Resources from Unified Communications

Lenovo Throws Hat in UC Ring with Smart Meeting Room Solution

By Steve Anderson
Contributing Writer

When Lenovo (News - Alert) gets involved in a particular segment of technology, it's safe to say the idea has gone mainstream, if it hadn't already. Now, Lenovo is throwing its hat into the unified communications (UC) front and delivering new value for the mobile workforce with its Smart Meeting Room.

Lenovo's product line already has substantial reach and effectiveness, from individual users to data centers, but with Smart Meeting Room, it brings that capability to businesses that may have users on several different platforms at once. A combination of Intel (News - Alert)'s Unite software and the Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny desktop, users with a six-digit personal identification number (PIN) can connect, wirelessly, to a variety of different display platforms and offer up presentations. Up to four such presentations can run at once, and those interested will need a ThinkCentre M900 Tiny or an M93p Tiny, which start around $619.

Colin McIsaac, who serves as Lenovo Canada's managing director, commented “From an overall perspective, even in the PC space, we continue to evolve beyond hardware. You can see it with the data center, you can see it around software, everything.” Given the declines in PC sales seen over the last several years, McIsaac might have a point in emphasizing Lenovo's own post-PC era moves.

The value of unified communications for businesses that use a mobile workforce is hard to understate. One of the biggest problems in using a mobile workforce can be keeping everyone on the same page, and accountable for work to be supplied. With a unified communications system that can be accessed from a variety of different devices, it's a lot more possible to get people into a centralized location without being forced to maintain entire facilities. That improves versatility, allows employees to work from anywhere at any time, reduces opportunities lost due to scheduling conflicts and time zone matters—no one wants to lose California business because its 2:30 p.m is New York's after hours—and boosts morale as parents no longer have to tell little Timmy why they won't be at his Little League game.

That's valuable, and it can really improve productivity and the bottom line. It requires the right kind of people and the right kind of tools to make it happen, however, and it's tools like Lenovo's Smart Meeting Room system that can provide that necessary infrastructure to carry on. In a world that depends less on company-provided desktop PCs and more on bring your own device (BYOD) doctrines, having the necessary tools to bring people together is valuable for the bottom line, and for the people brought together.