Logicalis US to CIOs: Are You Ready for Next-Generation Meetings?

NEW YORK, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Any number of technical problems can interfere with the experience users have during a meeting that involves technology. From misaligned web conferencing bridges to missing remotes, monitors that won't turn on or malfunctioning overhead projectors – when people stop thinking about the business at hand and focus their time, energy and attention on the technology it takes to conduct or participate in the meeting itself, the siloed solutions they are using stop being effective collaboration tools and become stumbling blocks instead. According to Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), however, there are significant changes taking place in collaborative toolsets that will make next-generation meetings easier to conduct and join from any device, anywhere in the world, at any time – without the aid of an IT specialist – and at significantly reduced costs.

"There have been so many flavors of collaboration over the years – different manufacturers and product sets – some that worked, some that didn't. But none of them tied together personal rooms, audio and video, real-time annotation collaboration, smartboard capabilities, and even instant messaging in the way next-generation meeting solutions do today – particularly the way Cisco's Spark Board does," says Cory Rehfeldt, Director, Collaboration Practice, Logicalis US. "While Logicalis prides itself on being 'vendor neutral,' I feel confident in saying the collaborative experience is accelerating in this direction. There will be no more disparate legacy platforms for collaboration because, with this kind of next-generation platform, it's now possible to bring it all together in one place. It's fantastic to see all the pieces working together seamlessly. It's everything we've been watching this industry evolve into for the last two decades, and it's finally here."

Five Reasons to Adopt a Next-Generation Meeting Platform

1. Improves Ease of Use: In next-generation meetings, the hassle of connecting to remote colleagues or participating from another office will be eliminated. As meeting participants file into a connected meeting room, their mobile phones will instantly recognize the room's collaboration solution and offer them a prompt to push a single button for an automatic connection to a persistent, immersive experience that includes audio and video conferencing, instant messaging, smartboard-like interactive drawing and presentation capabilities. Next-generation meeting solutions will combine the functionality of all of an organization's previously employed disparate devices and roll them into a single easy-to-use experience at a lower price point.  For people who are less technically savvy, the ease-of-use inherent in these next-generation meeting platforms will eliminate the stress involved in making the technology work, leading to higher user adoption.
2. Lowers Cost: Many organizations have only one room outfitted with collaboration tools, forcing people to schedule meetings when the room is available rather than when they need to meet. Having multiple connected rooms from which to choose has been on many organizations' wish lists for some time, but with sophisticated collaboration solutions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement and maintain, the idea was often cost-prohibitive. Next-generation meeting solutions, however, are expected to reduce the typical investment for a collaborative meeting room by as much as ten times, which means businesses will be able to implement more collaborative workspaces and more affordable price points.
3. Bridges Generational Gaps: As millennials become the new consumer, it's critical for businesses to interact with them in the ways they find most appealing and comfortable – and that typically includes electronic modes of communication. So, in business-to-consumer settings, deploying more interactive next-generation meeting solutions will soon be both a business imperative and an affordable, easy-to-manage option that bridges the gap between Baby Boomers and millennials and reaches young consumers in a way that is both engaging and meaningful to them.
4. Advances Agility: In business-to-business settings, the ability to use a next-generation meeting solution improves the speed at which decisions can be made and work can be done.  Imagine the task of building a skyscraper, for example. How much faster would things progress if all stakeholders could attend every meeting, and if everything that was discussed, shared, changed or said was preserved indefinitely for anyone that needed to review it later?
5. Eliminates Size Barriers: Because next-generation meetings are easier to use and more cost-effective to deploy – and because anyone using Spark with a mobile phone or tablet can download the application free – it makes collaborative meetings between big businesses and small businesses more accessible, eliminating size as a barrier to working cohesively together.

Want to Learn More?

• Hear a webinar about next-generation meetings featuring Logicalis collaboration expert Cory Rehfeldt and Cisco's Head of Innovation & Strategy for Worldwide Collaboration, Mark Nash: http://ow.ly/LR0O309DDOx.
• Many organizations are undergoing a complete transformation of their communication and collaboration systems; find out more about Logicalis' capabilities and the ways Logicalis and Cisco can help: http://ow.ly/eGSs309DEKR.
• Read Logicalis' recent collaboration news as well as expert blog posts about collaboration here: http://ow.ly/MXcj309DFpa.

About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international multi-skilled solution provider providing digital enablement services to help customers harness digital technology and innovative services to deliver powerful business outcomes.

Our customers cross industries and geographical regions; our focus is to engage in the dynamics of our customers' vertical markets including financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, and to apply the skills of our 4,000 employees in modernizing key digital pillars, data center and cloud services, security and network infrastructure, workspace communications and collaboration, data and information strategies, and IT operation modernization.

We are the advocates for our customers for some of the world's leading technology companies including Cisco, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the AIM market of the LSE, with revenues of over $6.5 billion.

For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.

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Media contacts:
Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US
[email protected]
866-997-2424 x222
www.gocsg.com

Arthur Germain, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US
[email protected]  
866-997-2424 x101
www.gocsg.com

SOURCE Logicalis US

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