Tag Archives: Chromebox for meetings

Chromebase for meetings makes video-conferencing personal and simple

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Senior Product Manager, Chrome for Work

Since we introduced Chromebox for meetings just over two years ago, many of you have enjoyed how our devices make meetings simple and easy. Companies such as Flipkart, PwC, Pinterest and the State of Wyoming are spending less time setting up their conference calls and more time collaborating as groups across regions in rooms of all sizes with Chromebox for meetings.

Today we’re making this easy collaboration available in smaller spaces and also improving remote device management. Say hello to the Acer Chromebase for meetings, an all-in-one secure video-conferencing device optimized for use in small meeting areas with up to two people. It's a secure, self updating, easy to manage unit that builds on Chrome and WebRTC innovations for sharper video, audio and screen sharing. Guest account support makes it simple to join a meeting even without a Google account: Just click a meeting link invitation and you’re connected.

Meet from more places, with more particpants

So now, you can collaborate and meet over video from a dedicated device at home, your desk at work or a phone room. And since meeting in smaller spaces creates additional opportunity to work together across larger groups, we've also recently expanded the number of meeting participants to 25 people for Google Apps customers.

After testing Chromebase for meetings in its offices, SignalFx sees the benefits.
“Using Chromebase for meetings has been an amazing experience from the start! Right out of the box, it's easy to use and lets us collaborate quickly. The centralized management option allows for full control and oversight, and the price is amazing as well." — Heidi Olson, Executive Assistant / Office Manager, SignalFx
Chromebase for meetings gets technology out of the way; just plug it in, connect it to your network and you’re up and running securely.

Chromebase for meetings is ideally suited for capturing audio and video in personal and shared workspaces:
  • Large 24-inch adjustable touchscreen display
  • Integrated, adjustable HD camera
  • 4 microphones and 2 stereo speakers

Improved management tools for meeting devices


We're also happy to announce new features to our remote fleet management tools. Administrators can receive alert notifications and track health of their fleet of Chrome devices for meetings. They can remotely diagnose and troubleshoot audio, video quality and bandwidth problems. Administrators can also customize the interface using their own background images.

Chromebase for meetings availability


Chromebase for meetings is available at $799 from our partners in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia. The cost includes the first year’s management and support fees. We'll soon after expand availability to additional countries where Chromebox for meetings is available today.

You can learn more about Chromebase for meetings on our website.

Sign up here to try two Chromebase for meetings devices at no cost for 30 days and receive a special promotion pricing of $549 per device with first year’s management and support fee included.*

*Subject to approval and limited to the first 1,000 signups



Chromebase for meetings makes video-conferencing personal and simple

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Senior Product Manager, Chrome for Work

(Cross-posted on the Google for Work Blog.)

Since we introduced Chromebox for meetings just over two years ago, many of you have enjoyed how our devices make meetings simple and easy. Companies such as Flipkart, PwC, Pinterest and the State of Wyoming are spending less time setting up their conference calls and more time collaborating as groups across regions in rooms of all sizes with Chromebox for meetings.

Today we’re making this easy collaboration available in smaller spaces and also improving remote device management. Say hello to the Acer Chromebase for meetings, an all-in-one secure video-conferencing device optimized for use in small meeting areas with up to two people. It's a secure, self updating, easy to manage unit that builds on Chrome and WebRTC innovations for sharper video, audio and screen sharing. Guest account support makes it simple to join a meeting even without a Google account: Just click a meeting link invitation and you’re connected.

Meet from more places, with more particpants

So now, you can collaborate and meet over video from a dedicated device at home, your desk at work or a phone room. And since meeting in smaller spaces creates additional opportunity to work together across larger groups, we've also recently expanded the number of meeting participants to 25 people for Google Apps customers. After testing Chromebase for meetings in its offices, SignalFx sees the benefits.
“Using Chromebase for meetings has been an amazing experience from the start! Right out of the box, it's easy to use and lets us collaborate quickly. The centralized management option allows for full control and oversight, and the price is amazing as well." — Heidi Olson, Executive Assistant / Office Manager, SignalFx
Chromebase for meetings gets technology out of the way; just plug it in, connect it to your network and you’re up and running securely.
Chromebase for meetings is ideally suited for capturing audio and video in personal and shared workspaces:
  • Large 24-inch adjustable touchscreen display
  • Integrated, adjustable HD camera
  • 4 microphones and 2 stereo speakers

Improved management tools for meeting devices

We're also happy to announce new features to our remote fleet management tools. Administrators can receive alert notifications and track health of their fleet of Chrome devices for meetings. They can remotely diagnose and troubleshoot audio, video quality and bandwidth problems. Administrators can also customize the interface using their own background images.

Chromebase for meetings availability

Chromebase for meetings is available at $799 from our partners in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia. The cost includes the first year’s management and support fees. We'll soon after expand availability to additional countries where Chromebox for meetings is available today. You can learn more about Chromebase for meetings on our website. Sign up here to try two Chromebase for meetings devices at no cost for 30 days and receive a special promotion pricing of $549 per device with first year’s management and support fee included.*

 *Subject to approval and limited to the first 1,000 signups

GANT suits up for global growth with Google Apps for Work

Posted by Kenneth Karlsson, IT Manager, GANT AB

Editor's note: Today we hear from Kenneth Karlsson, IT Manager for GANT AB, a multinational clothing company based in Sweden. From its Swedish headquarters and three overseas subsidiaries, GANT coordinates 50 suppliers with 40 franchise partners worldwide to bring its brand of wearable fashion to more than 700 stores around the globe. Read why GANT chose Google Apps for Work to bring this global network together.

When I started work here in the 1980s, GANT was far from being the major multinational brand it is today. And though we’ve always been expanding, we’ve grown at a much faster pace since 2009 – the year we upgraded our communications and transitioned to Google Apps for Work. Since then, GANT and its partners more than doubled our number of stores, opening an additional 392 new stores spread across the world.


We initially switched to Google Apps to replace an email solution that was expensive, overloaded and incompatible with the range of operating systems we used. And with our subsidiaries in Sweden, the US, the UK and France effectively running as separate organisations and without essential collaborative abilities, including shared calendar access, we also had to find a way to come together if we wanted to compete globally. I was convinced that a web-based email platform would be the cost-effective, forward-thinking solution we needed. In 2009, the only major company to offer that was Google, and they’ve stayed ahead of that curve ever since.

It took our small IT team just three months to roll Google Apps for Work out across four countries. First, we ran a pilot programme in Sweden with 20 users, assisted by Avalon Solutions, the IT consultancy that enabled our switch to Google Apps. Then we deployed 400 accounts over two months by holding training sessions with small groups. People who already used web-based private email required minimal training, and because it’s a web-based system, we simply sent out log-in information instead of installing a client on every computer. Now we’re running 1,000 Google accounts and have decommissioned our expensive email server. That means we’re saving on hardware maintenance and cut out the hassle of handling spam or chasing people to free up space by deleting their emails. Factor in cheaper licenses and zero software installation costs over the past six years, and we’re saving a huge amount of money.

Google Apps for Work is uniquely suitable for doing business on a global scale. It’s not just about relying on web-based mobility to access all of our files and emails anywhere, anytime. Because Google Apps works through a browser, we no longer have compatibility problems with our 40 independent franchise partners, each of which has its own IT setup. Assigning single-sign-on accounts to those partners gives them controlled access to our intranet and Drive. Using Drive lets us centralise administration from our Stockholm office and provides a shared hub to consolidate accounting and retail information across all of our subsidiaries. We use Docs and Sheets globally to manage orders and deliveries with our 50 suppliers in China, Portugal and Spain, while local colleagues can work alongside each other on a single document to craft swift and thorough reports. And Google’s size and reputation gives us peace of mind about its security and stability that we would not get from smaller cloud systems.

By using Google Apps for Work, we enjoy constant and automatic system improvements. New functions regularly appear on Drive, so we’re always ahead of the game as the marketplace evolves. For example, in 2009, Hangouts and tablets didn’t exist. Now outside every meeting room we have an Android tablet linked to Calendar so we can see who’s booked them, while inside the rooms we have Chromebox for meetings to enable Hangout video conferencing. With another IT solution, after six years we’d already be looking for a replacement. With Google Apps for Work, we’re still ahead of the game.

What’s New with Chromebox for meetings?

As noted in our previous update, we are following the Chrome OS release cycle to provide regular updates to Google Apps customers who use Chromebox for meetings devices on new feature releases and improvements. With the recent release of Chrome OS 48 stable, the Chrome for Work team is excited to announce the following updates:

Instant reboot from the Admin console
We recently launched the ability for domain administrators to instantly restart Chromebox for meetings devices on their domain remotely. This policy is enabled at the device level and can be useful when supporting remote office locations when a device is experiencing issues.

Persistent system logs after a crash or reboot
Starting today, we have enabled logs to remain on a Chromebox for meetings device after a crash so that a problem can be more easily diagnosed. Until now it was difficult to troubleshoot issues that resulted in a system crash or reboot because Chromebox for meetings would not save the necessary logs needed to diagnose the root cause of the issue.

Improvements to Chrome
Chromebox for Meetings builds on Chrome, which frequently auto updates with new features and improvements. For Chrome 48, Chromebox for meetings devices and remote users will benefit from improved screen sharing performance on low bandwidth connections.


Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Phase2 brings its “everywhere” teams closer together, saving time and money with Chromebox for meetings

Posted by Frank Febbraro, CTO, Phase2 Technology

Editor's note: Today’s guest post is by Frank Febbraro, CTO of Phase2 Technology, which helps clients such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer and Harvard Business School manage the way content is created, shared and experienced online. See how Phase2 Technology saves $3,000 a day and more than 100 hours a week by using Chromebox for meetings.


From the day we launched, we designed Phase2 Technology as a company that welcomed people who didn’t work on-site. In fact, we like to say we have five locations: New York, Washington, D.C., Portland, San Francisco and “everywhere” — a solid 25 percent of our employees work remotely. Because of this, we build our teams without worrying about where people are. A project lead in Portland might team up with people in Austin or Oklahoma City.

The most talented people don’t necessarily live near our offices, but that shouldn’t stand in the way of giving clients our best work. We rely on technology like Chromebox for meetings to bring down the barriers that get in the way of distributed teams working together.
Before we discovered Chromeboxes, the audiovisual situation for our meetings seemed like an insurmountable barrier.

Every video conference began as a comedy of errors: if we scheduled a half-hour meeting, we had to build in 10 minutes to struggle with the AV setup. We tried cobbling together configurations of cameras and mics, but nothing created the one-click system we needed. There were too many settings for employees to manage and too much tinkering around to get the meetings going. Plus, every room had a different system and settings. With five or so people in every meeting losing ten minutes on AV setup struggles, and those people meeting with others several times a day, we wasted dozens of hours every week. Over the course of a year, this translated into tens of thousands of dollars of lost time spent not delivering value to our clients.

All this changed when we brought Chromebox for meetings to eight conference rooms among our four offices. There’s no learning curve: people walk into a room and click one button on the Chromebox remote to start the meeting. We already use Google Hangouts and Google Calendar, so Chromebox fits in with the tools we know. We now work more fluidly, since we can start ad hoc meetings without worrying about cameras, mics and settings.

Chromebox for meetings saves time for our teams as they meet and also benefits our IT team. The management console lets us choose how the Chromeboxes operate, and those settings apply to every room and every meeting. Compared to conferencing systems that cost several thousand dollars per room, Chromebox for meetings costs much less and is much easier to set up and use. Achieving this ease at scale is critical for us — each employee might do as many as 10 Hangouts a day; multiply that by 140 people, and we’re spending about 450 hours on Hangouts daily.

Efficiency and time management are especially critical for a business like ours, which makes money by billing hourly and delivering excellent, efficient client service. We’ve reduced our IT costs for maintaining meeting rooms to just about zero. We used to spend about four hours a month per room on maintaining our old AV setups. We now spend about one hour per month total on all rooms — from 32 hours a month on maintenance down to just one hour.

We can do more with so much less now. Better meetings help us get rid of distractions so we can get right down to business, no matter where in the world our teams are.

What’s new with Chromebox for meetings?

Chromebox for meetings brings high-quality video conferencing to any room. To help Google Apps customers who use Chromebox for meetings devices stay on top of new feature releases and improvements, starting today we’ll provide a regular recap of recent and upcoming launches. Today’s update coincides with the release of Chrome OS 47 stable, and we will continue to post updates moving forward following the Chrome OS six week release cycle. 

Guest Access
Google Hangouts now supports meeting participants who do not have Google accounts.

Various Performance Optimizations
  • Improved WebRTC to reduce audio echoing and optimize performance on Hangouts.
  • Faster HD resolution, smoother video rendering, and OPUS codec for improved audio quality on CfM.
  • Screenshare improvements for faster updates for complex on-screen changes.

Admin Email Notifications
We recently launched the ability for domain administrators to be notified when a Chromebox for meetings device goes offline, either by email or SMS. There is a known issue on being notified after scheduled reboots, and we are actively working on resolving it.

On-screen Volume Control
In addition to using the buttons on the speaker/mic, it is now possible to adjust the volume using on-screen controls that have been added to the user interface of Chromebox for meetings.


Launch Details 
Release track: 
All features launched to both Rapid release and Scheduled release; Performance optimization improvements require an upgrade to Chrome 47. Chrome 47 will roll out automatically over the next week for customers who have auto updates turned on.

Impact: 
All end users, plus the admin-only email notification feature

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
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Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Google Apps for Work: POPSUGAR’s secret weapon in the shifting media landscape

Posted by Bjorn Pave, Director of Information Technology, POPSUGAR

Editor's note: Today’s guest author is Bjorn Pave, Senior Director of Information Technology at POPSUGAR, an independent media and technology company that provides women with highly engaging content and commerce brands. Founded in 2006, POPSUGAR is in seven countries with more than 75 million unique monthly visitors. 

When I joined POPSUGAR in May 2013, we were rapidly transitioning from an ambitious startup to a major presence in entertainment and lifestyle media. The executive team had just decided to switch from Office 365 to Google Apps, and it was my job to make sure the transition went smoothly from a technical and user base perspective. Moving away from the familiar Microsoft-supported work environment could be difficult and I wanted to ease any resistance to change. Employees caught on quickly as to how the platform would increase collaboration and support our rapid growth.

Our Los Angeles based production team clamored for tools to help manage their film shoots. Talent schedules were unpredictable, and teams in multiple locations needed real-time access to production details on their mobile devices. Some of them had used Google tools before and started campaigning the executive team for Google Apps. POPSUGAR founder and CEO Brian Sugar was keen to make the company-wide switch, and his wife, Lisa Sugar, Co-Founder and Editor in Chief, wanted a better tool to manage the complex production calendars for each website that POPSUGAR manages.

With expert support from Cloud Sherpas, we migrated to Google Apps for Work. We created an experiential campaign called “Countdown to Google” to launch the switch. We also sent creative how-to emails and scheduled group training sessions. Our employees (more than 70 percent) were already familiar with Google Apps. The bigger challenge was tailoring workflows to meet each department’s business requirements. The result was a huge success. Two and half years later, we operate independently of almost any Microsoft service. Here are the biggest benefits we’ve seen with Google Apps for Work:

Boosted productivity with an immediate impact in our editorial process. Prior to using Google Apps, it took our editors 24 hours to interview a celebrity, create a blog post and to publish the post online. Now, the process is cut down to 1- 2 hours, which gives us a huge competitive advantage over other online publications. We now reach our audiences faster. Team meetings are also more productive. Everyone works with the same Google Doc to take notes, track the agenda and assign action items in real time. With the right tools, we created a better environment for inclusive collaboration.

Fosters collaboration between offices. Our offices are in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London, and we’re able to function as one team regardless of location. Chromebox for meetings was an easy solution that let employees and contractors communicate with each other around the world. We insisted on providing video capability because communication can be subtle, and those subtleties are lost if team members can’t see each other during a discussion. Now, when our West Coast-based Shopstyle team checks in with the European team first thing in the morning, it’s face-to-face and personal.

Saves 70 percent per year. Switching to Google Apps saves us approximately $110,000 annually, because we no longer pay for upgrades or unused services bundled in enterprise license agreements. For example, Google Hangouts saves us a few thousand every month by eliminating the need for additional video conference software or traditional conference call lines.

Google platform is reliable. An IT department’s worst nightmare is an email outage, or loss of work when a server is down. Google Apps is cloud based and updates automatically, no matter how many people are working in the same document. Because of the reliability of cloud-based servers, my team has the bandwidth to focus on innovation, creating new solutions to support our growth and stay on top of our business objectives.

Our voice matters. While millions of companies have gone Google, Google continues to make sure each customer can share their unique perspective. We’re involved with the Google Apps’ development program, and we participate in beta testing of new features, which is great for our IT roadmap. We use the Google Apps Marketplace to find third-party applications that build off of and complement our Google Apps tools.

Nine years after launching, POPSUGAR has grown to over 450 employees, in addition to managing a multitude of specialist contractors, in 5 locations around the globe. We’ve established a reputation for being leaders in the shifting media landscape, but we aren’t complacent. Our global audience is constantly expanding as more and more unique users rely on POPSUGAR as their primary source for entertainment, fashion, fitness, beauty and lifestyle news and product curation. The Google for Work platform is a key enabling technology for us, as collaboration, innovation and reliability are essential to support our vision for the future.

Wyoming strengthens top-down communication using Chromebox for meetings

Posted by Flint Waters, CIO of the State of Wyoming

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Flint Waters, CIO of the State of Wyoming. Since outfitting its conference rooms with Chromebox for meetings, the state spends far less on video conferencing and has transformed how teams communicate and connect with each other and the citizens they serve. See how Wyoming and many other institutions and organizations are using Chromebox for meetings to create a culture of collaboration that translates to greater productivity and better service. 

When I came to work for the State of Wyoming four years ago, five people reported to a contract CIO and operations happened at government speed. The department drew in 300 people from other agencies, and IT teams were assigned to different opportunities. I wanted consolidated IT rather than siloed and needed a culture of urgency and innovation for the state, so we began looking at tools to help us do that. Building on the efforts of the previous administration, the Governor moved all state employees to Google Apps for Work. Today, Chromebox for meetings improves transparency and brings public servants, citizens and elected officials closer together.

Before moving to Chromebox for meetings, we spent $1.5 million a year on a legacy video conferencing system. I felt we weren’t getting enough capability with the technology for the amount of money we were spending. So we phased out all the Tandberg systems and got 178 Chromebox for meetings licenses using a small fraction of our budget.

The cost savings is tremendous, but we’re even more thrilled with the way Chromebox for meetings transforms how we do our jobs and think about public service. Specifically, this technology cuts down on bureaucratic processes and hierarchical protocol. Everyone from the Governor and executives to agency directors use Chromebox for team, cabinet-level and all-hands meetings. Participants can comment and ask questions regardless of their location. We’re also introducing Chromebox for meetings throughout the school system to improve communication between teachers, administrators and students.

With Chromebox for meetings, we’re opening up meetings and making them less formal. We have Chromeboxes in our halls, allowing people to gather around and have impromptu meetings that anybody can join — the closest thing to a watercooler conversation you can get over the Internet. It’s also easier to work together on documents that are viewable on monitors at the stations, making meetings even more interactive and productive.

This technology has also reduced people’s travel time and increased productivity. Wyoming is a large state with a small population and a lot of open road between cities — you can drive for miles on the highway without seeing another car. Chromebox for meetings shortens the distance between offices by allowing people to have a face-to-face interaction without getting in their cars.

I get most excited about the fact that we can be collaborative with Chromebox for meetings. In the future, I’d like to set up an online help desk via live Hangout that’s accessible through the state’s website, so that when web visitors need help, we’d be there to help them right away. We’re connecting people at all levels of government to each other and to the public. With Google tools we can move as fast as our ideas can take us, which is just what we need to bring startup innovation and agility into the halls of government.

Meetings made simple with guest access

Posted by Patrick Wynn, Product Manager, Google for Work

Joining a meeting should be as easy as walking into a room. That should be the case whether you’re meeting in person, or face-to-face over video. This week we’re rolling out an update to Google Hangouts that makes joining a video call as simple as clicking a link in an invitation. No filling in forms, no need for a Google account, just simple, easy access to meetings. Connect with teammates and get things done, while maintaining the control and security you need in a work environment.
Say you’re a business about to talk through new product plans with your supplier, and you decide it’d be great to also get the thoughts of a key customer. No problem.

  1. Invite your external guests with Google Calendar
  2. They click a link in the event description and fill in their name
  3. In order to help give you control and security over your meetings, you’ll get a prompt to accept / deny their entry whether you’re using web, mobile or Chromebox for meetings.

With Hangouts security features like locking video meetings to only people within an organization and muting and ejecting participants, there’s always the right level of security to match your organization’s needs.

Learn more about Hangouts today.

The RSPCA rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes hundreds of thousands of animals a year with help from Google Apps for Work

Posted by Billie Laidlaw, Assistant Director IT Resources, RSPCA

 Editor's note: Today we hear from Billie Laidlaw, Assistant Director Resources-IT at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the UK’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity with 1600 employees across England and Wales. In 2014 the £43 million that the organisation received in voluntary donations helped rescue more than 128,000 animals from cruelty, abuse and neglect. Read how the RSPCA is using Google Apps for Work to help give these animals a new chance.

I often refer to our IT spend as kitten food, since that helps us focus on its value. Every pound we save with our solutions helps to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome animals across the country. So when our legacy email system reached the end of its working life, we wanted great value for money in the short term and opportunities for cost-saving and innovation further down the line. With Google Apps for Work, we got both.

We started the rollout with the IT team, then added superusers, then everyone else. We called these stages “ready,” “steady” and “GO.” In the “steady” stage, we trained up superusers and gave them t-shirts and flags so their colleagues knew who to turn to for advice. We installed timers on everyone’s desktops with a day-by-day “Countdown to Google” that created a real sense of excitement about the change and used Forms to gather post-go live feedback from 1,000 members of our team. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

From the start, we saved significantly on equipment costs alone. Our previous system operated from more than 40 servers, all of which have been decommissioned and will never have to be replaced. At £3,500 per server, that saved us £140,000 just on equipment. And digital signage now costs one tenth of the price we used to pay, from £1,500 per store to a solution using Chromebox and Slides that costs just £150 per store. Chromebooks have proven so cost effective that we bought 150 this year and plan to adopt them further. And because they connect to Drive, we don’t need to carry heavy paperwork around, which is good for the environment, our budget, and our backs. Also, when we needed to add 500 staff to our email platform, we did it in a matter of days with no additional infrastructure other than the provision of Android smartphones.


Every year we find new homes for more than 50,000 animals, and Google Apps tools make that rehabilitation process so much faster. Our 500 RSPCA inspectors are out in the field every day, investigating animal cruelty and complaints. Under our old system, none of them were connected to a central email hub, but now they all have Gmail and Drive on Android phones and access to Chromebooks, so they can instantly share test results, check documentation, send pictures and request temporary accommodation for an animal at one of our animal centres. And as soon as an animal is ready for rehoming, the quest begins to find new owners. We used to make promotional videos that we would burn to DVDs and deliver to our shops and centres by hand once a month, but now we can use Slides and a Chromebox to send promotions instantly to our screens, the same day an animal’s ready for a new home. No driving, no hassle with DVDs.

We’re committed to creating a more united, mobile, flexible workforce by the RSPCA’s 200th anniversary in 2024, and with Google Apps for Work, we’re well on the way to making that a reality. Working together in Docs isn’t just making our internal processes more transparent, it’s connecting people from parts of our organisation that otherwise operate independently and allows us to share knowledge and advice across the country. Hangouts let us meet face-to-face online and keep workflow moving with instant messaging. We’re also using Calendar to keep in synch and Sheets to work out duty rosters and book holidays.

Every time a supporter puts a pound in one of our collection tins, they want it to be spent wisely. By streamlining our services with Google Apps for Work, we make sure that more of that money serves the animals who need it. In the end, it could be food for a kitten, or a puppy, a horse, a seal, a hedgehog…