Not so long ago, the prospect of real-time videoconferencing in the workplace was the stuff of dreams. The equipment was expensive, bandwidth wasn't what it needed to be, and employees were unprepared.
But over the last few years, all of those issues have changed, making videoconferencing a serious collaboration tool for companies with workers spread out across the globe. Why fly to Europe when you can dial someone up on your computer or smartphone? Best of all, new hardware makes it both easy and fairly cheap to pull off successfully.
Now that we have remote capabilities for our own Mingis on Tech video podcast, we sit down with Senior Features Editor Tracy Mayor (visiting from an undisclosed location) and Editor in Chief Scot Finnie to look at video conferencing's rise -- and some of the basic do's and don'ts for companies looking to try it out. (Don't plan on multi-tasking during a meeting if you're on camera; Do put on something other than sweat pants before you dial in.)
Then the tech trio moves onto the oft-discussed, not always understood, trend of digital transformation. It turns out that many companies think they're well down the road to transforming themselves, only to find out they're not.
What does it mean to transform your business digitally -- hint: it's more than having a website -- and who should be in charge? Finnie has some thoughts and Mayor gives us a sneak peek at some of insights that will be in an upcoming story on the topic.
In the meantime, here's help choosing some of the best technologies to help drive digital transformation and a look at how IT leaders can create the right culture to make that change happen. (Both videos will be shown at this month's Agenda 17 conference where, you guessed it, digital transformation will be a hot topic.)
For an audio podcast only, click play (or catch up on all episodes) below. Or you can now find us on iTunes, where you can download each episode and listen at your leisure.
Happy listening, and please, send feedback or suggestions for future topics to us. We'd love to hear from you.