8 Business Benefits of Interactive Whiteboards in Conference Rooms

There are many business benefits of interactive whiteboards that range from the obvious to the obscure. Here’s a list of 8 top reasons to add an interactive whiteboard (IWB) to your conference room. Reasons range from the personal (team building, communication) to the pragmatic (reduced IT workload and improved profits). And not upgrading to interactive whiteboards can have a surprising impact on total cost of ownership (TCO).

So read on for a full list of business benefits of interactive whiteboards. Or see how a ViewBoard will benefit your business here.

Advanced technological capabilities are transforming every aspect of work. We now have amazingly effective productivity-boosting phone apps that we carry right in our own pockets. We’re also seeing a steady stream of new cloud-based platforms that enable organizations to collaborate with partners around the globe. Included in this digital transformation are the many business benefits of interactive whiteboards.

From the individual apps that employees download to the enterprise cloud-based solutions put into place, technology has changed the way people get business done. And it’s happening in every vertical, from banking and government to retail, healthcare, and more.

Amidst all these changes, the conference room has not stood untouched. A whole new generation of advanced technology solutions for 21st-century conferencing has emerged. The conference and meeting room experience for everyone who attends, whether in person or remotely improves immensely.

One example is the way the Interactive WhiteBoards (IWBs) have changed. Today, IWBs are more capable and advanced than the electronic whiteboard prototypes from twenty years ago. Today’s models are ushering in a new wave of increasingly digital conference room solutions.

What is an Interactive Whiteboard?

Interactive whiteboards for business have evolved quickly in the past few years. Today’s models are far more capable of delivering an intuitive, hassle-free experience for the people who host meetings and give presentations. That’s also the case for the people who attend, whether it’s from the same room or afar.

While older models were capable of delivering an interactive experience, today’s Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPD) have added functionality compared to their first-gen precursors. IFPD’s are a type of Interactive Whiteboard. But since they operate in a cloud environment, they take meetings to the next level to drastically elevate the team’s experience. All participants can look forward to higher levels of easy collaboration, smooth communications, and more.

To illustrate the impact of an organization that upgrades to this new generation of digital video conferencing products, here’s a guide about the business benefits of interactive whiteboards. The following guide shows eight ways this new generation of interactive whiteboards can make a difference in your organization.

Benefit #1: Start Your Meeting Without Any Delays

Whether you’re a product manager and you’re running an internal team meeting, or you’re a CEO hosting a global online conference, you’ll need to start your event promptly. Cameron Herold, the “Business Growth Guru,” says 1 of the top 6 ways to run a good meeting is to make sure you are starting on time.

ViewSonic’s interactive whiteboards are created with quick and easy setup in mind. A ViewBoard® display, such as the IFP6550, is ready to use right out of the box. It’s an all-in-one device that handles collaboration and interaction easily with everything you need and ready to go. There’s integrated software, a robust platform that makes interaction easy, and effortless video conferencing with built-in features like Zoom® software and an embedded web browser.

ViewBoard® Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs) like the IFP6550 and the IFP7550 are next-gen interactive whiteboards. These whiteboards are designed to help hosts start their meetings on time, every time. Embedded is the ViewSonic myViewBoard™ interactive software and other built-in productivity features. Bottom line: hosts won’t have to call IT departments every time because everything they need is built-in and easy to use.

Benefit #2: Create More Engaging Presentations

The days of passively receiving PowerPoint presentations in a meeting are long gone. For a truly effective presentation, participants need to be engaged. You might say the goal of any presentation in a business environment is to engage people. The last thing a presenter should do is be a “talking head,” It’s guaranteed to lose attention forever.

One of the most practical business benefits of interactive whiteboards is the increase in engagement levels to presenters during meetings.

IWBs allow the focus to shift from the presenter to the audience and the material present. Putting the audience first means allowing multiple participants to draw or write on a document or other visual simultaneously. It also means allowing for casting from any of their devices so they can share their docs, too. And finally, it means allowing for group annotation of a document in real-time.

Even if it’s just the presenter making use of advanced IWB tools, it can make a difference in engagement. Writing or drawing on the IWB is an excellent way to turn a one-way presentation into a real conversation!

All of these empowering capabilities are featured in today’s new generation of interactive whiteboards.

Of course, you could also design the space itself to maximize meeting effectiveness: Contemporary Collaboration: Designing the Perfect Meeting Space

Benefit #3: Get Stuff Done Faster

There are several things that companies can do to help their teams be more productive. Systemic factors like how information flows throughout the team members and the physical design of your conference room have an enormous effect on productivity and efficiency.

Conference rooms outfitted with powerful, modern interactive whiteboard systems help teams get stuff done faster. One reason is that these systems enable collaboration in ways that were unimaginable ten years ago. New capabilities and added functionality have improved digital collaboration and removed many of the barriers to success that meetings used to suffer using the older technology.

That’s crucial in today’s increasingly digitized and collaborative work environment. A Stanford University study revealed that collaboration is what drives the workplace these days. Plus, it’s no secret that people enjoy working on teams. In fact, according to the study, teamwork increases their motivation.

And with today’s collaborative work style, everyone needs to be able to share ideas and content with the entire team, even those halfway across the globe. Everyone, whether they’re remote or on-site, will become more productive when conference room equipment doesn’t let them down.

Conference room tech should offer bright, clear visuals that people can interact with. A static picture on a whiteboard is no longer sufficient for a productive meeting. From sharing content to annotating that content to casting from their device, participants crave group-wide participation and easy access to documents on the cloud.

With the right system and the right tools and accessories, today’s Interactive Whiteboards offer all of that and more.

Benefit #4: Improve Meeting Culture

When the CEO of Salesforce introduced an in-house platform for employees to share ideas and information, he watched the company culture blossom. Employees were empowered, participation in discussions went company-wide, and dialogues lasted for weeks. It all pointed to his collaborative leadership style and its lasting effect on company culture.

By encouraging more input from meeting participants and by opening up dialogues to everyone, the culture at Salesforce became more open and more collaborative. Management transparency is one of the top factors when it comes to employee happiness. In this scenario – and thousands of others like it – conference room technology made a tremendous impact on company culture.

SalesForce used the business benefits of interactive whiteboards and other tools to create a more open and collaborative work environment. Here are a few examples of how this works:

• When management sees ideas from the front lines of the organization via direct input on an Interactive Whiteboard collaboration system, that’s openness.
• When marketing and sales can easily share data using myViewBoard during a meeting, that’s collaboration.
• When remote workers feel they’re not missing a beat because of a fully interactive IWB system, that’s collaboration again.

All of these capabilities are improvements in a company culture that make employees happy and align everyone.

Benefit #5: Do Conferencing Any Way You Like

Conferencing takes place in wildly different settings than a quarter of a century ago — even conferencing environments from a decade ago would be unrecognizable to today’s meeting attendees. IWBs are essential to promoting a varied and adaptable conference room experience.

For instance, IBWs offer one-click access to instant wireless presentations. There are no cable connections to be made and no setup delays: no dongles, no extra cords, and no hassle. And if you’d like each participant to have personal access to viewing your content on their own devices, that’s possible too. Simultaneous mirroring makes this possible and brings home the notions of inclusion and engagement for all.

Plus, with simultaneous annotation on both Android and iOS devices, everyone can make the content their own. With ViewBoard® and TouchBack Control, the host can tap into the presentation and control the presenter’s device remotely. All the mobile users at the meeting will see the changes and essential information updated instantly.

Benefit #6: Make Remote Staff/Consultants Feel More Welcome

Interactive whiteboards that meet today’s strict standards for collaboration can bring remote teams closer to the fold. With the right conference room tech, remote participants will feel more like they’re in the room with the host/presenter. But that’s not all. They can share and participate easily, too.

Road warriors will appreciate modern equipment and fast connectivity that allows them to share, annotate, record, and cast from their devices during a meeting. myViewBoard “wireless presentation” gives meeting and conference participants the option to share content from their mobile devices. It works to stream content over wireless or cable networks and delivers in full 1080p for extra clarity and visual quality.

Field staff, remote stakeholders, consultants, or employees from enterprise branches around the world can easily share content from their mobile devices. Whether it’s Windows, Mac, iOS or Android, remote teams and consultants can share all of the following using myViewBoard “wireless presentation” and connecting to the shared screen:

• Cloud files
• Multimedia
• Documents

Once shared, the content can be annotated in real-time and accessed by multiple users at the same time. Cast using a large Interactive Flat-Panel Display (IFPD) system, even content from a phone is instantly accessed with excellent visual quality for all to enjoy.

Benefit #7: Reduce Stress Levels in Your IT Team

Right from their arrival after shipping, today’s interactive whiteboards (especially IFPD models) are helping to reduce stress levels of IT pros. With the out-of-the-box setup that requires no tools, it’s easy to get started using them right away. Fast and straightforward deployment allows for a hassle-free experience for IT.

One reason that today’s Interactive Whiteboards are light years beyond their ancestors is the added functionalities they come with. IWBs are ready to go with minimal or no need from IT teams.

For example, enterprise security is a top concern for businesses. myViewBoard™ uses the worldwide highly-secure AES-256 encryption algorithm; this level of security is also used to protect banking transactions, medical records, and classified government data. Security teams can rest assured that corporate information shared on a meeting is safe.

Cross-platform interoperability and user adoption are key for communicating between different teams within an organization. myViewBoard™ works with virtually any device and supports Windows, iOS, Mac, Android, and Chrome Devices. From an IT perspective, that’s music to the ears.

Lastly, successful meetings generate ideas, conversations, and action items. myViewBoard™ offers anywhere annotation bringing the flexibility of classic whiteboards into the digital world.who’s

Benefit #8: Improve the Bottom Line

Then there are the cost savings overall because of less downtime of modern IWBs during the initial setup. But less downtime is only the beginning when it comes to improving the bottom line with today’s interactive whiteboards. That brings us to the last benefit on this list: improving the bottom line.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of modern IWBs is significantly lower than that of other conference room solutions. Consider the hidden costs of an outdated system:

• Cost of maintenance in calibration, access to ceiling mounts and walls, replacement parts, etc.
• IT hours spent changing bulbs in an outdated projector system (not to mention the cost of replacing bulbs).
• Cost of decreased productivity that results from using an inefficient system. These costs arise from things like slow deployment, delayed meetings, and a cumbersome setup process.
• The size and weight of outdated conference room tech can also add to the TCO. When equipment is large and heavy, it requires more resources to ship, install, and maintain. Modern IWBs are smaller, lighter, and there’s only one primary device in an all-in-one system, not two.
• Lost opportunity costs of software that is not widely compatible. Plus, the added costs of figuring out how to use a system because it’s not user-friendly.
• Employee downtime is another hidden cost of outdated systems. Whether it’s IT staff when they’re troubleshooting, or meeting participants who lose out on valuable work time when equipment fails, the TOC can be enormous.

Conclusions on Business Benefits of Interactive Whiteboards

Every group has different needs and desires for their conference room. No matter what type of collaboration you need to do, we can help you find a great, customized solution for any room and any conference setting. Learn more about interactive whiteboards and how they can improve your meetings, your conferences, or your huddle sessions for the 21st century and beyond.

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