The meeting rooms in which you host your organization-wide gatherings and formal video conferences have very specific tech requirements--you must offer employees and virtual visitors alike a fairly convincing simulation of a face-to-face interaction. Which means: large screens, powerful speakers, multiple microphones, interactive whiteboards, etc. You name it--it should be there. But you can lighten up a little bit with your huddle rooms. Don’t get the wrong idea--these aren’t crash pads. They are places of business. But they should be seen as opportunities to save a few dollars while giving your employees access to the same collaborative tools you use on a larger scale in your large rooms. So how, exactly, should you strike that balance between accessibility and affordability? Let us take a look at three key considerations.
The Bare Essentials
At the very least, your huddle room should offer the same video and audio conferencing amenities your employees access at their desks or home offices. Since your huddle rooms are, by design, temporary residences for employees who do most of their work elsewhere, you will want conferencing and collaboration solutions that are BYOD-friendly. For this reason, a cloud-based solution like Prime Call Cloud UC is ideal, as this StarLeaf-powered conferencing and collaboration hub allows users to bring any device into the room and connect immediately.
Scalability
For traditional conference rooms that host all-hands-on-deck meetings, you’ll want to go big with your screens and speakers so everyone can hear and be heard, see and be seen. Huddle rooms are different. For one thing, they are small spaces that cannot accomodate a massive AV array. And let’s not forget your bottom line--outfitting a bunch of modest rooms with all the bells and whistles will get very expensive very quickly. For companies with many huddle rooms to equip, scalability is key. A cloud-based collaboration solution like Prime Call Cloud UC offers flexible options that allow companies to pay only for what they need, so as you add or subtract huddle rooms, there is no need for costly investments or divestments--it’s simply a matter of adjusting a subscription.
Additional Needs
Not every huddle room is created equally. If your organization is large enough to necessitate multiple huddle rooms, you might want to earmark specific rooms for certain kinds of work. Perhaps your brainstorming huddle room would benefit from a Cisco Spark Board. And maybe that quiet, out-of-the-way huddle room would be a perfect place for important phone calls--in which case, perhaps that room should be equipped with a top notch audio solution like Polycom Real Presence Trio. Huddle rooms might be modest, but you don’t have to let that limit your options.
Learn more about Prime Call Cloud UC and other huddle room solutions and please contact us if you have any questions about pricing and implementation. Use our Advanced Search tool to find anything else you’re looking for.
If you’re still not sure about cloud conferencing, sign up for a free trial of Prime Call Cloud UC and give it a try. We’re confident you’ll like what you see.
