Connect Your Company to the World

Smart technology means that global organisations can keep in contact at the touch of a button. What’s more, with the ever-changing technological landscape and new innovations, it needn’t cost the earth to do so.

Technology offers solutions for global teams and can help to keep down the costs associated with international relations. From free audio-conferencing solutions to international calls that cost little or nothing at all, it’s easier than ever to do business around the world from the comfort of your home or office.

Whether you are a company looking for growth opportunities in new markets or a multinational organisation, here is a roundup of must-have technologies to help you communicate on a global scale.

Video conferencing

Meeting face-to-face is important for good business relations but that doesn’t mean that you have to book a flight at the next opportunity.

With video conferencing solutions you can save time and money while still enabling a personal touch and highly-interactive meeting.

Audio conferencing

Like video conferencing, audio conferencing can bridge divides and allow you to speak in real time to someone long distance.

This option is usually less costly and as well as enabling businesses to cut their carbon footprint, it allows them to meet instantly without having to schedule a meeting or book a room. It can also be used to hold training sessions with employees positioned in different geographical locations.

And not just anyone can join these conversations – most services provide users with a unique pin so only those invited can take part.

Cloud computing

Cloud-based services are really starting to take off and by 2016 consultancy experts Gartner expect all Forbes’ Global 2000 businesses to adopt public cloud computing as the norm.

Companies worldwide can now share documents, spreadsheets, data and more simply by logging on to a shared drive stored remotely in cyberspace.

Despite concerns relating to data security, privacy and business continuity, cloud-based services are becoming increasingly sophisticated, meaning these worries are unlikely to ever become a reality.

Social media

Social media tools not only help colleagues to keep in touch from every corner of the globe, but they also help companies to reach the people that matter to them most – customers.

A fundamental shift is taking place in the way people find your business and more importantly how your customers communicate with you. If you are trying to break into a global market, making use of social media is the most cost-effective, high-impact way to create a dialogue with consumers.

The way you utilise these tools and the strategies you employ can help to increase exposure, profitability, reputation and customer numbers.

Meeting room tools

Take the Epson BrightLink Pro, for example – an interactive projector that the company calls “the ultimate meeting room productivity tool”.

As well as being able to display presentations on virtually any flat surface, meeting holders can also use the projector for video conferencing and remote collaboration. In addition, the device can be used as a digital whiteboard to present and annotate existing content which can then be saved, emailed or printed.

Mobile technology

Over one billion people will work remotely by 2015 meaning the use of mobile technology for business is more important now than ever before.

That is according to International Data Corporation, which predicts that 37.2 per cent of the entire global workforce will work remotely within the next couple of years.

A virtual office environment enables employees to keep in touch around the world and with the advent of tablets and mobile phones blurring the line between our social lives and work, time differences needn’t get in the way.