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Microsoft Technology Centre achieves better productivity through using SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards
information exchanged often involved
using cameras to capture drawings
and notes written on the dry erase
boards in the meeting room. Writing
up all of the information from the
meeting would frequently take up a
day or more in time. This also meant
that the meeting room itself could
not be used during this time as all
the information was still on the dry
erase boards.
Improving meeting efficiency
Microsoft wanted to improve the
productivity and effectiveness of
these meetings and decided to install
a new meeting room solution from
SMART Technologies to achieve
these aims. They installed a meeting
room system that combines SMART
Board™ interactive whiteboards,
SMART Meeting Pro™ Premium
software, SMART Bridgit™
conferencing software, ultra-
short-throw projectors and
multimedia speakers.
SMART Board interactive whiteboards
combine the simplicity of a whiteboard
with the power of a computer.
Together with SMART Meeting Pro
Premium software, users can write
notes in digital ink over any document,
application or website on the
interactive whiteboard and save them
as a PDF or PPT file. Marked-up pages,
revised documents, diagrams, notes
and comments can all be captured
easily and e-mailed directly to meeting
participants. You can also write and
save notes directly into applications
such as Microsoft Word, Excel or
PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat and
AutoCAD.
SMART Story
Microsoft Technology Centre achieves better
productivity through using SMART Board
™
interactive whiteboards
Increased sales pipeline
The productivity gains in using the
interactive whiteboards are significant.
The meeting room solution is enabling
Microsoft to work more efficiently.
Martyn Davis, Manager MTC Reading
at Microsoft, explains “Before we
installed the meeting room solution,
we used to spend one full day writing
up the notes of a meeting. Now
we can accurately record all of the
meeting notes automatically on the
interactive whiteboard - including
all the annotations and notes made
during the meeting - which wasn’t
possible using dry erase boards. The
information is then saved onto a
USB stick and given to the customer
immediately after the meeting
has finished.”
Another benefit of the new meeting
room solution is that it has greatly
improved the utilisation of the MTC.
Martyn continues,”Using the new
solution from SMART Technologies,
we have improved the effectiveness
and efficiency of our meetings and
write ups. Because of this we are now
able to fit in additional meetings at the
MTC. This has helped our sales teams
to meet more customers and thereby
increase our sales pipeline.”
Now when a meeting has finished
and the notes from the interactive
whiteboard have been captured, it is
then cleared of all information and
applications closed down making sure
that confidential information is not left
on view. The room is then ready for
the next session.
Microsoft’s Technology Centre (MTC)
in Reading, Berkshire hosts hundreds
of customers per year - from start up
companies to FTSE 100 companies -
to help them understand and improve
their business processes.
Depending on the complexity of the
problem, the customer meeting could
last up to 3 days with Microsoft’s
Developer and Platform Evangelist
(DPE) team often discussing products
that have not been officially released
yet. With up to six people involved
in these meetings, gathering the
“Using the new solution from
SmArt technologies, we have
improved the effectiveness and
efficiency of our meetings
and write ups. Because of this, we
are now able to fit in additional
meetings at the mtC. this has
helped our sales teams to
meet more customers and thereby
increase our sales pipeline.”
Martyn Davis,
Manager MTC
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