Homes By Avi adds a human element to corporate communications 3/9/2005
Dave Senf, program manager of IT/Business Enablement Advisory Service at IDC Canada Ltd. in Toronto said collaboration tools are an important part of business strategies for corporations to increase employee productivity. He said mobile workers and individuals who work from home need new ways to keep in touch and share information faster with the head office. People will rely more on technologies like IM and videoconferencing to stay connected, and Microsoft’s work around collaboration will facilitate this, he said.
Allstream Inc. announced today that it will be adding Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Office Communicator and Microsoft Office Live Communicator to its suite of hosted collaboration offerings, dubbed Allstream Collaboration Suite. The service includes hosted Microsoft Exchange, Hosted Microsoft Sharepoint Services, journaling and archiving, antivirus, anti-spam, information rights management and enterprise BlackBerry services.
Homes by Avi, has been using Allstream’s Collaboration Suite for the past month. Darren Soltes, vice-president of business development at Avi said features like ad-hoc videoconferencing have really put the human element back into corporate communications. “We noticed a lack of the human touch. We send e-mails, leave voicemails but avoid human contact because it’s not efficient,” he said.
He said two main advantages to Allstream’s Collaboration Suite have been introducing IM to Avi and the ability to engage in face-to-face meetings with remote staff members via videoconferencing.
“This helps them feel validated and part of the team. It also eliminates their travel time (to the head office for meetings.)”
So far, Avi has experienced some short-term ROI from its investment in Allstream’s Collaboration Suite. Soltes said the firm’s paperwork is processed faster, resulting in better customer service.
