Here are five ways interactive whiteboard can improve collaboration in your organization:
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Increase engagement in collaboration
Instead of spending 30 minutes on one-way presentations being shared across a PowerPoint presentation; an interactive whiteboard allows colleagues to engage with the information being discussed. Files can be easily shared, accessed, edited, and saved all on the interactive whiteboard. Meeting leaders can emphasize things in real-time—making changes to whatever topic is at hand as feedback is received from coworkers.
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Boost Communication of Team
Not only can you share files with those at the meeting, but an interactive whiteboard also allows for the ability to easily share the screen with remote attendees. This way everyone has exactly the same information and all team members are on the same page. At the end of the meeting or presentation, the meeting leader can email, print, and share everything that came up in the whiteboarding session.
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Effectively annotate documents together
Unlike document sharing, interactive whiteboard users can make persistent and effective changes to documents during the session. Tools included with whiteboards can allow for 3D modeling, estimating, hyperlinking, video links, and other applications that can improve communication and make documents stronger. Writing is clear and concise, and harder to misconstrue.
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Greater range of data sharing and interconnectivity with mobile connectivity compatibility
With the right hardware, users can connect interactive whiteboards to IOS and Android smart devices with a single application. This results in a greater range of data sharing and interconnectivity.
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Information is available to your fingertips with a simple touch
One to five fingers can be used to gesture and work with touch-screen whiteboards—no mouse, no pointers, and no ink stains everywhere. Users cannot do this with document sharing.
What about using screen sharing on computers to collaborate?
Screen sharing through a laptop is a good way to get everyone on the same page. Tools allow users to share what is on their screen or see what is on another user’s screen. This is useful for when something breaks and you can fix it faster than you could explain it. Sometimes, a user simply needs to “show” rather than “tell” what is happening, and screen sharing allows others to see it as it’s happening and be a part of troubleshooting, training, or whatever the case may be. Documents can also be shared so everyone is looking at the same thing, whether it is a presentation or a schematic.
So is whiteboarding a better way to collaborate than screen sharing?
Whiteboarding allows businesses to turn the collaborative process into something that more closely parallels editing than working together. This works particularly well when employees are working with an outside party or client who they don’t know very well; the formality of the situation can make it difficult to build on ideas effectively. The brainstorming process begins in the more spontaneous setting of a whiteboard, which allows people to spread their ideas out alongside each other in a physical space.
Some of today’s most innovative companies devote large amounts of space to their whiteboards, a gesture that signals a collaborative spirit. To achieve the same spirit while working remotely, businesses can use unified communication and collaboration tool sets that include virtual whiteboards. VARs should discuss these benefits with their customers to show the advantages of interactive whiteboarding over document sharing tools.
