The pandemic has forced humankind to ruminate on its frailty and come face to face with some facts. One of them is to see the productivity of working from home. The digitised realm has made remote communication fast and productive.
As a matter of fact, a report published by Upwork suggests that one in four Americans, i.e., 26% of the total workforce, would start to work from home by 2021. Moreover, several studies conducted over time have suggested that people turn out to be 47% more productive when they work from home.
Some businesses claim that working from home becomes bothersome when colleagues cannot extend their views effectively. Smart interactive whiteboards execute a solution to this burgeoning problem. Traditional Whiteboards have been around in our houses, classes, offices, and hospitals since the 1960s.
Technology has changed the face of whiteboards and has converted them to a smart interactive whiteboard, thus enlarging its function from a powerful tool for disseminating information to a platform for engagement.
So let us dive into the significance of smartboard in assisting the workforce operating from home.
Table of Contents
Collaborative Meetings
People complain that working from the office has the added advantage of establishing healthy lines of communication. This is true, but this also holds good for online meetings. In a physical meeting, the presenter stands and explain everything that he has collated through a ppt. Maybe the presenter had to scribble his points on a traditional whiteboard. Either way, he ends up standing in front of people.
Now, introduce work from home settings here with an IWB and see how things change. Anyone can access the whiteboard through their devices. So, the presenter is sitting comfortably in his home presiding over the meeting. The screen is clearly visible to everyone, which is sometimes not possible if the conference room is big.
It saves a lot of time because people need not physically come into the conference room. All you have to do is just send an intimation through email and start the meeting with a click.
You may also make people collaborate on the meeting. They can add or delete anything remotely on the screen, share files, share their screen, and do much more.
Document Annotation
You might have observed that certain significant ideas, terms or definitions are highlighted in bold or printed in a catchy text to stand out from the rest of the document. The purpose is to highlight important things to the visual senses.
Our mind is able to identify and remember text that is standing out as important and saves that in our conscious memory. It can also come in handy to have the key takeaways of the meeting. This is limited while working on a traditional whiteboard.
Whereas ICW allows users to annotate what is displayed across the screen. It means that presentations can be edited or highlighted to create a more emphatic visual appeal.
Connect with Everyone Remotely
You can connect any device to the ICW with the supported app. All of the above features would have been for nothing if this feature was not enabled. ICW designers and vendors identified this problem early and integrated the solution with the whiteboards.
Whiteboards can be accessed through any smart device provided the user has the supportive application and the same Wi-Fi as the whiteboard is using. Plus, all their features work well with collaborative features like placing a video call. Google Jamboard supports online meetings through Hangouts. Smartboards like Samsung Flip and Vibe ICW can support much software for online meetings.
Markers, Ink, and the impending shake
Gone are the days of the markers. Feel like a magician enchanting and creating things with its fingers while gliding through the surface of the whiteboard. You need not worry about the Ink or shaking it only to flinging the Ink at others or the wall.
Marker pens have a significant role in creating hilarious anecdotes for office going people, though. But the time has come to say bye-bye. Whiteboards need a stylus or fingers to draw something that does not need Ink or shaking before using them.
Similarly, if anything is deleted, you need to click instead of searching for a decent duster to clean the surface. This adds up to another supportive feature of the whiteboard assisting those working at the WFH model.
Conclusion
Since the 1960s, whiteboards have been a part of our lives, long before smartphones and tablets were invented. However, seeing markers, inkpots, and dusters evoke nostalgia of childhood, but the tide of time sweeps everything with it for development. ICW has relieved us of technical faults of presenting the meeting; instead, it has allowed users to focus on the content more.
