Work Smarter with GENBAND’s Smart Office Solution

The pace of business is constantly accelerating, making it increasingly difficult to keep up with the demand of a mobile workplace. Businesses are forced to adapt new technologies to meet the demands to collaborate with their employees and clients more effectively from anywhere, on any device. And while consumer-based services may seem like a quick and easy fix for productivity and collaboration challenges in the workplace, they lack important qualities when it comes to delivering business solutions such as consistency, management, and security.

With over 80 percent of North American telco traffic passing through their solutions, GENBAND has capitalized on the market to introduce a Unified Communication (UC) solution that is both collaborative and cost-efficient.

GENBAND’s Smart Office solution is a UC solution that is designed for a mobile office. This new solution, which is scheduled to be released early April, allows you to have a face-to-face conversation with clients and colleagues from anywhere. It transforms the way employees interact in the workplace while simultaneously providing security and consistency. Smart Office works on multiple devices such as a desktop, a smartphone, a tablet, or a WebRTC enabled browser; and allows businesses to simplify their communication experience by making them more accessible and productive.

Smart Office Provides a Suite of Solutions for Businesses

Smart Office provides a host of rich user experiences delivered by a single client without the complexity and expense of purchasing multiple collaborative tools. It integrates voice, multi-party video, presence, messaging, and collaboration into one solution. It also addresses the expense of IT services and travel including lost productivity. Here are some ways Smart Office can help organizations become more productive:

Source: GENBAND

Clients

Users can choose the right clients for the way they work. It works across multiple platforms including PC, Mac, iOS and Android as well as WebRTC. You can manage instant messages, presence, group chat, voice, video and screen share from a single or multiple devices. Additionally, users can connect to a global enterprise directory connecting them to the entire organization from anywhere.

Voice and Video Conferencing

Skip the elaborate setup of dedicated video conferencing rooms. Close deals and resolve issues right away — Smart Office provides you with a web-based multi-party solution that is as easy to use as clicking on a URL.

You do not have to have Smart Office to join a collaboration.

Screen Sharing

Easily escalate a call or video conference into a full-blown interactive sharing session in seconds. Share desktop content to small or large audiences.  Other solutions, like Skype, only allow participants to share one screen at a time. With Smart Office you can simultaneously share screens with as many people while maintaining full control over the collaboration experience.

Call Grabber

Seamlessly grab a live call and move it from one device to another (and back again) without interruption. If you’ve got to run, there’s no need to wait in the office for a call to end – grab it from a smartphone or regular mobile phone and take the call with you.

Intelligent Messaging 

Intelligent messaging delivers important messages even when users are on the go. Smart Office has a feature-rich voicemail service with visual messaging that can be accessed from a mobile application, web browser, desk phone, or email.

The Smart Office Advantage

Other consumer-based services require you to download their software and add a contact before you can start a collaboration with your peers or clients —causing delays and introducing potential technical issues. Not the best scenario when you are trying to have a business-critical conversation.

…there is no capital expenditure or hidden costs.

With Smart Office, however, you can skip the “download and add a contact” process. Users can connect to their personal collaboration room and invite participants using their personal link through email or a meeting invite. There is no special software or application needed to use the solution. To connect to a Smart Office collaboration room, all you need is an internet connection and a web browser.

As the moderator of a meeting; you are in control. It’s easy to share anyone’s desktop, mute an annoying co-worker, or turn off someone’s camera. You can invite as many people as you want, and even lock the room to prevent anyone from entering an important discussion. Additionally, you can allow a conference to continue without you being there.

System Requirements

Source: GENBAND

Greg Zweig, Director of Solutions Marketing at GENBAND says, the most important thing [he] appreciates about Smart Office is the fact that you don’t have to do anything special to get connected. The Smart Office solution uses Scalable Video Codec (SVC) technology, which optimizes the video quality for each user based on the available bandwidth. This ensures that each participant has the best experience possible. And since Smart Office is browser web-based, the system requirements are less of an issue. The application works on Windows and Mac OS, as wells as iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Additionally, you can connect through any major web browser including Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. The advantage of Smart Office is you do not have to have Smart Office to join a collaboration. All you have to do is log on to your computer or smartphone, access the link and go.

Cost Saving

Pay-per-seat

Organizations can easily add this feature as needed. Sold on a per-seat basis, there is no capital expenditure or hidden costs. Organizations have the option of getting screen share only or screen share with multi-party audio and video.

Delivered over the internet

There is no special requirements to use Smart Office. It is delivered over the Internet and allows anyone to connect on via desktop, smartphone, or tablet.

Highly-flexible

Easily move from a remote office or the road to your main office without having to reconfigure you clients. You can also leverage the full feature set of Smart Office on your smartphone or tablet — make the Smart Office solution highly portable.

Lower travel expense

Smart Office will not only improve business productivity, it also helps eliminate unnecessary travel. With the Smart Office solution users can cut down traveling time required to see a client or commute across the country for a meeting.

Real-time Discussions are Easier with Smart Office

Source: GENBAND

Smart Office makes it easy for people to do business together. Talking to someone face-to-face, even virtually, provides a richer conversation than just talking over the phone. Seeing body language and facial expressions is critical to effective communication — Smart Office bridges the gap allowing users to have more productive conversations.

“I’m a serial teleworker,” says Garth Leach, Sr. Manager of Solutions Marketing at GENBAND. “[Smart Office] makes me actually feel like I’m part of the organization because I’m talking face-to-face all the time.”

Connecting over the phone can seem disconnected at times. However, with this solution, you have the ability to connect face-to-face with colleagues and clients, creating a more personable experience. Smart Office makes it easier to share your ideas in real-time and since it is so easy to use you are more likely to have Smart Office sessions more often than picking up the phone.

Smart Office collaboration can be used to enhance your productivity of meetings, provide online training, customer webinars or any other activity that can benefit from real-time video and content sharing. It provides a better experience, it’s simple to manage, less expensive to deploy and, easy to collaborate on any device. Anyone who has a monitor and keyboard or a smartphone can use this solution. Best of all, your office moves with you.