Hybrid meetings are becoming an increasingly important part of running a successful workforce. Around 90% of companies are now embracing hybrid working methodologies in a post-pandemic era. With teams now working in a variety of environments, from the field to the office, and in a remote landscape, companies need to ensure they can meet, collaborate, and connect effectively.
Hybrid meeting room kits are intended to offer businesses the all-in-one solutions they need to empower effective teamwork in the hybrid space. These tools can effectively support the 78% of employees who believe they’re more productive when they have a choice of where they work.
The question is, how do you choose a kit for your hybrid meeting room? What sort of factors should business leaders be focusing on when examining packages? Let’s find out.
Step 1: Consider Software Preferences
Hybrid meeting room kits come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit different needs. One of the first things you’ll need to consider when choosing your hybrid meeting room kits, is if you have any preferences for the kind of software your employees will be used in these environments.
Many hybrid meeting room solutions can be designed to be ultimately software agnostic. This means anyone can “BYOM” (Bring your own meeting) to a physical space. Choosing an agnostic solution might be a good choice for companies that work with employees and contractors using a range of meeting room services.
However, if you already have a substantial investment in a meeting system, like Microsoft Teams, or Zoom, it might be worth looking for solutions specially designed for those environments. Vendor-focused meeting room kits can access everything from one-touch buttons for meetings to in-built intelligent assistants (like Microsoft Cortana for MS Teams kits).
Step 2: Consider Deployment Options
Next, you can start to think about various deployment requirements. Today’s companies offer a range of meeting room solutions, from small huddle room and single-person meeting room kits to large conference room solutions.
Think about who in your team will be using this meeting room technology, when, where, and why. Then explore what kind of choices your vendor can offer. It’s also worth looking at how easy it is to expand and enhance your meeting room when you want to add extra users or features.
In today’s hybrid world, you’ll need to think about things like zero-touch provisioning to set up your new technology as quickly as possible in any environment.
It may also be worth looking into new concepts for deployment, like “Meeting rooms as a service”, which allow you to purchase the technology you need for your hybrid rooms on a subscription basis. This could be an ideal solution for companies looking to update their tech. Consistently and regularly.
Step 3: Look at Functionality
Today’s hybrid meeting room kits can feature everything from intelligent assistants and sensors that track the number of users in a given room to immersive shared whiteboards. The exact functionality you need from your hybrid meeting room technology will depend on what kind of conversations you want to enable in your new workplace.
Think about how your employees will be working in the years to come. Are you using your meeting room kits to ensure that agile teams in the office can quickly and conveniently collaborate with external employees? If so, many collaborative features like whiteboards and even AI-enhanced cameras may be necessary.
Suppose you’re using your meeting room kits for shared presentations from various team members and training or event experiences. In that case, you may need to look into more advanced setups with several behind-the-scenes management and content sharing features.
Making a list of the essential features you need from your room kit will help you compare potential vendors like-for-like.
Step 4: Prioritise Simplicity and User Experience
One thing that makes hybrid meeting room kits so appealing in the new age of work is how simple they can be to set up and use. The right technology should allow anyone in your team to start or participate in a meeting without access to any IT support.
The majority of today’s hybrid room kits are plug-and-play devices with no complicated setup requirements. Many can come pre-installed with your teams’ software solutions: one-click buttons to help launch meetings instantly and one-click buttons to help launch meetings immediately.
For an excellent user experience, it’s also worth thinking about the safety of your employees when they’re using these room kits. Can you minimise the spread of germs and bacteria by choosing contactless devices and tools you can control with gestures and speech?
Are there any additional tools your meeting room technology included to help you track and manage employee safety, like temperature tracking cameras?
Step 5: Focus on Meeting Room Inclusivity
Hybrid meeting room kits are intended to help bring teams together regardless of where they are for the age of mixed working. As many companies have learned, it’s easy for remote and field workers to feel like second-class citizens in a flexible environment. They’re often moving to and from the office rapidly.
The best meeting room kits should have several tools to help bring your staff together. For instance, room kits built with Microsoft Teams can leverage eye-tracking and AI enhancements to help re-distribute meeting content and video streams so users feel like they’re connecting face-to-face.
Agile whiteboard applications that can connect to tools remote employees access on their smartphones and tablets make them feel more involved in the company conversation. To create a sense of equality, you can even look into getting webcams and microphones for your remote team members from the same vendors you get your meeting room kits from.
The demand for hybrid meeting rooms will only increase in the new work age. Make sure you know what to focus on when choosing your technology.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/VYu6ndJ
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