Before COVID-19, organizing a meeting simply meant finding the nearest available conference room and gathering there with colleagues. Whether they were scheduled or ad hoc, meetings were effortless when everyone inhabited the same office.
The pandemic, however, upended meetings as usual. Employees switched from their desks in the office to the kitchen table at home, eliminating in-person meetings almost entirely. And as organizations worked remotely, video meetings prevailed.
Supporting tomorrow’s fragmented teams
Yet, as we look toward the post-pandemic workplace, meetings are expected to transform again. Remote work is here to stay, and many companies are quickly adopting flexible work arrangements.
This means tomorrow’s teams can be heavily distributed, with some colleagues in the office and some at home. Meetings will be a hybrid of meeting rooms and video conferencing.
The traditional meeting—where colleagues get together in a meeting room—won’t be enough. As remote and flexible work grows, the plain meeting rooms of old lack the ability to facilitate collaboration amongst employees who work from anywhere, whether it’s in the office or somewhere else.
Tomorrow’s meetings require more than a room. They need to bridge the gap between in-office and remote workers and drive collaboration as effectively as traditional meeting rooms did, allowing teams to work together regardless of location.
Specifically, employees outside of the office should have the option of joining meeting rooms through the same video conferencing tools they already use. This allows teams to recreate the face-to-face interactions critical to productive meetings.
Enter RingCentral Rooms
Yesterday’s siloed meeting rooms fall short in the post-COVID-19 era of work. If teams are to continue communicating and collaborating, meeting rooms must move to the cloud. That’s where RingCentral Rooms comes in.
RingCentral Rooms transforms meeting rooms of any size into cloud-based video collaborative spaces, where both in-office and remote teams can work together face-to-face. It uses hardware many meeting rooms are already equipped with (cameras, TVs, speakers, and computers).
How RingCentral Rooms simplifies the modern meeting
Designed to work in any room, RingCentral Rooms takes the logistical headaches out of holding hybrid meetings so that teams can spend their time focused on the objective at hand—not making sure everyone can see and hear what’s happening in the meeting. Here are four key ways RingCentral Rooms makes meetings better.
1. Setting up is a breeze
Instant join
Initiate or log onto an existing meeting from any device with just a click.
Dual screen support
See shared content on one screen and meeting participants on another.
Simple one-panel dashboard
Manage meeting room controls (mute/unmute, add participants, assign moderators, and more) all from a single iOS or Android tablet.
Direct sharing
Wirelessly share content from your mobile device or laptop via a single button.
Calendar integration
Schedule a RingCentral Room meeting directly from Outlook or Google calendar.
2. Compatible for meeting rooms of all sizes
RingCentral Rooms converts any meeting room into a video meeting room. From huddle rooms designed for small team meetings, to large conference rooms where entire departments gather, every room can support in-office and remote collaboration.
3. Detailed insights into meeting room effectiveness
With RingCentral Rooms, organizations have access to detailed analytics such as usage patterns, user preferences, and more to optimize resource investment and easily troubleshoot issues.
4. Protected with enterprise-grade security
Shield your meetings and reduce the risk of unwanted interruptions with best-in-class security controls.
How to get RingCentral Rooms
RingCentral Rooms is available to all RingCentral Office users and supports most off-the-shelf hardware products (cameras, TVs, speakers) that your rooms might already be equipped with. RingCentral Rooms is also available with Poly Studio X all-in-one video bar devices.
Support your future workforce today
The workplace is transforming faster than ever. Already, businesses are supercharging productivity by allowing employees to work where they feel most comfortable.
Instead of allowing fragmented teams to hinder communication and collaboration, modernizing your meeting rooms can promote the teamwork necessary for driving success in the future of work. And with the right technology, your organization is fully prepared to meet the needs of tomorrow’s workforce.
We recognize that some organizations may not be prepared to make buying decisions during COVID-19. For those organizations, RingCentral will be here when your office reopens.
Learn more about RingCentral Rooms here.
Originally published Sep 17, 2020, updated Dec 30, 2022
