The average domestic business trip in the U.S. was about $1,054 in 2009, according to research by American Express Business Travel. Additionally, the U.S. Census reports that Americans spend about 100 hours commuting every year. And throughout the U.K., workers devote nearly 22 million hours every day to commuting, equivalent to about $416 million worth of work, according to a survey by the Trades Union Congress, a federation of trade unions.
But the global economic slowdown and a changing workforce mean that business travel, in some cases, limits the ability of organizations to convene multiple stakeholders. More than ever, technology is a valuable way to bridge offices, regions and viewpoints. According to Econsultancy, which provides advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce:
>> Facebook claims that 50 percent of active users log into the site each day, which would translate to 175 million users every 24 hours.
>> Twitter now has 75 million user accounts, including 15 million active users.
>> LinkedIn has more than 50 million worldwide members and is increasing at a rate of nearly 1 million members a month.
In the past, businesses communications had been siloed. Collaboration once had been limited to the office; now it reaches many in their living rooms at home. An employee may be on the phone and in the course of the call receive an instant message or e-mail. Colleagues have an expectation of ongoing dialogues. But the discussion happens not just in the office. It happens in the home. It happens with friends. It happens across all kinds of modes and mediums. Parents know that they’re just as likely to approve a project from their office desk during the work week
as they are on Saturday at their kid’s soccer game.
Functionally, the 9-to-5 workday has officially gone out of business. Technology’s role is to help facilitate the transition so that workers – otherwise known as people – can convert higher productivity into personal time back. Increasing efficiency across personal venues is another way to evaluate ROC.
Professionals are busy balancing work and life. Technology, these professionals say, can be a lifeline. A majority (54 percent) say collaboration tools help them gain work-life balance and a similar number (52 percent) say communications technologies help them gain control (Frost & Sullivan).
And they don’t have to be part of a multinational behemoth to do it. The ease and simplicity of a collaboration solution is within reach of an SMB, even as small as a sole proprietorship.
Collaboration through communications technology creates better business performance. And whether they call it ROC or not, many organizations, especially SMBs, already focus on the ability to maintain high levels of performance through collaboration. And while conventional wisdom once held that collaboration tools exclusively relied on hardware and network requirements, innovations in IP-based tools makes certain that has no longer the case.
The concept of ROC captures the broader concept of improvement realized when functional collaboration emerges relative to the overall amount of money invested in that functional area. A fundamental requirement for collaboration is communication. Conceived in this way, collaboration through any platform enables people to share what they’re working on and what they’re thinking about.
While collaboration technology addresses the very tactical response of saving travel and operations costs, it also contributes to the strategic outlook of industry direction and corporate positioning. Workers want to collaborate in ways that are productive, engaging and fun. As communication technologies advance, we will see more products and services that replicate the benefits of face-to-face meetings in a virtual environment.
As businesses contemplate the right collaboration solutions, they need to first focus internally and understand how and why they hold meetings. One way to begin is to evaluate the frequency of meetings. Another way to start is to evaluate the kinds of meetings held, anything from traditional sales meetings, staff meetings, reporting meetings to webinars.
By turning the lens inward, decision-makers can match their metrics for meetings success with the many functional applications available. Many companies of various sizes already are doing this and once executives realize their teams could be 50 percent more productive by using collaboration technology, they become more open to exploring tools that could be uniquely adapted to drive both organizational and personal success.