Only half of workers think their office collaboration system is immersive

Workers who participated in a recent survey do not think that their employers offer the right collaboration tools for effective working with remote team members to solve complex business problems.

Over a third of respondents said they were ‘neutral’ about the collaboration at their organisation.

Los Angeles based Oblong Industries company conducted live, one-on-one interviews with industry respondents. The survey was executed via iPads through survey platform, Survey Analytics, at the mid-February Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) conference.

Insights gained from at the show indicated a strong demand for immersive systems. Almost 89 percent of those polled “agree” or “strongly agree” that engaging with information in a more interactive and immersive way would help complex business problem solving.

Immersive collaboration includes spatial, multi-dimensional and interactive components. Yet only half (52 percent) of survey respondents said their existing office collaboration system is immersive.

Respondents also estimated immersive collaboration could drive a 65 percent improvement in productivity during meetings.

Over 42 percent of respondents said their biggest challenge with their meeting room technology today is technical delays in starting the meeting.

Important planning and decision making meetings take place in small groups of two to six people. Over 95 percent of respondents said at least half of meetings focused on timely decision making and/or issue resolution take place in small groups.

Ninety-four percent of respondents also noted that at least half of their meetings focused on project advancement take place in small groups.

Whilst organizations may be providing some level of technology for distributed teams, there is still room for improvement. Collaboration solutions should provide seamless connectivity, as well as easy-start technology that does not require a lengthy, involved ignition process.

Millennials are bringing forth a new set of workplace expectations with 52 percent of survey respondents said they believe flexible working (remote work, work/life balance) is the most important aspect.

Twenty nine percent said energizing workspaces, including the latest technology, was most important.

Frequently, the best ideas surface outside of formal board room-style settings and instead arise in more casual environments. Smaller ‘huddle’ rooms encourage collaboration and participation, inspire, and engage.

Lilian Bories, VP Marketing at Oblong said: “Knowledge teams continue to be more and more distributed. Empowering employees to work at 100 percent productivity regardless of where they happen to be sitting is the only way businesses can fully maximize talent.

“Collaborative technology that gives staff the same level of video and content connectedness in or out of the office is critical. These solutions must provide seamless and complete connectedness with content for these distributed participants.”