collaboration. People scuttle from meeting to meeting to coordinate work and share ideas, but far too little gets done. Recognizing the importance of collaboration, organizations invest in a range of tools and techniques to foster it. These include multimedia solutions that address the new workplace by enabling people in diverse locations to see and speak to one another, to share documents and presentations, and to interact almost as though they were in the same room. But while these solutions have their place in the organization s collaboration arsenal, they typically don t integrate multimedia collaboration into the natural flow of the work day. They don t enable the kind of spontaneous, any-time collaboration that people need to be their most productive. And they don t provide the intuitive and fast collaboration that the changing workforce is coming to expect. Instead, workers scuttle to meeting rooms to engage in scheduled, formal collaboration sessions that can be more disruptive than useful. To be sure, occasional centralized meetings are necessary. But they don t address the need for ad-hoc collaboration throughout the day. Something more is needed to make collaboration a normal part of a productive work day a next-generation tool that makes initiating and conducting 1 Morten T. Hansen and Nitin Nohria, How to Build Collaborative Advantage, MITSloan Management Review, Fall 2004, Vol. 46 No Don Tapscott, grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world, McGraw Hill, 2009, p Ibid., p Ibid., p Hansen, Morten ( ). Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results. Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition, Locations MITEL WHITEPAPER

5 multimedia collaboration as natural and easy as making a phone call. That is the challenge that companies tell us they are facing. And it s the challenge that we ve addressed with an innovative approach to multimedia collaboration called Mitel MiVoice Video Unit. MITEL MIVOICE VIDEO UNIT: NEXT-GENERATION MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION Mitel MiVoice Video Unit is a first-of-its kind multimedia collaboration device for the personal office meeting space. An all-in-one multimedia appliance, it meets the demand for easier, more spontaneous, more cost-effective collaboration by combining in-room presentation display and multi-party audio and visual collaboration for remote participants in a single, compact appliance. SPONTANEOUS COLLABORATION With MiVoice Video Unit in your office, you no longer need to book a busy, shared meeting room to initiate multimedia collaboration. Instead, it s as easy as making a phone call. Meetings become a whole lot simpler and more spontaneous. Whether you plan them in advance, or start them in response to emerging needs, collaborations become just another part of a productive work day. With MiVoice Video Unit you can quickly convert an inprogress phone call into a multimedia collaboration session that lets team members not only see and hear each other, but share documents and presentations. There s no need to send documents in advance or to interrupt productive activity to schedule collaboration it just happens when you need it to. SIMPLE COLLABORATION We developed the MiVoice Video Unit partly in response to customers asking us to make meetings and presentations simpler. You start a multi-party collaboration using the unit s high-resolution touchscreen to select collaborators from your corporate directory, and then to connect with them. You control presentations using the touchscreen as well, accessing the files you need by linking to a remote desktop, inserting a memory stick or card, or accessing Dropbox or Google Docs in the cloud. With MiVoice Video Unit, you don t lose time to administration. There s not much of a learning curve either, because intuitive icons on the touchscreen mean that even a novice can quickly understand and use the device. One of those icons is a wipe button that ensures security by With Mitel MiVoice Video Unit, starting a collaboration session is as simple as making a phone call. MITEL WHITEPAPER 3

6 FOSTERING EASIER, MORE PRODUCTIVE MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE MITEL MIVOICE VIDEO UNIT A first-of-its kind, cost-effective, all-in-one multimedia collaboration appliance Combines in-room presentation display and multi-party audio and visual collaboration for remote participants in a single unit Superior HD audio and HD video display Installation is as simple as plugging in a phone An intuitive, touchscreen interface makes it easy to use, even for a novice Open and standards-based for ready integration into existing infrastructures A fraction the cost of traditional meeting-room collaboration solutions completely removing sensitive content from the device when you ve finished a collaboration session. By promoting and simplifying collaboration, the MiVoice Video Unit helps workers, including eager Net Geners, to be productive and innovative. They spend less time scheduling and managing collaboration, and more time actually collaborating. Collaborative relationships within the organization and with partners and customers become a natural part of any day, seamlessly helping people to work together more effectively. COST-EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION At a fraction of the cost of typical meeting room multimedia solutions, MiVoice Video Unit is a remarkably cost-effective multimedia collaboration solution. The lower cost per unit makes for a much less expensive multimedia collaboration tool. With the same budget that would acquire only a single traditional multimedia set up, you can establish many collaboration points throughout your organization. It makes productivityboosting multimedia collaboration available to even smaller organizations without breaking their budgets. Because collaboration can take place more easily and spontaneously, it also reduces costs associated with travel. NO ADDED WORK FOR IT MiVoice Video Unit doesn t cut into the precious time of the IT department. Deploying it is as easy as plugging in a telephone. Out-of-the-box operability and ease of use make for minimal support and virtually no training requirements. The MiVoice Video Unit is an open, SIP-compatible, standards-based technology that fits seamlessly into existing infrastructures, leveraging Mitel and other PBX deployments and existing video solutions and computing environments. It accommodates multiple file transfer methods, including cloud access, USB Flash Drive, and Micro SD card. FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS The MiVoice Video Unit isn t just for personal office meeting spaces. It was designed for meeting rooms as well, and combines four-party audio conferencing with in-room presentation delivery not found in even more expensive conference phones. A 16-microphone array with patented Beamforming technology delivers crisp HD voice quality, 360-degree sound pickup, and advanced audio processing in any size meeting room. And its compatibility with existing infrastructures means that it integrates with Mitel and other PBX deployments, video solutions, and computing environments. COLLABORATION AS A NATURAL PART OF THE WORK DAY Mitel MiVoice Video Unit delivers what customers have been asking for a multimedia solution that simplifies collaboration and makes it a natural part of the work day. A one-of-a-kind multimedia collaboration device, the MiVoice Video Unit is ideal in offices and other shared spaces that you wouldn t normally equip with collaboration capabilities. It makes it easy to engage in the kind of spontaneous, ad hoc collaboration that increases productivity and drives innovation throughout the organization. To learn about the Mitel MiVoice Video Unit, download the MiVoice Video Unit Solution Overview at mitel.com/micollab. 4 MITEL WHITEPAPER

7 MITEL MIVOICE VIDEO UNIT SOLVES MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION CHALLENGES CHALLENGE Business-to-business visual collaboration is difficult Video conferencing user interfaces can be confusing, intimidating casual users Equipping multiple meeting rooms with traditional visual collaboration solutions is expensive MIVOICE VIDEO UNIT Deploying video is as simple as plugging in a phone Open and SIP compatible, it integrates with existing infrastructures Out-of-the-box operability Starting a multi-party collaboration is as easy as making a phone call Intuitive, touchscreen controls make it simple to operate, even for a novice Equip more personal office meeting spaces with multimedia collaboration capabilities at a lesser cost Less support required than with complex systems and to support user issues The MiVoice Video Unit also provides superior audio conferencing capabilities through its 16-microphone array combined with Mitel s patented Beamforming technology that delivers crisp HD voice quality, 360-degree sound pickup, and background noise suppression processing. MITEL WHITEPAPER 5

8 ABOUT MITEL Mitel (Nasdaq: MITL) is a global provider of business communications and collaboration software and services. Mitel s innovations make it easier to connect and collaborate, while reducing costs and implementation headaches. Market leaders like VMware and Research in Motion (RIM ) partner with Mitel to seamlessly integrate their solutions increasing value to customers. Mitel s Freedom Architecture provides the flexibility and simplicity required for today s dynamic work environment. Through a single cloud-ready software stream, Mitel delivers a powerful suite of advanced communications and collaboration capabilities that: provides freedom from walled garden architectures; enables organizations to implement best-of-breed solutions; extends the in-office experience anywhere, on any device; and offers a choice of commercial options to fit business needs. Mitel s solutions fit companies across the spectrum from single-location businesses to multinationals servicing customers through a network of over 1,600 value-added resellers and partners. MITEL SIMPLY COMMUNICATING GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS U.S. EMEA CALA ASIA PACIFIC Tel: +1(613) Fax: +1(613) Tel: +1(480) Fax: +1(480) Tel: +44(0) Fax: +44(0) Tel: +1(613) Fax: +1(613) Tel: +61(0) Fax: +61(0) mitel.com FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR WORLDWIDE OFFICE LOCATIONS, VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MITEL.COM/OFFICES THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED TO YOU FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. The information furnished in this document, believed by Mitel to be accurate as of the date of its publication, is subject to change without notice. Mitel assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions in this document and shall have no obligation to you as a result of having made this document available to you or based upon the information it contains. M MITEL (design) is a registered trademark of Mitel Networks Corporation. All other products and services are the registered trademarks of their respective holders. Copyright 2012, Mitel Networks Corporation. All Rights Reserved. GD1723_11813