Technology news Tracking the time of home workers Glue’s VR conferencing solution


In recent years, there has been a huge spike in the number of businesses offering flexible hours and remote working, as increasingly more and more of us crave being able to escape the 9-to-5 and a culture of presenteeism and dominating office hierarchies. The corona- virus outbreak has brought this straight to the forefront, with at least one in five UK employees potentially having to work from home in the coming weeks and months. Yves Hiernaux, CEO of time tracking experts Beebole has urged decision makers not to see remote working as the en- emy. He says it is vital that organisations have the correct policies and procedures in place - like an effective time tracking system - which not only enables flexible and home working but also combats the age-old problems of absentee- ism and presenteeism.


their teams are forced to start working remotely in the coming weeks as the country comes up against coronavirus.


“Employers should trust their employees are working, wheth- er they're in the office or not. The coronavirus is clearly going to have a huge impact on the UK workforce. If employers are truly worried about their team working remotely, employers can see how many hours were worked (and from where they were registered) if using a cloud-based time tracking sys- tem,” said Yves Hiernaux, CEO of the time tracking tool Bee- Bole Timesheet. “Presenteeism and absenteeism are very much alive and well in today's work culture, so remote or not, the real key is being able to mea- sure productivity in other ways. Remote working is not the en- emy.”


Absenteeism and presenteeism are constant strains on the time


either absent from work due to disengagement or physical or mental illness, or is present at work but under-performing, it impacts organisations across the board. It lowers morale by increasing


others' workloads,


forces meetings to be resched- uled and can even put projects at risk. It places added pres- sure on everybody's time and is one of the biggest threats to productivity. Today,


many businesses


throughout the UK are real- ising that implementing an easy and efficient time track- ing system is no longer simply about clocking in and or clock- ing off. It's about the type of business intelligence that data holds. Imagine knowing your employees' absenteeism rate at a glance or being able to pinpoint when they might be burning out. This opens the door for a very necessary con- versation perhaps even before any serious issues have arisen. Not keeping track of this data or having the context to really understand what you're seeing are missed opportunities. BeeBole Timesheet was found- ed in 2008 when founders Yves Hiernaux and Mic Cvilic realised there was a need for a cloud-based HR tool for small and medium sized businesses. BeeBole believes in easy time tracking for everyone, every- where. BeeBole Timesheet is now used by more than 1,000 customers spanning 63 coun- tries, including companies like Zurich and Michelin, as well as more than 1,000 other compa- nies worldwide.


BeeBole Timesheet was founded in 2008 when founders Yves Hier- naux (pictured) and Mic Cvilic realised there was a need for a cloud- based HR tool for small and medium sized businesses.


No matter your business size, time is your greatest commod- ity. It's how you utilise your time- and the time of all of your employees- that determines ef- ficiency, productivity and, ulti- mately. success. By implement- ing a cloud-based time tracking system, employers can ensure projects stay on track even if


of all organisations. The UK government says an estimated 141.4


million working days


were lost because of sickness or injury in the UK in 2018, the equivalent to 4.4 days per worker. This is costing UK com- panies around £77.5 billion each year according to Vitality Health. When an employee is


Hiernaux adds: “By empow- ering your business with an effective time tracking system all aspects of your business are likely to improve, from ef- ficiency and productivity to employee health and well-be- ing. An effective time tracking system will not look the same for all companies, and needs to be fast, easy and flexible, en- abling companies to track time daily, weekly, monthly and in real-time. It needs to be specif- ically designed for a company's convenience and provide man- agement with a real insight into workers behaviours and perfor- mance.”


Helsinki- based Glue Collab- oration has introduced a new generation of its VR conferenc- ing solution for PC and Mac, adding a host of new features as well as support for Oculus Quest headsets. Glue provides shared virtual environments where dispersed participants can come together to learn, share, plan and create as if they were face to face in a real physical space. During the ini- tial pilot phase over the past


businesses have a new, more affordable and low-friction way for their employees to use the platform. They can take advan- tage of an array of new features and improvements. These in- clude: •A new virtual touch interface that enables users to easily set about performing different tasks such as writing notes, creating whiteboards and mak- ing annotations in 3D •Team Files - file sharing sys-


certification following testing of its quality, reliability and in- teroperability in Google’s part- ner lab. Creating a seamless communi- cations experience, this part- nership between Google and AVer Europe enables users to start chat conversations or video calls, make phone calls using Wi-Fi or data, send text messages with Google Voice or Project


Fi, and automatically sync devices across their net-


year, more than 200 organisa- tions - including leading cor- porations like HP, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Microsoft - have experienced Glue as well as provided feedback that has been incorporated into the lat- est release. “Given


growing tools travel that un-


certainties, new cost-saving imperatives and the


emergency, the need for remote collaboration


climate truly


emulate the experience of be- ing face-to-face with others has never been greater,” said Jussi Havu, CEO, Glue Collaboration. “Traditional audio and video conferencing tools fall short in providing such an experience as they lack true human pres- ence and effective co-creation tools. Glue is a powerful al- ternative, and our new release provides the most feature-rich virtual environment yet for ef- fective remote collaboration in both real time as well as asym- metrically. With Glue, now compatible with the affordable standalone Oculus


Quest VR headset, Vaddio launches AV-over-IP video conferencing


Manufacturer of professional quality PTZ cameras Vaddio an- nounces the launch of its Easy- IP Ecosystem. An AV-over-IP conferencing system, the Easy- IP provides simple, flexible and industry-leading video quality over a standard 1 Gb Ethernet network. Hosting the video and camera on the same IP infra- structure, Vaddio enables mul- tiple meeting room cameras to connect simultaneously and easily switch between differ- ent viewpoints via a network, without the requirement of a switcher.


Arnoud Helmantel, product manager for Vaddio EMEA, comments: “The EasyIP Eco- system eliminates the need for teams to purchase expensive video switchers, controllers, ex-


tension systems and dedicated processing devices thanks to the intelligence we build into our cameras. This not only pro- vides resellers with a more prof- itable offering that’s quick and easy to install, but end users have an advanced conferencing suite without complicated tech- nology.”


Included in the EasyIP Ecosys- tem Base Kit is an EasyIP De- coder, Easy IP 10 Camera and a pre-configured Luxul AMS- 1208 Switch. Providing a stan- dard UVC USB 3.0 stream of video and audio for web-based conferencing systems connect- ed to PC and BYOD devices, Vaddio’s EasyIP 10 Camera sends video and control signals to two EasyIP Decoders. Each EasyIP Decoder can smoothly


switch between four EasyIP 10 Cameras, which send 1080p / 60fps feeds via the 1 Gb Lux- ul AMS-1208 PoE+ switch. By eliminating challenges and costs of USB extensions, Vad- dio is offering a more afford- able solution to traditional ex- tension systems.


Darrin Thurston, VP and gen- eral manager at Vaddio, com- ments: ”With the EasyIP, Vad- dio is bringing our ‘Art of Easy’ legacy in AV to the world of IP. We’re constantly striving to bring new innovations and easy-to-use networked


audio


and video products, and this is no exception.” A complete out- of-the-box solution, the EasyIP is suited to medium and large conference rooms, lecture the- atres and classrooms, large


spaces with room dividers or partitions, for uninterrupted video conference calls.


tem for sharing presentations, 3D models and images •A set of new virtual spaces for effective collaboration includ- ing Project Garden, Lake Cubic and Clarity Island


•A new integrated camera, with users able to take selfies •Extended keyboard character support, and new supported languages


There are many ways for organ- isations to use Glue, reflective of the diverse ways people col- laborate in the physical world. These range from recurring re- mote meetings, project scrums, virtual training simulations and product marketing showcases to workshops where dispersed teams can put their heads to- gether. AVer CAM520 camera certified for Google Hangouts AVer Europe has announced its bestselling CAM520 profes- sional plug-n-play camera has received certification for Goo- gle Hangouts Meet hardware, providing automatic updates, syncing and flexibility for users. The CAM520 has received the


work.


Support for Google Hangouts Meet hardware begins with Chrome 70 update and offers more flexibility to a conference room and ensures that


the


CAM520 is always up to date with the latest software from Google, reducing any delays or potential barriers within video conferencing. The AVer CAM520 is a profes- sional grade yet user-friendly PTZ camera that is perfect for mid to large conference rooms. With 12X optical zoom, fast au- to-focus functions, HD 1080p and smooth pan, tilt, zoom ca- pabilities, the CAM520 results in uninterrupted sharp images for an outstanding video com- munication experience. It can capture the smallest details with absolute clarity. The built- in USB interface is compatible with any desktop or laptop and can be used with various meet- ing and video apps, making video conferencing as simple as plugging in a single cable.


The AVer CAM520 comes in a sil- ver casing, with a three-year war- ranty and a two-year extension automatically upon successful completion of registration: it has a MSRP of £799 ex VAT.


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