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One of the most compelling cases for video conferencing technology has to be the reduction in travel costs.

Many businesses increasingly view travel as a drain on time and budgets. You can understand why when most business travellers admit that only half of the time spent on a business trip can be classed as productive working time. Not only could you reduce your business travel bills by up to 30%, but you could also improve employee productivity by cutting back on idle hours.

Allied to the reduction in travel time and costs is the environmental argument. Video conferencing uses little energy – no petrol, diesel or aviation fuel, only a few units of electricity. The technology can help the business reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact. To demonstrate the point, a UK environment minister gave a keynote speech at the Climate Change Conference in Sydney via video conferencing. This saved 60 hours of travel time and 6.2 tons of CO2 emissions.

Your business could benefit in other ways too. Video conferencing gives you the flexibility to hold ad-hoc meetings; you don’t have to plan weeks in advance. This flexibility could speed up decision-making and response times, which will also benefit your customers.

Why invest in video conferencing now?

In the past, video conferencing has had a bad reputation. It’s been seen as expensive, complex to implement and delivering low quality, jerky images. However, these arguments are losing ground as the technology rapidly evolves and affordable fast connections make high definition video conferencing a reality.

Traditionally, you would have needed an ISDN network for video conferencing, but today’s IP-based networks are fuelling an interest in converged voice, video and data communications. IP lends itself to cost-effective voice and video conferencing and has the added benefit of allowing users to collaborate on documents simultaneously. Cisco estimates that global IP traffic will increase fivefold over the next four years. The company also estimates that all forms of video traffic will make up 90% of global consumer IP traffic by 2013.

Video conferencing shopping list

There is a video conferencing system for every budget, ranging from personal desktop systems using low cost webcams, through to specialist video conferencing equipment designed for use in meeting rooms and other shared environments. However, the essential components of any video conferencing solution are camera, microphone, monitor, speaker and codec.

For most organisations, high definition video conferencing is the most readily available option and offers good quality on a limited budget (usually between £1,500 and £5,000).

Your next consideration should be the number of point to point video-enabling terminals or ‘endpoints’ needed. If you specify too few endpoints users could get frustrated that they do not have access to the technology. You need to balance the cost of the video conferencing equipment and services against convenient access to the network of endpoints.

Video infrastructure – a high definition video conferencing service may require an investment in additional network infrastructure, such as a dedicated line or circuit for each endpoint. Each session will demand connectivity of around 1Mbps for clear video and audio. Deploying high definition video on the enterprise network can cause problems; the network may not be able to handle real-time video, while video activity may compromise other enterprise tasks. The right media-ready network is vital to the delivery of business video applications.

Extra peripherals – you might also want to invest in additional peripheral devices to enhance the video conferencing experience; this could include high definition and wide-angle cameras, upgraded speakers and microphones. You may also want to connect your systems to DVDs, VCRs and document and multimedia applications via a PC.

Test the water with web conferencing

If there’s some resistance to investing in video conferencing solutions, one way of proving the benefit to the business may be to experiment with lower cost web conferencing solutions. These could not only demonstrate cost savings but also lead the way to more sophisticated technology.

Web conferencing allows your staff to share what’s on their desktop with people in other locations. Typically, this happens in conjunction with a phone call or audio conferencing session. Additional features include the ability to share documents and to work collaboratively on projects.

Why telepresence could be the next step for video conferencing

John Chambers, Cisco chief executive, has compared telepresence to “Star Trek teleporting”. Telepresence offers ultra high resolution, which makes video conferencing an even more immersive experience. Spatial audio allows the transmission of every nuance of a conversation, while huge screens and high quality cameras capture every detail of an expression.

Fabulous as this sounds, telepresence remains an expensive technology to implement at present. It requires a high-bandwidth connection and a specifically designed room at each location.

Writing a business letter might be a hard and undertaking task. However you will have to do it at least once in your life. Either it is an official appeal or a simple response, you have to follow the rules of business writing.

Whatever the subjects is, a business letter has to be as clear and specific as possible. Even if the issue happens to be emotionally colored, business letter requires a discreet and official tone.

To start your letter, use ‘Dear Mr, Mrs or Miss’. It is very important to use Ms for women unless it is asked to use Mrs or Miss. Never refer by the first name only unless the addressee is a close business contact or a friend. Do not forget to include Dr, if necessary.

Then comes the actual body of the letter. Double space between the greeting and the body. Your letter has to be brief and close to the point. In a body of your letter give the reason for writing. If needed, make any request you may have. If you are expecting a further contact, point on it (Looking forward to your response, etc.)

It goes without saying that no shortenings are allowed in a business letter. Avoid such forms as “don’t”, it is better to write it out as “do not”.

No matter what was the subject of your letter, it is important to close it with “thank you…” to make it look more professional and appealing. Finish the letter with a salutation, such as “Sincerely yours” or “Best regards”.

Do not forget to put in your full name. This way you may give a chance to refer to you by your name in future.

Keep official tone, no extra information is to be added. Such letters are read within a few minutes. So, make sure your business letter is specific and brief.

More and more people are setting up home businesses these days. Some of them may have been laid off from work. Others may have found difficulty finding employment. Still others may have chosen to change careers midstream after finding their true passion and deciding to make a living out of it.

Setting up a home business gives you much more freedom than regular employment. You are now your own boss. It gives you more time with your family and for yourself. It eliminates the stresses of the workplace and the fatigue of commuting to and from work. This redounds to better physiological, psychological and emotional health and greater productivity. It is also a good way to start going into business because of the lower start up costs. You save a lot on overhead expenses by having your office in your own home.

Despite the low start up costs of a home business, it is not a free ride. You will definitely still need some additional capital as you go along. The good news is that you can start very small and, because of this, you need not approach those intimidating banks and financial institutions for small business loans. After all, it is common knowledge that not only is the process of applying for small business loans lengthy and complicated, but approval is also mostly withheld anyway.

What you should do is approach a merchant service, instead, and apply for credit card services. What has this got to do with your need for small business loans? A lot. Through the same merchant service from whom you get your credit card services, you can get cash advances that are just like small business loans, albeit with lower ceilings. That would not be a problem given your smaller capital needs.

But what are credit card services? Is this the same as applying for a credit card? No. It is actually the other end of the equation. Credit card services allow you to accept payments through credit or debit cards in person, through the internet, by phone and by fax. The merchant service provides you with terminal equipment for physically swiping the cards and the software and high speed IP solutions necessary for all kinds of transactions.

Having credit card services is actually necessary for practically any home business that is involved with sales. The ability to accept debit and credit card payments will boost your income. Having multiple payment options, such as person-to-person, online, phone and fax payments, will further attract more customers.

Most merchant services require only a short minimum period to determine your business’ capability to generate credit card and debit card sales. Your average monthly income through your credit card services will be the basis for the amount of cash advances you will be allowed to make. You will not be required to put up any collateral at all. It is like getting pre-approved small business loans. But there’s more good news. You need not scrimp and save to muster enough cash for loan repayment every month. All you need to do is attend to your business and its profitability. As your credit and debit card payments roll in every month, a certain percentage is automatically paid to the merchant service for your loan. You need not worry about it since you will always be able to afford your payments. Your customers will ensure that.

As your business grows and your sales multiply, you may qualify for bigger and bigger cash advances that you can use to further expand your home business. And you’re on your way to the big time.

MySpace is an online community focused on helping individuals to make new friends or reconnect with old friends. With this type of goal in mind it is not surprising that the vast majority of MySpace members use the community to make connections with other members. This may include staying in touch with old friends and family members, reconnecting with lost friends, making business connections or even meeting romantic partners. This article will discuss how all of these opportunities are available on the MySpace community.

Keeping in Touch with Friends and Family

MySpace can be an excellent way for friends and family members to stay in touch. Encouraging friends and family members to join MySpace with you can help you to stay in better contact with these individuals. Communicating through MySpace is a lot of fun and gives users the ability to post pictures, audio files and video files in addition to personal information presented in a blog. Members can leave comments for each other or just stay in touch by reading each others websites and posting personal information on their own websites for others to read.

Reconnecting with Lost Friends

Overtime we all lose contact with some of our old friends. Whether this is a trusted friend who was with you through the trying times in high school, a companion who helped you make it through college or even an acquaintance you met in passing at a bus stop MySpace can help you to reconnect to these old friends.

One passive way to reconnect with lost friends is to simply create your own MySpace website and wait for these lost friends to contact you. This may not always happen but it is possible. MySpace is an extensive community with members all around the world and it is very possible your old friend may see you on MySpace and contact you. Also, if you create a blog entry expressing an interest in reconnecting with an individual, your blog may be seen by someone who knows your lost friend and passes along the message.

Another way to find lost friends on MySpace is to use the search feature. The simplest way to search for someone is by using their full name. However, not all members post their full name. Other methods of finding an individual include entering their nickname into the search feature or entering keywords related to their favorite hobbies, books, movies or entertainers. This method may require a great deal of research and may be quite time consuming but it can help you find your lost friend if they have a website on MySpace.

Making Business Connections

MySpace can also be used to make business connections. The search feature can be used to find others who share your business interests, dreams and goals. Once you find these individuals you can engage them in conversation by sending an email or instant message or by leaving a comment on their website. These connections may lead to potential business relationships but they may also simply be networking opportunities which allow those interested in certain business aspects to converse with others who share this interest.

Meeting Romantic Partners

Finally, a large portion of those who are using MySpace are hoping to make a romantic connection. MySpace is an online community which enables users to post photos and information about themselves for other members of the community to view. This effectively makes MySpace very similar to a dating service. There is also a space for users to enter information regarding whether or not they are single or looking for a romantic interest. Those who are looking for romance can spend time searching for others who they find physically attractive, share their interests and are also seeking romantic companionship. These MySpace members can contact each other through emails, instant messages or through comments left for each other on the websites. A courting relationship online can progress to an offline relationship or can remain online depending on the wants and intentions of the partners.

An innovative new company believes it can rescue Canadian businesses that are being further crippled by skills shortages amidst the economic downturn.

3E Connect Direct provides Canadian employers with an unprecedented opportunity to connect directly with talented, international workers when they are unable to source the skills and experience necessary within Canada.

Talking to 3E Connect Direct Co-founder Ken Docherty, CFIB Chief Economist Ted Mallett re-stated the continuing need that Canadian companies have for certain skills and experience. He said, “We’re still seeing signs of a qualified labour shortage and some members still find it difficult to locate suitable employees. A shortage of skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled labour is an issue for between 10% and 20% of our members, with a skew toward skilled labour shortages.”

Mr Docherty said, “We were influenced by the plight of small-medium sized businesses across Canada who wanted to grow and fulfill existing orders or obligations but were experiencing potentially ‘business crippling’ skilled labour shortages, as well as the number of immigrants arriving who were unable to find work utilizing the skills and experience that qualified them for residency in the first place.”

“Our aim is to provide a self regulating system for funneling ‘would be immigrants’ into areas and industries that need them most urgently while realising our vision of providing a cost effective international advertising platform for Canadian employers who do not have the budget to launch expensive overseas advertising campaigns. There are no sign-up fees, cancellation fees, finder’s fees, immigration consulting fees or recruiting fees or any hidden fees associated with using the service for either the employer or the job seeker. Our system enables the employer to promote their company, opportunity or even their province to attract an international applicant who can help them.”

“Canadian employers can post employment classifieds for free and choose from a variety of additional paid services. The job seeker is charged an annual subscription fee of $39.99 to advertise their skills and experience on the site. As part of the paid subscription, they also have access to employment classifieds, custom built career system and all other non-public areas of the site including a searchable Canadian employer and recruiter database of over 110,000 entries, Canadian salary reports and the ability to connect directly with Canadian resume specialists for a free consultation and discounted consulting services.”

Mr. Docherty added: “The subscription model for the job seeker was chosen due to its effectiveness at filtering out individuals who are not serious about living and working in Canada or who have not done the necessary research to ascertain whether their skills are considered to be ‘in-demand’. By using a subscription-based method of membership and by encouraging pre-registration research, 3E Connect Direct attracts a core group of high quality, committed job seekers focused on a new life in Canada, allowing employers direct access to key skills and experience without having to sort through large volumes of unqualified resumes.”

3E Connect Direct will initially focus on attracting talented workers from the United Kingdom, Ireland and France as a result of the Founder’s experience of recruiting in Europe.

About 3E Connect Direct Online Media Inc.:

3E Connect Direct is a niche employment advertising venue focusing exclusively on bringing together Canadian Employers and International Job Seekers who would like to work in Canada. We are not an Immigration firm or an Employment agency.

The video marketing is the last great invention in the Internet. A video on the web site is a key differentiator for the internet home business webmaster, who wants to communicate effectively using the most powerful and emotional medium, which works like TV commercial.

The video marketing is more powerful than anything else as to the effect and persuasion power.

1.When The Internet Home Business Site Gets A Visitor, It Is A Question Of Seconds.

When people surf on the net, they are jumping from site to site looking for an internet opportunity. Their state of the mind is very busy, so it is the job of the home page to respond to the interest of the visitor. First the home page must arouse the attention, then interest, then desire and finally the action.

The attention span of the visitor is measured in seconds, which means that something exceptional is needed. The video marketing is a splended way to attract the visitor,to make him stay longer and to build a strong emotional tie between the visitor and the web site.

2.Make A Strong Emotional First Impression.

TV has always been the most effective advertising medium because of the huge emotional impact, it can create. The video marketing uses exactly the same methods. When a visitor has just landed the internet home business page, the key is a good first impression, which makes him to continue the visit.

The video can be a strong, emotional first handshake and the impact can continue for a long time.The video must be on a visible place on the home page and the recommended length is about 2 minutes.

3.The Video Marketing Builds An Internet Home Business Brand, Good Or Bad.

The image, which the video will build, must be thoroughly consistent down to the smallest detail. Otherwise the video communicates about an amateurish and unreliable antibrand. It is recommended to use professionally made video and not to do it by yourself.

4.Make Sure The Video Marketing Concentrates On ONE Key Promise To The Visitor.

The video has to communicate clearly the unique benefit, which a visitor gets, when he buys your product.The ideal mix of the content is the right balance of convincing and emotional content.The graphics is a good way to demonstrate the key points. But still there can be only one key, different promise to the visitor.

5.Make A Proper Brief For The Video Marketing.

It is useful to make some basic questions, when you plan the internet home business video or before you select some ready made one. Why do I need a video marketing, what is the target, what is the target group, what is the key promise, what is the style and tone of voice of the video, what topics have to be told, how to convince the target group, what is the length and the budget.

As YouTube has showed, the video marketing is the hottest hot topic and can be splendedly used in the internet home business. It is a great tool to increase the effectiveness of the marketing, the conversion rate and to make the visitor relationship more emotional.

The top employment agencies in U.S of America are given here.

Ranking of the best US employment agencies was based on revenue. The complete portfolio of each agency includes location and the services they offer.

Here are the top employment agencies in U.S of America:

Hudson Global Resources – A division of Hudson Highland Group, Inc. Their vision, “To be the world’s best at helping employers achieve success through people”. They have expertise in staffing and consulting services particularly permanent & contract professionals, outsourcing solutions and talent management.

Kforce Inc. – Located in Tampa, Florida and operates in 67 offices. Kforce Incorporated specializes in staffing services. They positioned highly skilled employees in firms that need them. Kforce serves FORTUNE 1000 corporations, even the small and midsize firms for over 40 years now. Furthermore, they have a web-based service that includes on-line resumes and job vacancies. They believe that great people add up to great results.

9008 Group Inc. – A private company that started in 1978 situated in Torrance, California. A company that does employment placement, administrative & general management, consulting services, management support services, business facilities oversight, business administration services, business intelligence consulting services, project management, industrial management and management advisory services.

Westaff, Inc. – Located in Walnut Creek, California, Westaff has been in the industry for over 60 years with more than 15,000 clients. They’re offering staffing services, professional recruiting, on-location staffing services, talent trak (in-depth behavioral and skills assessments) time trak (web-based workforce management program), payroll services, e-procurement and special projects. They operate in 209 offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Heidrick & Struggles International – Established in Chicago, Illinois, existed for more than 50 years catering to temporary placement, management assessment, and professional development services. They are the leader in executive search industry. Primarily, they provide incomparable service and expertise to bring effective leadership solutions for clients.

Driving Momentum Inc. – Centered in Dallas, Texas, the company started in 1996. A very supportive and receptive company, it works round the clock, 24/7 to meet the requirements of its customers. If in need of professional and best drivers anytime, Driving Momentum is the answer.

Vedior North America, Llc – started 1994, the headquarters is located in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Formerly known as New Boston Group of Companies, the group was bought in 1994 by the UK-located recruitment company Select Appointments (Holdings). Their services include a broad range of staffing services. A staffing solutions to Traditional, Light Industrial Administrative sectors and also Specialist sectors like Healthcare, Information Technology, Engineering, Accounting, and Education. Vedior believes in excellence and innovation in their recruiting practice.

Chg Healthcare Services, Inc – Started in 1979, CHG is one of the pioneer and largest source of healthcare staffing in the United States. They provide a comprehensive service that includes temporary and permanent placement of physicians, health professionals and nurses to hospitals and healthcare firms.

CoWorx Staffing Services, Llc – formerly known as Pomerantz Staffing Services, offers employment services, employee recruiting, temporary staffing solutions, temporary employment, human resources recruiting, on-line recruiting, direct hire/executive recruitment and payroll services since 1974. Their main office is located in Watchung, New Jersey. They credit their success to their unparalleled commitment to people, their clients and their employees.

Odyssey One Source Incorporated – situated in Euless, Texas; operations started since 1990. An individual outsourcing firm that offers answers pertaining to human resources, risk management, payroll, taxes, benefits and training.

When you are running an online business, the analytics data you collect can be extremely useful and yet a large number of site owners simply do not give it the attention it deserves. They find the data they collect boring and dull and do not believe it can really help them to improve their businesses and this is incorrect. Analytics data can be highly useful and can make a big difference to your SEO campaign and your business in the future if used appropriately. There are two certain areas within this data which should be receiving your attention and interest.

The pages within your website which are ranking well and which are attracting traffic are of great significance for link building purposes. You need to know which web pages of your site are working successfully and which are not so you can learn from this information. If a page is being ranked highly you can assess it to see what you are doing right. Does it feature a great deal of high quality content? Does it have a number of links to it? You can consider different aspects of the page and why it is working so well and then use this information to help ensure this remains the case and that you can apply it to other pages too.

If you also know which pages are not ranking well and are not working effectively, you know which areas within your site are weak and can be improved upon. When running a search engine optimisation campaign, it is important to know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong and where effort and hard work needs to be given. Spending your time and effort in the most appropriate areas can of course produce fantastic results.

The second thing you need to be considering and using your data to explore is the keywords you are using within your SEO campaign. See how the words you have selected are performing for your business and if any changes need to be made.

Site owners often have an idea of what keywords will work best for their business and ignore the research telling them whether these words are in fact appropriate or not. This is a huge shame because using the most suitable keywords will help a business to gain exposure and relevant traffic which is vital for success.

Even if you are using the most appropriate keywords and SEO services for your business at one time, the relevancy and usefulness of keywords can change depending on many factors and so keywords need to be monitored.

Analytics data can be hugely useful for online businesses and is something which should be regularly explored. If you do not feel you have the knowledge to use this data effectively, hire SEO professionals to run your SEO campaign for you.

We at http://www.searchengineoptimisation.com can run and monitor your SEO campaign. We will always know what is working for your business and what is not so we will always be able to use the most effective SEO methods for your company.

Link acquisition is central to the complicated and challenging process of SEO optimization. Link building strategies are not the most straightforward aspect of the evolving discipline and thus it makes a great deal of sense to pay close attention to them. A site owner who opts for assistance in this tricky area can come unstuck if they select an incompetent or unscrupulous specialist firm. It is thus imperative to take your time when you are picking a firm and to ask some relevant questions prior to signing a contract.

At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we provide ethical search engine optimization services which are adjusted to the specific requirements of a particular site. Combined with the flexibility of our strategies, this means that the sites of our clients have most things stacked in their favour. It is important for site owners who are looking for assistance to keep an eye out for black hat firms who do not attempt to obtain links in a prudent fashion. Such firms engage in dubious practices such as:

- Establishing so-called ‘satellite sites’ which are all owned by the same firm. This approach endeavours to get links and to direct traffic to the main site. However, the dishonesty in this approach is not likely to pay off. Google and the other major search engines have the capacity to stop this technique from working. If you discover that a firm is doing this on your behalf it is time to get another specialist consultancy

- Purchasing large volumes of poor-quality, irrelevant links. While this strategy may once have led to rapid progress up the search engine results pages, this was over five years ago. Search engine optimization does not stay still and the players who persevere with obsolete methods are not going to prosper. Google has categorised link buying as a black hat technique and it is increasingly demonstrating in practice its theoretical commitment to crack down on the strategy. The reputation and position of your site is dependent on it linking appropriately to sites of a decent nature

- Setting up multiple users accounts on the new social media networking sites. The skilled use of social media marketing is a great way of attracting links and it can be positive in terms of internet reputation management. However, if a firm engages with the new social media in a fraudulent manner it will not have a productive impact with regard to links. Furthermore, it can be a major reputation management blunder

The key thing is to keep hold of a patient attitude. Acquiring links in the proper way can be time-consuming, but it will be beneficial over the medium term. Firms who try to take short cuts, those firms who adopt unethical approaches in attempts to make rapid progress, typically come unstuck in quite spectacular fashion. Those who proceed properly in their SEO packages and take into account the rules are always going to have a vastly superior chance of being successful. Even if black hat methods are not detected swiftly, those users who do make it to spammy sites are unlikely to be impressed by what they see.

In an enterprise environment, voice and video over IP (VoIP) significantly reduces long distance telephone charges by transferring all long-distance voice data over the Internet connection. It also provides a means for rich multimedia applications converging video, voice and data in a single session. Since VoIP shares the Internet connection with other forms of traffic, it must compete with other applications for network bandwidth. In order to make VoIP a viable business application for this scenario, the quality of VoIP should be equal to the traditional PSTN/ISDN voice and video services.

A typical corporate network environment carries a broad mix of data traffic with different bandwidth needs. Bursty data applications, such as email and the web, have variable and unpredictable bandwidth requirements while streaming real-time applications such as voice and video demand consistent bandwidth allocation and minimal delays. While a 250 millisecond delay in an email or a Web page will probably not be noticed, a similar delay in a VoIP phone conversation or video conference would make conversation uneasy and cause callers to talk over each other.

Streaming applications like VoIP and videoconferencing require performance guarantees to ensure that they do not suffer from bandwidth contention from less critical applications and Internet traffic (e.g., non-critical Web browsing, large FTP file transfers, and P2P uploading/downloading of digital music files). A policy based quality of service (QoS) solution can ensure that your voice and video applications receive the bandwidth they require.

So what’s the solution??

First….ensure your network is optimized for sufficent bandwidth….with room for expansion when/if necessary. For businesses with frequent multimedia applications such as videoconferencing….a minimum of DS3 Bandwidth is necessary. Perhaps OC3 for large companies with extensive multimedia load pressures on their network.

Second….allocate your network resources based on business priorities. A commercially available monitoring device will help you monitor and manage network and application performance. This allows you to prioritize traffic traveling over your WAN/Internet connection and guarantee bandwidth for timing-critical, real-time applications like VoIP and videoconferencing. Through such a device specific voice, video and multimedia traffic flows can be identified and the following actions can be assigned: minimum and maximum bandwidth; priorities; guaranteed rate (CBR); fairness; and control over the number of sessions allowed through the network.

Take control of your Internet and WAN resources to optimize the performance of your business-critical applications, VoIP and video traffic. Ensure sufficient bandwidth in your network for near term and expansion needs….and implement a monitoring system to manage the daily operations and priorities.

That’s simply smart business.