1 MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH MOBILE-OPTIMIZED COLLABORATION Whitepaper
2 Maximize Productivity through Mobile-Optimized Collaboration Taking care of business in the 21st century means tapping into the collective creativity of employees. Equipping the modern workforce with conferencing, communications and other collaboration software and services is driving businesses of all sizes to reach new levels of productivity. But why should teamwork take a hit when employees are away from the office? The reality is that today s collaboration tools are designed with the desktop in mind and impose severe productivity and usability limitations on participants using smartphones or tablets. To maximize end-user productivity, enterprises need to adopt effective and affordable real-time collaboration solutions and services that provide team members with the same capabilities and experience from the road as from the desktop.
3 Introduction The current thinking in corporate circles is that two heads or more are better than one. Many observers give credit to Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer for revitalizing the belief that employee interaction is a wellspring for innovation and inspiration. In a leaked memo to employees from 2013, Mayer famously discontinued the company s work-from-home policies, citing that employees should be working side-by-side and that some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Many organizations, embracing the spirit of Mayer s edict if not the letter, have invested in collaboration software and services to facilitate employee interactions regardless of physical location. In fact, the projected compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of the collaboration application market from 2011 through 2017 is nearly 18.5%, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics, which defines the product category as Web Conferencing. The analyst firm projects the market will exceed $4.7 billion globally in 2017. Despite the popularity of these solutions, thousands of businesses are missing out on opportunities to increase employee productivity. That s because the desktop-centric nature of today s conferencing and collaboration solutions severely limit or even exclude the participation of employees using smartphones, tablets or other mobile appliances. For many enterprises, these limitations prevent mobile workers from collaborating with colleagues in an easy, reliable and cost-effective way. In a mobile-first era, excluding employees from collaborative work sessions could negatively impact your business s profitability and competitive standing. An August 2013 report from Gartner Inc., Mobile Collaboration will Drive Innovation in your Workplace, asserts that anytime access to corporate collaboration sessions through mobile devices is a key business enabler. In any organization, by enabling individuals such as board-level executives to participate in virtual meetings from a smart device, irrespective of time and location, organizations can improve anticipating, real-time contributions, decision making and speed to execute with more efficiency, says the report. Consider the responsiveness and effectiveness of a lawyer who is able to convene a collaboration session to discuss recently revealed evidence from a client s office or the courthouse. A single trial lawyer, equipped with a smartphone or tablet, would have instant access to the collective experience of her firm s entire legal team when required. Then there s the global sales manager, who can now interact with regional leaders from the airport using only his smartphone to get last-minute updates prior to addressing the board of directors. Whether it s comedy, sports or even maximizing the productivity of your workforce, timing is everything. Mobile devices are becoming the communications and computing platforms of choice for more and more employees. But the current shortage of affordable, reliable and fully functional collaboration tools for this expanding segment of the workforce is forcing businesses of all sizes to miss out on a potentially potent source of productivity and cost savings. The remainder of this document examines the shortcomings of existing collaboration solutions and services and summarizes the features and capabilities required to put mobile workers on the same productivity plain as their office-bound colleagues. The analyst firm projects the market will exceed $4.7 BN globally in 2017.
4 Shortcomings of Current Collaboration Tools Most collaboration tools are designed for the desktop. The few platforms compatible with mobile devices deliver crippled functionality and a poor user experience. Four of the most common shortcomings of these solutions, which impact both end users and IT, are summarized below: Joining Navigating a multi-step interface can be difficult for end users on the go. Mobile users are often required to dedicate a significant portion of their attention to outside-the-office environmental conditions. Simple or no-hands access to real-time collaboration sessions is imperative for both safety reasons and to ensure maximum participation. Cost IT budgets are under intense scrutiny and the high costs of today s mobile collaboration solutions can restrict usage to a small subset of the workforce. The pricey per-user costs of many popular collaboration tools prevent IT from getting online collaboration tools into the hands of knowledgable workers who are spending increasing amounts of time on the road. Scheduling Tough-to-navigate interfaces make it difficult for mobile workers to schedule meetings from a smartphone or tablet. Sales and other employees frequently need to convene online meetings from the road or to share a document or presentation. Unfriendly user interfaces, common among online meeting tools, often mean that essential participants are inadvertently excluded from collaboration sessions. One of the most frequent laments of workers who participated in a BlackBerry commission survey about collaborative work tools was the inability to easily schedule, present at and attend meetings from a mobile device. I wish I could access the conference directly and completely from mobile, said one participant. I hate being tied to my desk when I don t have to be. Functionality The productivity capabilities of desktop collaboration tools, such as document and whiteboard annotation, are often unavailable to smartphone and tablet users. To maximize productivity, mobile workers require the same collaborative capabilities as their desktop-equipped counterparts. Online meeting attendees on smartphones or tablets often characterize their level of participation as second class. I want to be able to present from my mobile device with a PPT, KeyNote or PDF, offered one survey participant. Most solutions don t support all these file formats well. Organizations are incurring additional costs as a result of the mobile-oriented shortcomings of current collaboration solutions and services. When a single attendee misses or is late for an online meeting due to one of the above issues, productivity losses are multiplied by the number of participants. While a minute wasted here or there seems trivial, the bottom-line impact can be significant for businesses that rely heavily on electronic collaboration. A company, for example, that conducts five meetings a day, each involving five employees, will lose 6.25 hours of productivity a week if every meeting is delayed by an average of three minutes. The time is money mandate of all businesses really takes a hit when you place a price tag on lost opportunities. An architectural firm, for example, is likely to lose future business if representatives at a client s construction site are unable to solve building-halting problems without returning to the office to confer with colleagues or are unable to make changes to blueprints or other relevant documents from their smartphones or tablets.
5 Optimize Mobile Collaboration With employees doing more work on the go than ever before, businesses require collaboration solutions optimized for mobile environments. But not all solutions are the same. Tools that empower workers to maximize productivity through collaboration even when away from the office should include the following capabilities: Integrated Functionality Communications is an essential component of workforce collaboration. It only makes sense, then, to integrate collaboration functionality, including voice and video conferencing and document sharing, with familiar and easy-to-use messaging tools. Instead of launching a new app to convene or join a meeting, employees should be able to escalate a messaging session into a full-blown collaboration with a colleague or group of colleagues. Consolidating communications and collaboration also reduces administrative overhead. IT and end users appreciate the convenience of a single address book and the minimal amount of training required to get up to speed on a new productivity tool built upon a familiar interface. Simple Operation Joining an online meeting, especially outside of the office, should be as easy as answering your phone. In fact, the ideal mobile collaboration solution should recognize when a participant is on a mobile device and issue a call to initiate the collaboration session. Jumping between screens to find a passcode, which must be manually entered along with a PIN, just isn t practical or even safe from many outside-the-office environments. A mobile-oriented collaboration experience is intuitive and one that doesn t make an on-the-go employee jump through hoops to collaborate with co-workers, suppliers or partners.
6 Participant Parity Gone are the days of treating mobile workers as second-class corporate citizens. Joining a meeting from a mobile device shouldn t mean surrendering functionality that limits an employee s ability to present and participate. Enterprises should adopt a collaboration solution where all participants are equal. From a desktop or smartphone, all participants should be able to show a screen, deliver a presentation, share a document, annotate and whiteboard. Affordability Enterprises in the market for a full-featured collaboration solution should keep in mind that the most costly solutions don t necessarily offer the best value. A solution that delivers a superior mobile experience but is cost efficient enough to justify companywide distribution should be your target. Added value options for enterprise purchasers include bundled-in support and cloud-based deployment models that free IT from purchasing and maintaining additional infrastructure. User-Centric Employees routinely communicate and access company resources through a number of devices. A modernized, mobilefirst collaboration service should empower as many as 25 employees or partners to participate in online meetings and other collaboration sessions at any time, from any place and using any device. It s also imperative for end users to enjoy a similar experience across any device smartphone, tablet or laptop they are currently using. Cashing in on Collaboration User Benefits Full participation from mobile device More meaningful collaboration on the go IT Benefits Improved relationship with end users Fewer support issues Cloud-based collaboration solutions optimized for mobile employees deliver benefits to end users and IT. Increased productivity Single management console Faster response time and decision making No infrastructure to purchase or maintain
7 Conclusion The benefits of real-time interaction and collaboration are undeniable. In addition to sparking innovation and creativity, online meeting and collaboration software and services that enable workers to set up impromptu meetings and share information electronically can increase productivity and decision making, boosting the competitive standing of your organization. Unfortunately, today s collaboration tools typically deliver a second-class experience to employees with mobile devices. Workers on the go are plagued by usability issues, including difficulties scheduling and joining meetings. Features and functions, such as document sharing or annotation, are also often unavailable to smartphone or tablet users. To overcome these challenges and exploit the full potential of enterprise mobility, enterprises should adopt affordable mobile-oriented conferencing and collaboration solutions capable of delivering the same collaborative experience from mobile devices as from the desktop. BlackBerry Difference To address the mobile shortcomings of today s collaboration solutions, BlackBerry introduced BBM Meetings, a secure and full-featured mobile voice and video collaboration experience based on the company s popular and multi-platform messaging service. In addition to usability issues, many collaboration solutions and services come with hefty per-user subscription fees, which limit their distribution across the workforce. They also impose burdens on IT related to end-user training, support services and requirements to purchase and maintain dedicated hardware. Without the ability for workers to easily schedule and participate in meaningful collaboration sessions while on the go, enterprises are incurring financial losses associated with productivity declines and missed business opportunities. BBM Meetings makes it easy to turn any BBM chat, multi-person chat, group chat or voice call into a live BBM meeting with a simple touch of a button. BBM Meetings lets you take back time lost to slow-starting meetings because attendees are struggling with conference IDs, passcodes and PINs. BBM Meetings allows you to join a collaboration session just by answering a voice call. blackberry.com/bbmmeetings And with BBM Meetings all participants are created equal, so you can present from any device, show your screen, deliver a presentation, share a document, annotate and whiteboard all from your mobile device or desktop. BBM Meetings provides HD video and voice conferencing for up to 25 participants. You can also view the speaker full screen or swipe through a gallery of attendees. $12.50 With all the standard meeting features plus innovative new mobile experiences, and award winning BlackBerry Technical Support Services included, BBM Meetings offers superior value with subscriptions starting at just $12.50 per host per month.
8 To find out more and to sign up for a free 60-day BES12 trial, head to blackberry.com/enterprise For more information, visit blackberry.com/bbmmeetings wios is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. ios is used under license by Apple Inc. Apple Inc does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this brochure. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this brochure. 2014 BlackBerry. All rights reserved. BlackBerry, BBM and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.