VSee thrives on the concept of simplicity and making teamwork productive.  It eliminates the need for backend setup and maintenance, and it’s one-click design makes it easy to get work done as a team.  What other teamwork tool makes it possible to see your whole team or  share an application or send file in a single click?

In fact, LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently featured this Behind the Scenes article on VSee’s security and simplicity.  Here’s a brief excerpt on how it even got the thumbs up from Congress:

Such security and simplicity factors were key for a recent decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to adopt the technology for use behind their firewall. Currently, only a few dozen Congressional district offices have video conferencing hardware, due to system costs, complexity, and security holes. With the VSee platform, it is now possible to outfit all the remote district offices essentially for free, potentially saving millions of dollars.

Room-based video conferencing and beautiful telepresence setups are nothing new.  In fact, according to both Raymond James and Frost & Sullivan researchers, they are dying markets in video conferencing.  Raymond James Communications Technology Analyst Tavis McCourt observes that there has been a noticeable lack of growth in Cisco’s collaboration and telepresence products in recent years, and that competitors Polycom and LifeSize have been suffering as well.  These are due to:

a rapid change in industry growth trends. We believe the most likely culprits are a sudden weakening in Europe, longer sales cycles related to new cloud-based deployment options and desktop video options, and a likely maturing of the room-based endpoint market in the developed world.

Frost & Sullivan in their “Global Videoconferencing and Telepresence Endpoints Market” report adds:

The videoconferencing market is fast approaching an inflection point driven by high quality and low-cost solutions combined with an escalating need for rich collaboration…. The imminent shift to software-centric solutions and the impact of consumerization will open up new growth opportunities while overturning traditional business models.

What is needed now is a lightweight means of getting work done together quickly and socially, especially as teams become more spread out across the globe and workers become more mobile and likely to work from home or anywhere.  If this is what you’ve been looking for, VSee is ready to go and literally free for any person or business to use.

With analyst predictions of $16 billion growth in video conferencing industry by 2017, what do you think is the next big thing in video conferencing?

Related Articles

• other NSF press releases on VSee’s work Conflict Zones, Live and Keeping an Eye on the Inauguration
• Vidyo’s Banner Year (FierceEnterpriseCommunications.com)
• 5 Reasons Cisco and Polycom Telepresence are Dying (Forbes.com)

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! 

This update fixes audio issues you may have been experiencing, including audio “cut-out” and volume fluctuation problems.

Check to make sure you are on this latest version of VSee:

• Win version 12.0.0.501 - Click the wrench icon in the address book –>select “About” and see if it is the newest version.  Unless you have turned off automatic update, VSee will download the newest client for you (which will show as  a checkmark in task tray icon).  Simply restart the program to use the updated VSee.
• Mac version 9.04 (11602) - Click “VSee” top menu and choose “check for updates.”

If you have any questions or are experiencing problems, please contact the VSee support team.

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! 

Remote managers have it tough.  They have to get others to cooperate and be on board with their projects and to like them even though they may never meet these people face-to-face, and even though these people may not even be part of the same organization!  While a big part of making this happen is using the right technology, what’s more important is being able to convey a human touch in spite of the technology.  Thus, 3 excellent principles of the skilled remote manager include:

• Erring on the side of overcommunicating
• Intentionally getting to know others as people and allowing them to get to know you as a person
• Being aware of and respectful of other’s work procedures, situations, and environments

The following tips, based on these principles, have been shamelessly lifted directly from voices of remote management experience:

Tip #1 – Make sure that every written communication you send is extremely clear.

“Proofread.  Use short sentences, frequent paragraph breaks, and numbered lists or bullet points.”

Tip #2 – Add some warmth to written communications.

“Use emoticons, exclamation points, personal greetings and wish-you-wells to.  Address the person by name.”

Tip #3 – Ditch email.

“If your email is more than a few lines or turnaround is slow, CALL (phone or video chat)!  It’s faster and more productive to speak with someone directly than it is to send emails back and forth. Same goes for IM.”

Tip #4 – Phone or video call your most important contacts one-on-one at least 2 to 3 times a week.

“Try to make these calls more personal – You can always start a conversation by asking about the weather, the local sports team, plans for an upcoming weekend or holiday….   Also try to share a few personal details about yourself – kids, hobbies, favorite food – anything that can help your recipients develop a good mental picture of you.  It’s also not a bad idea to look up your contacts’ professional profiles (LinkedIn or Google search) to learn a bit more about who they are and where they come from.  Conversely, make sure your own LinkedIn profile is updated and includes a good picture.”

Tip #5 – Have a clear purpose and time limit for conference or video meetings.

“Send an agenda beforehand, and follow up with a list of agreed-to next steps afterwards. People are probably multi-tasking through the call, so assume they will remember nothing. Also, does the call really have to be longer than a half hour?” If you’re working with a team, daily stand-ups via videoconference are another great format for keeping everyone on the same page.

Tip #6 – Exercise a sense of humor.

“Most people don’t want to deal with someone who has no sense of humor.  Joke around and get them laughing.  If they laugh with you, it will be much easier to work with each other.”

Tip #7 – Respect each person’s processes and procedures.

“If they like to receive things in a certain format, do it.”  Especially if they work for a different organization, it’s very helpful to know what their work schedule, work environment, and office policies are like.

Tip #8 – Understand what the other person’s workload is like.

“Chances are you’re not their only responsibility. If they are over-burdened, find out if there’s someone else who can substitute, or if you can get an extension on your milestone.”

Tip #9 – Show appreciation.

“Everyone has a job description, sometimes we need people to go above and beyond. If anyone does this for you, even in the smallest way possible, you can’t praise them enough, both directly and to their manager.”  If it’s your own team, find ways to celebrate the completion of major milestones or projects.  Creative tokens of appreciation like certificates for massages, babysitting,  or housecleaning service can go a long way.

Tip #10 – Fall on your sword.

“Don’t expect everything to go perfectly on your project. It won’t. Somewhere, somehow, someone will mess up. If it’s you, own up and beg for help. It’s refreshing when someone actually ‘fesses up to their mistake. If it’s someone on your team, the best phrase I can offer is: ‘Hey, that’s why pencils have erasers. What do we need to do to get this on track?’”

What are your best tips for building remote relationships as a manager?

Related Articles

• Effective Managers Say Things Twice
• How to Run a Remote Business Effectively – OPEN forum
• Video Chat A Must Have Tool for Remote Management

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! 

With VSee’s no-setup videoconferencing software solution, we’re looking to make healthcare easy and affordable for those in rural and remote areas of America.

Yesterday kicked off the 17th annual ATA Telehealth Conference and Expo, so if you haven’t had the chance, remember to drop by today or tomorrow to see us demo our practically  no-setup videoconferencing solution in VSee  booth, #1544.

Hope to see you soon!

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! By the way, we are hiring too.

photo credit: nicolas.boullosa via Flickr

This Mac-only release:

1. Fixes Mac app-share crashes
2. Reduces memory usage when sharing applications on Mac

If you have any issues or questions please contact VSee support team!

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! By the way, we are hiring too.

Maybe the nature of their jobs made face-to-face meetings unnecessary for them or maybe they’ve been working with the same people for years. But, virtual team studies have shown that early face-to-face meetings are important for building trust necessary for teamwork, and while virtual teams can be just as strong as face-to-face teams, it usually takes them more time to get to the same point of rapport, which translates to working more effectively.

Anyways, it turns out this remote manager is not alone in missing the interaction of face-to-face.  CEO Rae Hoffman-Dolan put Skype videochats at the top of her list of “6 Must Have Tools For Managing Virtual Employees,” and according to Microsoft Canada’s Flexible Working report, about half the managers they interviewed had issues with their ”inability to talk face-to-face” with telecommuters.  This was by far the most popular complaint, with the second most popular, ”lack of focus, ” being mentioned by only 26% of managers.

As a remote worker, I have to say the immediacy of “seeing” someone, makes a huge difference in communication and relationship-building. It really hit me on one occasion when a coworker IM-ed me to do something for her.  I more or less ignored the text at the time, shoving it onto my mental to-do list.  Fifteen minutes later she VSee-ed me to talk about the request. That video call made all the difference in making me remember and prioritize her request. Without seeing and talking with her face-to-face, I know I would have either forgotten what she wanted me to do or not gotten around to it until days later.  It isn’t that text communications don’t work, but rather they delay work that could be done more quickly because they usually make less of an impact and require more time to follow up and receive feedback.

As for relationship-building, it’s difficult to quantify, but especially for isolate remote workers like myself, seeing faces allows us to work more like human beings. Talking with people over VSee lets me feel like I’m not just talking with machines or a name on the screen, but with real people who have lives and personalities. It quickly clears up misconceptions that I sometimes build up about other people’s personalities or what they meant in an email. It keeps me engaged during a presentation or group discussion. It also makes me feel more productive and more connected to the group.

So just because you’re able to get by without “seeing” the people you work with doesn’t mean seeing faces doesn’t matter. It could just mean you’re missing out on the extra benefits of seeing face.

How important do you think video chat is for remote management?

Related Articles

• GigaOm “Why Managers Are Still Skeptical of Remote Work”
• OPEN Forum “5 Biggest Pitfalls of Running A Virtual Office”

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee! By the way, we are hiring too.

photo credit: adapted from HaPe_Gera via Flickr

Please update your VSee to Windows version 12.0.0.418 or Mac version 9.02 (11336).  Fixes listed below:

• Mac – Application-sharing crash fixes
• Windows – 1) VSee added to “Add/Remove Programs” list, and 2) reduced number of security warning prompts when running VSee

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee!

Image courtesy of 401kcalculator.org

Video conferencing i s supposed to save you money, but this is only the case if you’re in it for the long haul.  If you’ve ever looked into getting a traditional Cisco/Tandberg or Polycom system, you know how ugly the upfront cost for equipment and set up can be, easily running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.  As nice as such a video experience is, it doesn’t come cheap, and it’s certainly not a good idea for a one time deal.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t always work out  the way we plan, and the General Services Administration was forced between a rock and a hard place when it had to make some last minute changes in their plans to meet with the green company Solyndra.  It ended up that  the GSA  had to spend a whopping $3500 to set up a video conference for the Solyndra meeting just so 4 administrators could present by video link.  The original travel cost would have only been $1500.  The high fee actually isn’t too surprising.  While Cisco makes beautiful and high performing video conferencing equipment from telepresence to Tandberg to Webex, unless your network is ready for their heavy video load, complicated engineering is required to make a video call happen.  Needing a video conference rush job could definitely make a money-saving video conference call an eye-popping expense.

Moral of the story:  If you ever need to do a last minute video conferencing meeting, remember to shop around for an alternative to the traditional Cisco/Tandberg and Polycom videoconferencing systems, unless you’ve  already paid your dues and have the equipment and set up for the job.  Otherwise, be ready to spend an arm and a leg!

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee!

photo credit: 401kcalculator.org via Flickr

This release fixes crashes on PCs with non-SSE2 processor.  This crash prevents users on very old computers such as the AMD Athlon XP from starting up VSee.

please contact customer support if you have or continue to have any problems launching VSee !

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee!

To enjoy these exciting improvements and changes, make sure your VSee is updated to Windows 12.0.0.403 and Mac  9.0 (11174):

Windows and Mac

• Instant messaging over HTTPS (especially useful if you’ve had trouble with firewalls that block TCP/5222).
• Video window re-tiling from the “Collaboration” menu (click on the double person icon located on the bottom right of your local video window).  You can also retile using the shortcuts CTRL Arrow key,  CTRL  +/- keys, and CTRL T.
• Ability to send files named with non-English characters

Windows only

• IM timestamps showing when a message was sent
• More organized window tiling (video windows across top and IM windows across bottom)
• Improved call performance over HTTPS
• Improved Automatic Quality Control (noticeable only in large group calls, e.g. 10+ people)
• Faster, more robust install and auto-update process
• Fix for call connection issues over web proxies
• Fix for occasional high CPU usage

Mac only

• Application-sharing (without annotation or remote control features, no desktop-sharing)
• Account creation from the VSee login window (instead of from the website)
• Statistics window
• Option to only allow specific users for auto-accept
• Option to start VSee automatically on bootup

Please contact VSee support team with any problems, questions, or suggestions you may have!

Follow us on Twitter (@VSee) and Like us on Facebook to hear about the latest from VSee!