Media Business Uegauree 2

Archive for the ‘The Business Connection’ Category

One of the most compelling cases for video conferencing technology has to be the reduction in travel costs.

Many businesses increasingly view travel as a drain on time and budgets. You can understand why when most business travellers admit that only half of the time spent on a business trip can be classed as productive working time. Not only could you reduce your business travel bills by up to 30%, but you could also improve employee productivity by cutting back on idle hours.

 

Allied to the reduction in travel time and costs is the environmental argument. Video conferencing uses little energy – no petrol, diesel or aviation fuel, only a few units of electricity. The technology can help the business reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact. To demonstrate the point, a UK environment minister gave a keynote speech at the Climate Change Conference in Sydney via video conferencing. This saved 60 hours of travel time and 6.2 tons of CO2 emissions.

 

Your business could benefit in other ways too. Video conferencing gives you the flexibility to hold ad-hoc meetings; you don’t have to plan weeks in advance. This flexibility could speed up decision-making and response times, which will also benefit your customers.

 

 

Why invest in video conferencing now?

In the past, video conferencing has had a bad reputation. It’s been seen as expensive, complex to implement and delivering low quality, jerky images. However, these arguments are losing ground as the technology rapidly evolves and affordable fast connections make high definition video conferencing a reality.

 

Traditionally, you would have needed an ISDN network for video conferencing, but today’s IP-based networks are fuelling an interest in converged voice, video and data communications. IP lends itself to cost-effective voice and video conferencing and has the added benefit of allowing users to collaborate on documents simultaneously. Cisco estimates that global IP traffic will increase fivefold over the next four years. The company also estimates that all forms of video traffic will make up 90% of global consumer IP traffic by 2013.

 

Video conferencing shopping list

There is a video conferencing system for every budget, ranging from personal desktop systems using low cost webcams, through to specialist video conferencing equipment designed for use in meeting rooms and other shared environments. However, the essential components of any video conferencing solution are camera, microphone, monitor, speaker and codec.

 

For most organisations, high definition video conferencing is the most readily available option and offers good quality on a limited budget (usually between £1,500 and £5,000).

 

Your next consideration should be the number of point to point video-enabling terminals or ‘endpoints’ needed. If you specify too few endpoints users could get frustrated that they do not have access to the technology. You need to balance the cost of the video conferencing equipment and services against convenient access to the network of endpoints.

 

Video infrastructure – a high definition video conferencing service may require an investment in additional network infrastructure, such as a dedicated line or circuit for each endpoint. Each session will demand connectivity of around 1Mbps for clear video and audio. Deploying high definition video on the enterprise network can cause problems; the network may not be able to handle real-time video, while video activity may compromise other enterprise tasks. The right media-ready network is vital to the delivery of business video applications.

 

Extra peripherals – you might also want to invest in additional peripheral devices to enhance the video conferencing experience; this could include high definition and wide-angle cameras, upgraded speakers and microphones. You may also want to connect your systems to DVDs, VCRs and document and multimedia applications via a PC.

 

Test the water with web conferencing

If there’s some resistance to investing in video conferencing solutions, one way of proving the benefit to the business may be to experiment with lower cost web conferencing solutions. These could not only demonstrate cost savings but also lead the way to more sophisticated technology.

 

Web conferencing allows your staff to share what’s on their desktop with people in other locations. Typically, this happens in conjunction with a phone call or audio conferencing session. Additional features include the ability to share documents and to work collaboratively on projects.

 

Why telepresence could be the next step for video conferencing

John Chambers, Cisco chief executive, has compared telepresence  to “Star Trek teleporting”. Telepresence offers ultra high resolution, which makes video conferencing an even more immersive experience. Spatial audio allows the transmission of every nuance of a conversation, while huge screens and high quality cameras capture every detail of an expression.

 

Fabulous as this sounds, telepresence remains an expensive technology to implement at present. It requires a high-bandwidth connection and a specifically designed room at each location.

Studies show that businesses lose as much as $70 million per day to a combination of internal and external theft. The retail industry is extremely vulnerable to shoplifting and employee theft. Some thirty to forty percent of inventory losses are attributed to employee theft, and more is lost to employee fraud. Commercial security systems offer various services to curb such losses among retail businesses in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

How exactly do these commercial security systems protect your retail business in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg?

Many retail stores use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on their merchandise. If any of such merchandise is brought out of the store unpaid, it will trigger alarms and alert the guards. This is one of the most effective deterrents against shoplifters.

Retailers should train their personnel well, though, to ensure that RFID tags are always removed before merchandise that has been paid for is wrapped at the counter. If a paying customer triggers the alarm while going out the shop because of employee negligence, this will create a negative backlash on the store. The customer will be humiliated and will, understandably, be very furious. Other customers in the shop will surely sympathize with the victim. In extreme cases this could even lead to a boycott. Security should not be implemented at the expense of customer service and relationships.

For insider theft, access control is provided to identify and record everyone entering and leaving the company premises at any time. This is used for employee entrances and exits. Access control prevents employees from entering the premises beyond their work hours. It also prevents other unauthorized entry. If any theft occurs overnight, for example, records from access control will show who went in and out of the premises between certain time periods.

Digital video surveillance will provide even more protection. With multiple digital surveillance cameras positioned strategically throughout the store and backend areas, you can have full 24 hour coverage and monitoring. All footages are recorded and archived. You can also monitor all cameras any time from anywhere in the world through a laptop with an internet connection.

All footages from digital video surveillance should be saved even if there seems to be nothing interesting going on. Seemingly routine scenarios may later prove to be valuable in establishing certain facts or patterns. Video documentation is extremely valuable.

Surveillance cameras focused on points of sale will catch instances of employee cash register theft and fraud. Surveillance cameras throughout the store will catch shoplifters. In the backroom, round the clock digital video surveillance will record inventory theft and pilferage. Digital video surveillance will positively identify the persons involved in the crime, whether employees or outsiders.

Sometimes the mere knowledge of the presence of digital video surveillance in a store and its backend areas is in itself enough of a deterrent for criminals.

All the security features mentioned are designed to work together in a comprehensive structure that is also linked to a 24 hour emergency response system. It can also be made to integrate with all other systems used in the store, such as temperature control, smoke alarms and fire alarms. This further strengthens the protection for your business.

There are so many commercial security systems to choose from. In deciding which company to hire, check for references among other retail establishments and businesses in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Establishments with high security needs like the 24-hour Anytime Fitness franchise, for example, would hire only the best commercial security system available. It might be a good idea to go with what has already been proven to be reliable and cost effective.

If you are running a business then an effectual and clear communication is vital for a successful business. Hence, selecting a right business phone is very important which sets up the communication among you and your business clients, staff and vendors directly. It has been proved that for the success of business whether it is of large, small and medium scale of enterprise, these systems plays great role and proved to be economical and valuable. Some companies consider the system to be complex but cannot ignore the convenience provided by it. Now, there are various service providers in the market that they are providing reasonable business phone answering machine.

Benefits of having a reliable answering service

It is simple to handle calls from anywhere and though you are out of from your office. With the help of business phone answering machine you can reduce your phone bills and only you have to pay reasonable monthly bill. Now, no need to spend hours in attending phone calls and you can focus on your business.

Well-organized Call managing Service 24/7

With an answering system your works get much easier and with no delay all incoming calls are answered by call answering machines. If nobody is there to attend phone calls then all incoming calls are attendant by auto responders with a professional way. Your call can be directed to your numbers directly if you are not in the office or you are somewhere else. There are many features you will get with answering machines and these are like: Call conferencing, Dial by name, Fax, Dial by extension etc.

The business phone systems are available in market in a wide range and you can choose the best plan at affordable rate for you. With its easy to use and quick responding features, you will have great benefit in your business.

You will get the features like:

Caller Id Call forwarding Auto attendant Recording of the calls Conference calls Multiple line capability Auto attendant Speaker phones Voice mail facility

 

To choose the best business phone you can browse internet and there you will get large information and you can compare features among many service providers. You can also have agents number who can guide you for selecting the right system.

Nowadays market is flooded with large collection of business answering machines and many providers are providing great discounts on their products. So, availing right answering machine for your business is not a big deal now. Only you have to choose the best suitable plan for you according to your business need.

We all know that voice plays a vital role for a successful business and whether it is easy PABX connectivity or a customized voice solution, you will get the best technology. At a very reasonable rate you will have a good automatic call responding machine and you can spend your valuable time for your business. Every successful business is having answering machine so consumers don’t get irritate of calling again and again.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++