Plantronics and virtual collaboration

"The modern work environment is changing and the pace of change is accelerating. Globalisation or even the simple need to do business or communicate effectively, quickly and efficiently remotely is no longer a nice-to-have, but is becoming a must-have in order to compete," says Duncan Barnes, Plantronics Lead for sub-Saharan Africa.

Coupled with the constant pressure to 'do more with less' and even to attract and retain good people by supporting a more healthy work-life balance through offering smarter working practices, it becomes apparent that the business needs to be supported with new collaboration tools and methods of working.

A full unified communications (UC) solution is often seen as the way to achieve the technology element, bringing together the four main elements of collaboration: voice, content sharing, IM/presence and conferencing (audio/video/Web), and for many organisations, this is so. However, a recent study of enterprises showed just under 50% had not implemented, piloted or planned to test a UC platform in the coming two years; the prospect appeared complex and cost burdened.

"However, the need to collaborate is still regarded as one of industry's chief priorities, according to ongoing research published by Gartner. Businesses are looking at ways of delivering the functionality from disparate vendors, identifying a best-of-breed solution," says Barnes.

So, what is virtual collaboration? The ability to recreate as closely as possible the experience of a team physically meeting to collaborate on a project or piece of work for a group dispersed in different locations.

Virtual collaboration, new tools, delivered on new devices, new applications and new ways of acquiring them, expanded UC platforms and new ways of thinking about working spaces and practices can all bring big productivity and efficiency gains.

Plantronics holds that any successful solution is built on three pillars, 'bricks, bytes and behaviour'. The building, the bricks, is more than a building and should be designed or laid out for maximum productivity, and should consider not just how many people it will accommodate, but the type of tasks they will do. This might involve silent contemplation areas, general office areas with acoustic damping panels and private meeting rooms.

The platform chosen, or indeed the platforms if taking a multi-vendor approach, needs to support working on multiple devices and from locations, some of them unmanaged. Soundscapes and noise pollution need to be managed to ensure the team sounds professional at all times. One element of the 'bytes' component is the headset; wireless to give the freedom to roam to a suitable spot, active and passive noise cancelling to take control of transmitted and environmental noise. Behaviour requires a cultural shift to understanding that work is what we do, not what we are, and collaborating virtually is a key element of success, often requiring training and tuning.

The better or more advanced the virtual collaboration framework is, the freer an organisation is to leverage these to stay competitive and gain advantage.

Plantronics, working with technology partners, is at the forefront of delivering a virtual collaboration environment to support a smarter working ethos.