By: Eric Blaier, Integrated Business Services
In today’s current global economy, we are asked to do less with more, but do it quicker, better and in a way that is easy to replicate. Companies are trying to stretch their budgets, but often follow the same procedures and try to “trim the fat” from the same operations. I’ve always been a big believer in changing process if you want results, and one of the greatest areas to boost productivity, cut costs, and work smarter, is by more effectively utilizing the telecommunications services available to help today’s corporate user.

One of the key areas that can be improved is the “mandatory face-to-face meeting”, as there are several factors that should be considered when assessing business travel and the need for really meeting “face to face”.

The first thing to consider is, “What is the importance of this meeting relative to the time it is taking away from my staff?” The second consideration would be “How does this time away from their reports/duties possibly affect the overall well-being of our organization?” Finally, I would assess the total hard dollar travel cost and determine if it’s imperative to bring key personnel to meet on-site.

Recently a friend of mine (let’s call him Tom) told me a story that typifies the need for more time-effective, cost-efficient, and productivity enhancing organizational communication. Tom heads the national sales of North America for a European company. At the end of their most recent sales quarter, Tom was summoned unexpectedly to Europe with a 3-day notice to go over sales projections. In the meantime, Tom had several important sales meetings scheduled with his team that needed to close in order to hit those projections. Clearly, Tom could not be in both places at once.

His initial thought was to schedule a conference call with the principals in Europe to review the sales projections, but he regrettably did not do so. Tom took the meeting in Europe, met his superiors, and his sales organization missed their numbers for the first time in his tenure of several years with the company. Tom learned that his first priority is to deliver numbers, as that is what he is ultimately measured on.

A simple conference call set up between the parties, even globally, would have resulted in thousands of immediate dollars in cost-savings just from the travel alone. When you factor in the lost deals that needed Tom’s guidance, and the fact that the company missed its sales projections, it negatively affected the numbers of the company when it was reported to the investment community. The financial performance caused the stock to drop 5% over the news, negatively affecting the shareholder value, in addition to questions from the investment community as the strength of the organization.

In today’s global economy, it is paramount to do things in the most efficient way possible. Like the BlackBerry’s that proliferate corporate culture today, effectively using an audio conferencing service can truly help in making a difference between your organization succeeding or failing. Sometimes in more than hard dollar savings.