Video conferencing from the desktop allows remote workers to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, customers, partners, and prospective customers online instead of face-to-face. During a Web conference people share documents, work together and give presentations with the simple use of a web camera.
The conferencing device by WebEx means you don't have to invest in hardware or software to use it -- all you need is a phone and Internet connection. You can pay per use or subscribe monthly or yearly. And only the host has to be a subscriber, anybody else can attend a meeting once invited.
"Web meetings save time and travel costs, and make it much easier for employees to be part of the team when they work remotely. You can see them, talk with them, share information, work together on presentations and proposals and they can shout at you and you can shout back, and all in real time, live, and on the Web," says Kevin Mackin, managing director of WebEx Australia. "Remote workers can do sales demos, make customer presentations, train the team in the latest service, provide online technical support, run marketing seminars, and collaborate with colleagues, all on the Web."
Internet calling
Other businesses have found that voice over IP is becoming incredibly useful in allowing remote workers to contact customers and colleagues, but at much cheaper cost.
Last month Australian communications integrator NSC Group installed a voice over IP network linking the Australian (Melbourne and Sydney), Malaysian, Hong Kong and offices of the MYOB. One of the benefits of the system is that it is capable of routing customer calls throughout the network during peak business times. Streamlining to an IP telephony network has ensured cost-effective improvements to voice and data convergence, call centre services, and advanced applications across their network.
"The challenges demanded by infrastructure variations between countries requires business and technical expertise with a solution like NSC's to deliver a significant business benefit," says MYOB's Group IT Manager Duncan Mok. "The proposed IP implementation promised the reliability MYOB and its customers required."
Using an Avaya Interactive Voice Response software solution in the Melbourne offices, the system provided leading-edge customer identification and call-allocation to customers across the region allowing the company to promptly identify callers, their service needs, and current service subscription status. The system connects to a customer database and provides a contact structure for each of the company's Asia-Pacific offices that would otherwise be too costly on an office-by-office basis.
"Increasingly, technology upgrades are essential to attain business goals," says Duncan. "We realised that with customers working to time critical deadlines, IP telephony was a critical infrastructure to ensure that they received the necessary service levels."
Access all areas
Citrix is also providing a service to aid remote workers and all they need is a laptop and Internet connection to give them access to everything they need from work.
"I work from home two days a week, and have full access to all the applications in work," says Phil Montgomery, senior product manager for Citrix. "Our Metaframe Presentation Server centralises all applications and data, and allows you to access the information whenever you go on the Web. All of your client applications are run on the server, but it comes up on your screen and it detects your keyboard commands and mouse clicks. It's all SSL secured with two-factor authentication."
"While in a hotel room recently, all I did to access work was to dial into the Web, click on our server, type in my username, password, and RSA authentication to confirm my identity and that was me with access to everything that I would normally have at work.
"Citrix provides the infrastructure and then it's just a matter of publishing your information on the server. You can use any machine to do it. So if you have a Apple or Linux machine at home you can still log on and use the PC applications that you use at work. The other great thing about the system is that you can make it available to partners, clients, or customers and you can choose what that can get access to. You simply send them the secure ID, and the URL. And as everything is controlled centrally you have full control, which means nothing gets sent out."
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