Polycom celebrates UK National Work from Home Day (15 May 2008) with Smart SOHO Technology including Polycom’s Video Border Proxy and 10 Tips for Smarter Working in General.

As 15 May 2008 is UK National Work from Home Day, Polycom has released some interesting results from their UK ‘congested lives’ survey:

• 67% of office professionals travel at least once a week for work-related meetings but
• 82% of them thought they are unnecessary
• 38% of people in the UK spends two hours or more commuting each day and nearly half find commuting more stressful today
• 52% of people feel they would be happier if they could spend less time travelling to work
• 57% would be happier if their employer gave them the flexibility and equipment to work from home

Polycom offers a portfolio of visual communications solutions that deliver enterprise-class level communications to small office and home office environments (SoHo). Polycom recommends this Smart technology for working from home:

• Broadband connection with firewall for secure voice, video and data traffic
• Polycom VoiceStation 500, small office conference phone enables great hands free, echo free, calling and Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone and PC
• Polycom PVX Video Conferencing software and webcam for face to face calling and PC content datasharing
• Polycom’s Video Border Proxy (VBP) with combined NAT/Firewall traversal, wired and wireless routing and bandwidth capability to dramatically improve the quality of your collaborative visual/voice communications between different organisations and networks

Here are some of Polycom’s 10 Tips for Smarter Working in General:

New communication and collaboration technologies allow the development of new working practices. Polycom technology has enabled thousands of organisations to work smarter, but the real benefits arise when the organisation fosters a culture of collaboration and takes proactive steps to help employees benefit from more flexible working practices.

2. Don’t waste time travelling unnecessarily to meetings you can do from your desk
Many meetings don’t need to happen face-to-face. Instead, join the meeting by audio or video conference and save the dead time caused by travelling.

6. Meet NOW! – don’t wait until the moment is past
Progressive companies are nudging employees away from the pattern of sending emails or leaving voicemails and awaiting a response. This pattern often turns interactions that could be completed in minutes into dialogues that may last a week or more ... So rather than arrange a meeting next week, enable employees to connect with each other in real-time so that ideas can fly and team members can concurrently make better, quicker decisions.

9. Give your boss ‘The Culture of Collaboration’ – a book to make your life easier!
Not every company experiences the benefits of smarter communication immediately. So learn from the likes of Boeing, Toyota, Proctor and Gamble, The Dow Chemical Company and others. These are forward looking organizations that have created a strategy around collaboration and many are Polycom customers. Polycom has 10 copies of Evan Rosen’s book (published January 2007) to give away - just email enquiries@polycom.com for your chance to win.

10. Reduce your impact on the environment – and work smarter at the same time
Eliminate one long haul flight from your schedule; it is equivalent to taking the average car off the road for a year in eliminated carbon emissions. The latest High Definition Video Conferencing solutions enable virtually any meeting to be conducted remotely without loss of communication clarity and quality. It’s worth taking a look.