Saving time with online meetings

Far from all meetings during a change project need to be face-to-face. Pelle Hjortblad, CEO of Projectplace, has some better ideas.
"You can often be much more efficient and save loads of time by holding the meeting online," he says.
Projectplace makes it possible.

A project designed to implement change involves many minor decisions and short meetings. Getting all project participants under the same roof and looking at the same documentation used to require a Herculean effort. Finding an available conference room was only the first obstacle.
That was then and this is now.

Projectplace turns the vision of online meetings into reality.
"A simple project team meeting for making a quick decision doesn't haven to be face-to-face," says Hjortblad. "You spend up to 80% of your time travelling, even if everyone is in the same city.
"That's a heck of a lot of downtime. Just think of all the time you can save by meeting online instead."

Technological progress and high-speed connections have made it possible for a number of people to look at the same computer screen wherever they happen to be. It's something like a slide show when everyone is sitting in the same conference room. The online meetings that are so popular these days would be impossible without the new technology.

"Of course, teleconferencing has been around for a long time," says Hjortblad. "But how do you make sure that everyone is looking at the same documents? Somebody might have an old version of the minutes or something else that is vital to the meeting."

In Hjortblad's experience, online meetings are generally a bit shorter than the face-to-face kind.

"You tend to cut out the small talk and go straight to the point," he says. "Our whole approach to meetings is in a state of flux."

Using Netviewer, a tool that permits document and information sharing in real time, Projectplace has long promoted online meetings. Directly connected to Projectplace's software-as-a-service application, Netviewer requires no special software.

"Because we rely on online meetings during both the marketing and training stage, our users gain automatic experience of how it works," says Hjortblad. "Online meetings have become twice as popular over the past six months."

Despite all the advantages of online meetings, Hjortblad concedes that the face-to-face approach is sometimes unavoidable.

"For instance, body language and personal contact are crucial when you're concluding a business agreement," he says. "And there's no substitute for workshops and similar encounters that last for several hours."

But aren't online meetings less fun? Doesn't something fall by the wayside when you don't see somebody very often?

"Yes, some of the pleasure may be lost, but you also become more efficient and competitive," says Hjortblad. "And the time saved may be used for longer, more enjoyable face-to-face meetings to discuss creative and strategic issues.

"Those are the kinds of meetings that often get lost in the shuffle when you start running out of time.