Every single day, 11 million meetings are held in U.S. workplaces and each month, employees attend an average of 62 meetings. What’s more, nearly 40 percent of employee work time is spent in meetings, according to the National Statistics Council.

But for all the meetings, chances are high they are unproductive. In a study by the University of North Carolina’s Steven Rogelberg, 71% of senior managers said their organization’s meetings are unproductive and inefficient. In addition, Interaction Associates found that at least 70% of attendees admit to multitasking during meetings.

In today’s technology-driven world, using technological advances in meetings can have many benefits. Using technology in meetings can help improve the attention span of employees, ensure that important information is retained and make better use of meeting time. Some of the benefits of technology on meetings include:

• Webinars: These can be done as standalone events or partnered with face-to-face events. Webinars are helpful for broadcasting educational content to multiple viewers and listeners at the same time. Products like Cisco WebEx and Cisco WebEx meeting provisioning tools are very helpful for video conferencing, web conferencing, group messaging and webinars.
• Virtual Environment: Multimedia programs such as Second Life offer employees a chance to interact in a fun, engaging 2D or 3D environment in real time. That means employees can interact with a presenter or other employees virtually rather than spending time in a cramped conference room.
• Online Collaboration: Meetings and seminars can become a lot more open with online collaboration tools such as a Cisco chatbot and Cisco jabber can allow employees to share information like Web pages, documents, audio and video among other things. Conferencing also allows for recording, allowing managers to create a knowledge base. Whether you’re using the Cisco jabber or the Cisco CUCM, using online collaboration tools allows to communicate easier and more effectively.
• Web Conferencing: Tools like Cisco chatbot and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) allows real-time video and audio streaming. A Cisco chatbot can also help in web conferencing by offering assistance in real time. It was announced in 2016 that Cisco will deploy more Cisco chatbots in the workplace. Programs like Skype and FaceTime allow for easy web conferencing too.

According to Upwork’s 2018 Future Workforce Report, 38% of hiring managers predict that their employees will work predominately remotely in the next 10 years. With a growing number of online tools, working remotely will be a lot easier and allow people to meet and work more efficiently.

If your company is interested in UC development, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

• Look at costs: If you’re looking into UC development, try and figure out a few areas that could provide some cost savings. For example, if you do business overseas, making cell phone calls overseas costs money. Instead, consider using a unified messaging client and a soft phone to keep costs down.
• Figure out a plan: if you’re considering UC development, you have the of getting your various technological needs through a single vendor or take a bit of everything from various companies, a strategy known as best-of-breeding. For example, as you look for tools to implement your UC development, you may look to one company for mobility and audio conferencing, another company for email and instant messaging and another company for calling services. Sticking with a single vendor can make it easier to keep up with the various components of your IC development plan, but best-of-breeding may save you money if you’re monitoring costs.

Research provided by InformationWeek shows that more than 60% of businesses indicated improved employee collaboration is a top business driver for UC. If your company is in need of tools for UC development, Cisco products can help take your office meetings and office technology to the next level.