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Virtual Conferencing

Best practice – how to obtain sufficient meeting efficiency in both a user and a business perspective

M A R I A B E R G S T R Ö M S I L L É N

Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2006

Virtual Conferencing

Best practice – how to obtain sufficient meeting efficiency in both a user and a business perspective

M A R I A B E R G S T R Ö M S I L L É N

Master’s Thesis in Media Technology (20 credits) at the School of Media Technology Royal Institute of Technology year 2006 Supervisor at CSC was Leif Handberg Examiner was Nils Enlund TRITA-CSC-E 2006:021 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--06/021--SE ISSN-1653-5715 Royal Institute of Technology School of Computer Science and Communication KTH CSC SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden URL: www.csc.kth.se

Abstract In times of company merges, acquisitions, outsourcing and globalisation, complex

company structures and organisations emerge. The need for communication and

cooperation within distributed organisations in combination with demand for cost

efficiency to survive on the market put requirements on the personnel and the

technology for information and communication within the companies. This master

thesis describes the different parameters to be taken into account regarding virtual

conferencing and provides the company with a guideline when choosing upon proper

meeting format both from a user and a business perspective.

The Master Project was initiated and hosted by the telecommunication company

TeliaSonera in Sweden. The study was carried out by observations and interviews of

selected co-workers at TeliaSonera Sweden.

The result of the study shows among other things that face-to-face meetings still play an

important role in distributed organisations and that you prefer simple and prompt tools

over the most broad banded1 virtual communication.

1 Broad band means virtual communication that allows many different ways of communicating, e.g. thru body language, orally and written, i.e. resembles a face-to-face meeting as much as possible.

Virtuella Konferenser Best Practice - Att uppnå tillräcklig möteseffektivitet både ur användarperspektiv och ur affärsperspektiv

Sammanfattning I tider präglade av företagssammanslagningar, uppköp, ”outsourcing” och globalisering

uppstår komplexa företagsstrukturer och organisationer. Behovet av kommunikation

och samarbete inom distribuerade organisationer i kombination med krav på

kostnadseffektivitet för att överleva på marknaden ställer krav på företagets personal

och teknologi för information och kommunikation. Denna rapport beskriver de olika

parametrarna att ta hänsyn till gällande virtuella konferenser samt tillhandahåller en

”guide-line” åt företaget för att kunna välja lämpligt mötesform både ur ett

användarperspektiv och ett företagsperspektiv.

Detta examensarbete initierades av och utfördes på telekommunikationsföretaget

TeliaSonera i Sverige. Undersökningen utgjordes av observationer och intervjuer av

utvalda medarbetare inom TeliaSonera Sverige.

Resultatet av studien visar bland annat på att fysiska möten fortfarande spelar en viktig

roll i distribuerade organisationer och att man föredrar enkla och snabba verktyg för

kommunikation framför en så ”bredbandig2” virtuell kommunikation som möjligt.

2 Med bredbandig menas virtuell kommunikation som tillåter många olika kommunikationssätt, bl. a genom kroppsspråk, muntligt och skriftligt dvs. som liknar ett fysiskt möte så mycket som möjligt

Preface

This master thesis constitutes the final of my Master of Science programme in Media

Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology. With this preface I would like to

acknowledge those who have assisted and contributed in this work. In addition to my

thanks to the academic supervisor Leif Handberg at KTH for his interest and input, I

direct a big thank you to my mentor and supervisor Harriet Kullberg at TeliaSonera for

her patience, trust and guidance. Big thanks to Michael Randén at TeliaSonera who has

shown great commitment by taking time sharing his experience and ideas. I also want to

thank Lars Qvist, Peter Fagerström and Liselotte Brännefors at TeliaSonera, for their

helpfulness and contribution of important information. A special thank you goes to my

friend and classmate Per Bergkvist who has been involved in the initial brainstorming

activity and in the final review process of this report. Finally I would like to direct my

thanks and gratitude to all that participated in the study and took time answering the

questionnaire and the interview questions. Without you this work could never have

been carried out!

Maria Bergström Sillén

Stockholm, January 2006

Table of content

Introduction ..................................................................................................................9 Background...............................................................................................................9 Purpose .....................................................................................................................9 Problem definition.....................................................................................................9 Delimitation ..............................................................................................................9 Target group ...........................................................................................................10 Abbreviations..........................................................................................................10 Definitions ..............................................................................................................10

Theoretical Perspective and Methodology...................................................................11 Field Study..............................................................................................................11 Interviews ...............................................................................................................11 Questionnaire ..........................................................................................................12 Reliability ...............................................................................................................12 Validity...................................................................................................................12

The case company – TeliaSonera Sverige AB .............................................................13 Telephone conferences ............................................................................................14 Video conference technology ..................................................................................14 Internet conferencing solution .................................................................................15 Web Board..............................................................................................................16 Instant Messaging ...................................................................................................16 Policies ...................................................................................................................16 Premises..................................................................................................................17

Previous studies/Literature Review .............................................................................19 TeliaSonera.............................................................................................................20

Description of Execution.............................................................................................21 Method of selection.................................................................................................21 Method of collection ...............................................................................................22 Questionnaire ..........................................................................................................23 Observations ...........................................................................................................23 Partly structured interview ......................................................................................23 Open interview/Directed open interview .................................................................23 Sample losses..........................................................................................................24

Presentation and Analysis of Result ............................................................................25 Motivation ..............................................................................................................25 Social aspects..........................................................................................................26 Awareness & Presence ............................................................................................27 Trust .......................................................................................................................28 Status/Impact ..........................................................................................................29 Meeting-external implications .................................................................................29 Cost and Business Case Analysis ............................................................................30 Security...................................................................................................................35 Availability .............................................................................................................35 Flexibility/Mobility .................................................................................................36 Usability .................................................................................................................37 Integrity ..................................................................................................................38 Quality ....................................................................................................................38

Other.......................................................................................................................39 Discussion ..................................................................................................................41 Proposals for improvement .........................................................................................43 Proposal for further studies .........................................................................................45 Conclusion..................................................................................................................47 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................51 Appendix 1: Questionnaire..........................................................................................55 Appendix 2: Questionnaire result ................................................................................67 Appendix 3: Interview plan.........................................................................................85 Appendix 4: Respondent statistics...............................................................................87 Appendix 5: Observationsplan ....................................................................................89 Appendix 6: Short summary of interview results .........................................................91 Appendix 7: Travelling specification and calculation ..................................................93

Introduction

9

Introduction

Background

TeliaSonera is a geographical distributed organisation which daily performs a large

number of meetings with participants from different locations. TeliaSonera has a

number of products and services for virtual conferencing which they offer to their

customers and also use internally. In the aim to reduce travelling costs and

environmental impact TeliaSonera has for the last years tried to increase the use of

virtual conferencing for distributed communication. The question now is how the

company TeliaSonera can support the employees in choosing the right tool and kind of

meeting in a cost efficient way.

Purpose

The purpose of this master thesis is to give the employees at TeliaSonera Sweden a

guideline on how to choose the proper form, technique and process for meetings with

one or several participants from a different location.

Problem Definition

Evaluation of a variety of available virtual conferencing solutions with focus on

usability aspects compared to physical meetings. A definition of typical use cases

within TeliaSonera and an evaluation of results based on behaviour and experiences of

participants, leaders and organisers. This report contains a brief business case analysis

and usable tools for deciding on and applying best formats, tools and practices to all

meetings.

Delimitation

The research has been performed within TeliaSonera Sweden. The research does not

cover general meeting procedures, only routines and processes closely connected to or

with impact on virtual meetings. The report only covers synchronic meetings and

meetings with participants from different geographical locations.

Introduction

10

Target Group

This thesis is foremost targeted to TeliaSonera Sweden but can be of interest to other

companies and organisations that have a geographical distributed organisation were

meetings are a part of the work or management process.

Abbreviations

TS TeliaSonera

TSS TeliaSonera Sweden

Definitions

Virtual

Is the opposite of real in the meaning of not face-to-face, but mediated or transferred by

some electronic media. Virtual is for example a team that is not located in the same

space but works at a distance and uses information and communication technology to

communicate, an environment that is electronically mediated where people don’t meet

face-to-face, but communicate via media (Jansson, 2005, p.10).

Theoretical Perspective and Methodology

11

Theoretical Perspective and Methodology This chapter describes the scientific methods which compose the empirical base for this

thesis, motivates why these has been chosen and states possible consequences related to

the methods. Reliability and validity of the study is also discussed.

Field Study

Field studies are non-experimental scientific inquires aimed at discovering the relations

and interactions among sociological, psychological and educational variables in real

social structures. Katz (1953) has divided field studies into two broad types: exploratory

and hypothesis testing. The exploratory type, used in this study, seeks what is rather

than predicts relation to be found. Exploratory studies have three purposes: to discover

significant variables in the field situation, to discover relations among variables, and to

lay the groundwork for later, more systematic and rigorous testing of hypotheses.

Interviews

Data from a professionally held interview fulfils certain requirements regarding validity

and reliability. It is required that the interview method provides reliable and valid

results but also to make it possible for others to review the conclusions. One way of

categorizing different types of interviews is to describe them based on level of

structure. An interview can be totally open, which means that the interviewer ask a

wide, open question that the respondent freely can associate to and talk about. The

interview can also be totally structured. The interviewer then asks prepared questions in

a predefined order and the respondent answers according to predefined options. Since

the open forms of interviews gives different definitions of phenomenon and concepts it

is difficult to compare between individuals. More structured interviews can be used as a

base for conclusions about quantities because the reply options are the same for all

respondents (Lantz, 1993). The following interview methods3 have been used:

Partly structured interviews to collect quantitative information about the

individual’s experience of concepts and relationships.

3 According to (Lantz, 1993)

Theoretical Perspective and Methodology

12

Open interview/Directed open interview to collect qualitative information about

the individual’s experience of a phenomenon and its impact.

Questionnaire

An alternative method of querying the user is by a questionnaire. It is less flexible than

interviews but can be used to reach a wider group, it also takes less time to administer

and it can be analyzed more rigorously (Dix et al. 1998). One questionnaire with mainly

multi-choice questions was used in this study.

Reliability

High reliability has been obtained by standardized and structured observations,

interviews and questionnaire. The interviews were sound recorded as a part of the

documentation process in order to support the handwritten notes in the following

analysis phase. The fact that the respondents were assured to be anonymous and their

answers confidential also gives high reliability to the result.

Validity

The interview questions and the questionnaire were reviewed by impartial parties to

guarantee the validity of this research. Method triangulation (Stensmo, 2002) has also

been used to secure the validity of the conclusions. Method triangulation is the use of

several different methods to collect data on the same topic. Four different methods have

been used: Observations, Interviews, Questionnaire and written sources.

The Case Company – TeliaSonera Sverige AB

13

The Case Company – TeliaSonera Sverige AB This chapter will provide an introduction to the case company, describing the aspects

of the organisation that is relevant for the problem addressed in the study, namely:

organisational structure, polices and meeting infrastructure.

Figure 1: TeliaSoneras goegraphical distribution (© TeliaSonera 2005)

TeliaSonera (TS) is the leading telecommunications company in the Nordic and Baltic

region and also holds a strong position in mobile communications in Eurasia, Turkey

and Russia (Figure 1: TeliaSoneras goegraphical distribution (© TeliaSonera 2005). TS

offer a wide range of services in mobile and fixed communication, Internet and

broadband.

During the period for this study (May 2005 to Jan 2006) TS has been going through a

major cut down of employees and a reorganisation. According to TS’s home page the

total number of employees in April 2005 was about 29,000 and in Sweden about

11,000. TS are represented in 27 countries including presence by partnership in local

telecom companies. TSS has co-workers in 28 different geographical locations4.

4 Figures from TS intranet sep 2005


14

The current infrastructure at TS offers the employees a range of different systems

supporting virtual meetings:

Telephone Conferences

Each employee has either a mobile phone or a fixed phone and most of the conference

rooms are equipped with a stationary speaker phone. TS provide meeting services for

their customers and these services are also available for internal use within the

company:

Telemöte Direkt: A solution for those who always want to be able to start a

telephone meeting, without having to book.

Telemöte Kod: For telephone meetings booked from occasion to occasion. The

participants connect themselves to a telephone meeting with a special code.

Telemöte Telefonist: The participants are phoned up by a telephone operator

who connects them to the meeting.

Telemöte Event: A solution for special needs such as a big information meeting.

Additional functions can be included e.g. “Questions & Answers”.

Video Conference Technology

TS have chosen Tandberg as the solution

provider for video conferencing. The table

below presents the geographical sites in

Sweden that have video conferencing facilities

and also all types of Tandberg models that

exist within TSS. An example of Tandberg

equipment is shown in figure 2.

Figure 1 Equipment example: Tandberg 6000 ©TANDBERG


15

Models

Tandberg 5000

Tandberg 6000

Tandberg 2500

Tandberg 6000 Portable

Tandberg 7000

Tandberg 4000

Tandberg 8000

Tandberg 880, MS

Tandberg 8000, MS

Tandberg 880

Internet Conferencing Solution

Internet conferencing is used to hold group meetings or live presentations over the

Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at their own computer, and is

connected to other participants via the internet. Internet

conferences may include one or all of these features:

audio, data and/or video conferencing solutions,

depending on the needs of the users. The most basic

feature of a web conference is screen sharing, whereby

conference participants see whatever is on the

presenter's screen. Users can communicate over a

network with real-time voice, either through a

traditional telephone conference or through VoIP, and

video technology. Sometimes text chat is used in place

of voice. Users can work together on a program,

exchange or mark up graphics on an electronic

whiteboard, transfer files, desktop sharing or use the

text-based Chat program. An example of the web-cam

interface in NetMeeting is shown in figure 3.

Sites

Falun

Farsta

Göteborg

Haninge

Luleå

Malmö

Nacka Strand

Sundsvall

Uddevalla

Västerås

Örebro

Figure 2: The NetMeeting web-cam interface © Microsoft Cooperation


16

The following two applications are used within TSS:

NetMeeting, provided by Microsoft Cooperation. It's built into Microsoft's

Internet Explorer Web browser.

TeleMöte Webb, Commercial meeting service provided by TS

Figure 3: Comparison between the interfaces of NetMeeting (left) and TeleMöte Webb (right)

The two applications are much the same but with slightly different layout as shown in

Figure 3. Within TSS both MetMeeting and TeleMöte Webb are commonly used

together with traditional telephone conference for voice communication.

Web Board

A Web Board is a web application which provides for discussion, document sharing,

and progress status. For example project areas/web sites on the intranet. Can be used

either for unsynchronised or synchronised communication.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is the act of communicating between two or more people in real-time

over a network such as the Internet. Most services offer a presence information feature,

indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to

chat for example Windows Messenger.

Policies

TSS has both a travelling policy and a meeting policy. The travelling policy states that

business travel shall be planed and carried out as cost efficient as possible and with

respect for the environment. The existing guideline for meetings within TSS states that


17

face-to-face meetings shall be located at a place that generates the least cost for

travelling and premises.

The meeting policy declares the moderators/organisers responsibility for choosing

proper meeting form with regard to content/purpose and the participants’ geographical

location and social situation. It states that meeting virtually reduces cost, maintains

efficiency, contributes to increased quality of life and decreases the impact on the

environment. The meeting guideline contains information to the moderator/organiser on

how to conduct an efficient and creative meeting.

Premises

Many of the personnel at TSS are situated in office landscapes and therefore so called

“silent rooms” has been established at some location. The layout of a typical silent

room at TSS in Farsta is shown in Figure 4. It is a small room, approximately 2x1.2m,

without windows and the room is equipped with a desk, chair, fixed phone and network

connection.

Figure 4: Layout of a typical silent room at TSS in Farsta

Description of Execution

19

Previous studies/Literature Review This chapter presents both theories and empirical research in the area of virtual

conferencing or from adjacent areas relevant for the discussion.

The literature study covered documents, reports, articles and books within the subject

(Search Strings: video conferences/meetings, telephone conferences/meetings, meeting

processes, virtual conferences/meetings, communication, distance). The literature study

includes literature produced within TS, studies as well as reports from KTH and

commercial and non-commercial publications world wide.

Several studies related to the topic virtual conferencing has been performed within the

last decades and one of the most recent is the doctoral thesis Working Together when

Being Apart by Eva Jansson (2005). In her thesis Eva Jansson states that working in

distributed teams, without regular face-to-face meetings, will always be different and

that the big danger is to believe that it won’t. Further more she observed that if

distributed projects will be successful depends on:

If people are willing and capable to learn how to communicate with the

available information and communication technology.

If people are willing and capable to learn how to deal with the new set of

problems that might arise.

If the participants get enough guidance and support to keep them on track and

motivated, help them to avoid preventable conflicts and misunderstanding and

clearing out the problems that couldn’t be avoided.

Knudsen (2004, p 13) presents the common result from empirical studies reported by

Olsson et al. (1995) as a base for theoretical models to build on, such as:

When people who know each other are cooperating in a complex task, video

does not seem to add much over audio to the quality of the end product.

If there are any delays in the audio, quality suffers.

All remote work, no matter how high the bandwidth and how small the delay,

still makes people behave differently. They often either explain more or need to


20

clarify their ideas to their remote group members. But clearly, through these

studies, it can be seen that people prefer video connectivity over audio only.

To make distributed projects work well it is necessary to look beyond technological

issues and also take humans into consideration (Jansson, 2005).

TeliaSonera

In 2004 TSS performed a short survey where all employees were asked to fill in a

questionnaire consisting of five questions regarding internal meeting behavioural with

focus on telephone conference vs. face-to-face meeting. 570 co-workers within TSS

answered and the result was presented in a report (Dahlquist, 2004). The conclusion

from the survey was that telephone conference are chosen over face-to-face meeting

because it is more efficient, saves time and money and that you get higher degree of

attendants in the meeting. Face-to-face meetings are chosen for start-up meetings to get

to know the participants, for bounding and creation of relations, in a delicate situation

where you want to read body language, when you have a lot of material to go through

or for very long meetings. The above survey results can be considered valid for this

study since it is just over a year old. But neither was video conferencing nor any other

virtual conferencing system besides telephone covered in that survey.

Two more extensive reports which are a bit older is one master thesis, Optimal

Meetings, by Beatrice Kogg from 2000 and one report by Kogg and Arnfalk from

Lunds University, within the project “Optimala Möten II” at Telia, Nära Målet – En

undersökning av möten, resande och attityder på Telia Nära. The reports have the same

angel of approach; how to support virtual communication within Telia to minimize

travelling with the aim to reduce costs and environmental effect. The project ”Optimala

Möten” has among other things resulted in decreased travelling cost and increased use

of telephone meeting. Between 2001 and 2004 the travelling cost has been decreased

and the CO2 pollution has been reduced with 50 percent due to less travelling, increased

use of Telephone meeting services within TS together with the decreased total office

area (Herrström et al. 2004).


21

Description of Execution This chapter describes how the study has been planned and performed.

Method of Selection

Since the result of the research primarily will be used within TSS the respondents were

selected within TSs organisation in Sweden. Due to the reorganisation and employee

cut down during this period all organisation charts, address lists and employee

catalogues were out of synch and out of date. The goal was to reach about one percent

of the employees in TSS with the questionnaire. The fact that a large amount of the laid

off personnel still was listed in the employee catalogue on the intranet and that that list

contained about 14,800 people (Oct. 2005) while the official number on the home page

stated about 11,000 employees by April 2005 made it difficult to decide how much one

percent really was. A decision was taken based on a mean value of both sums, 13,000,

and the questionnaire was sent out to 130 persons. The respondents were then selected

from the employee catalogue on the intranet by picking out the first listed person in a

block of 114 names. The list had first been sorted by organisation to guarantee that

there were respondents representing each organisational department. The presence of

laid of personnel in the list demanded an extra check of the stated form of employment

and when the picked out person was stated as “Not employed” the next person on the

list were chosen. This random choice method also resulted in a good geographical

distribution with representatives at 25 different locations and in 53 percent male and 47

percent female potential respondents. The total relation of female and male personnel

within TSS in 2004 was 52 percent men and 48 percent women (Herrström et al. 2004).

The selection of meetings for observation and directed interviews was made by picking

out a meeting in the conference booking system, appropriate for the observer, and

contacting the moderator or organiser. The location and meeting form came to be of

great importance in choosing a meeting due to the lack of a large travelling budget. For

example, meetings that demanded physical presence of the observer needed to be

situated in the Stockholm area.


22

Method of Collection

The method of collection has been the use of questionnaire as well as directed

interviews. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out about opinions and usage,

in general terms, of the different conferencing solutions within TSS. The interviews

were both directed interviews with meeting participants and moderators concerning a

specific meeting and the method and technique used in that specific case, and open

interviews with people in the organisation with great deal of experience of working in

distributed organisations. The questionnaire represented the more quantitative part of

the research and the interviews had a more qualitative nature.

In TSSs conference booking system on the intranet there are 16 conference rooms (TS

Headquarter not included) with video conference equipment available. Since the video

conference rooms at TS can be used for other kind of meetings except video it was of

interest to examine to which extent the video facility were used. This were made by

choosing a day in the conference booking system and contacting each meeting

responsible that had booked a video conference room that particular day. The persons

were asked whether they had used the available video facility or not. This procedure

was repeated each day for one week, i.e. five different days (Monday – Friday) were

chosen with a total of 76 meetings. The result is shown in Figure 5.

5,0 6,0 7,0 5,00,0

54,062,0

79,075,0

27,0

76,067,0

49,055,0

108,0

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Not bookedOther meetingVideo conference

Figure 5: Usage of the video conference rooms within TSS (percentage)


23

Questionnaire

The questionnaire was both produced as an electronic version in TS support tool for

questionnaires and as a physical paper version. The respondents received an email

containing a presentation of the project and a direct link to the electronic version of the

questionnaire. The questionnaire was also distributed to each respondent as a paper

version and the respondent could choose which way to fill in the questionnaire. By

ordinary internal mail service the respondents received a letter containing the

questionnaire and an addressed reply envelope. All physical paper questionnaires were

marked with a control number in order to tick of the respondents in a cross reference

list. In the electronic version of the questionnaire the respondents were for the same

reason instead asked to fill in their mail address. This way all who had not answered in

time, and only those, could be reached by a reminder.

Observations

Observation of meeting behaviour was performed by participating in 22 meetings

within TSS. Notes were taken based on an observation plan (Appendix 5).

Partly Structured Interview

17 of the meeting sessions were directly followed by email interviews to the

participants and the meeting moderator and/or organiser. The respondents were asked to

answer a number of predefined questions connected to the prior meeting. The questions

were both of open character which was to be answered with free text and questions with

reply options. The purpose of the questions was to identify problems and methods

related to specific meetings. The result from the interviews was often compared to the

observation notes.

Open Interview/Directed Open Interview

Open and direct open personal interviews were conducted with experts and subject

specialists to get a pre-understanding of the subject and to collect specific expert’s

report and facts. Interview plans were used to obtain high reliability.


24

Sample Losses

Today you can count on a response rate on questionnaires between 50 and 70 percent

(Trost, 2001). The response rate on the questionnaire here was 66 percent and can be

considered good enough. The response rate on the email interviews were 88 percent and

this is higher than the expected 75 to 85 percent also stated by Jan Trost.

All organisation departments were represented among those who answered the

questionnaire. The response rate per department varied between 32 and 100 percent.

Only four of the selected 25 geographical locations were not represented among the

final respondents.

Presentation and Analysis of Result

25

Presentation and Analysis of Result This chapter summarizes the results from the questionnaire, interviews and

observations. To illustrate the respondents’ attitudes and opinions quotation is

sometimes used (free translation from Swedish to English have been made by the

author).

The respondents of the questionnaire were 48 percent females and 52 percent males and

they represented 18 different locations in Sweden. The complete result from the

questionnaire are to be found in appendix 2 where it is presented in a chart format and a

comprised summary of the interviews are presented in appendix 6. Below the results

from the questionnaire, interviews and observations are analysed in relation to the

different stated topics.

Motivation

There is a high motivation within TS to use the available meeting services for virtual

conferences. As many as 98 percent of the questionnaire respondents stated that “it is

important that we ourselves use the services we offer to our customers and it has a

positive effect on TS’s business”. No one thought that it was unimportant and that it has

no impact on TS’s business or that the quality of the meeting services is so low that it

does not contribute to internal effectiveness.

“TS as the leading operator shall of course unyielding use and push for virtual

conferences. Think about the PR we can make considering the environment!”

“We shall use all services ourselves to take the lead as ambassadors and this is done by

using these services in our daily WORK.”

Only three percent could not consider reserving time for education in tools and aids for

virtual meetings. The rest were willing to take time to learn how to use new tools and

aids but many stated that it is important with an easy user interface.


26

Some respondents pointed out the importance that the higher management set example

and practice what they preach (“walk the talk”):

“It is important that the rules and standards apply to all working at TSS, both high and

low”

“How interested somebody is and how much previous knowledge a person has

regarding a topic definitely influences the motivation to put in effort and learn”

(Jansson, 2005, p 66). Motivation in distributed teams is closely connected to trust and

having fun together in a relaxed and open environment. To have common goals, well

defined milestones, support and guidance, feedback, visible result and personal rewards

are also important for increased motivation (Jansson, 2005).

Social Aspects

“It is difficult to motivate people to interact when they do not really know each other.”

(Jansson, 2005, p 189).

Since TS is a geographical distributed organisation where members in the same team or

organisational unit can be stationed at different locations together with the fact that TS

applies flexible way of working for their employees it is essential to consider social

aspects of virtual conferencing. According to Knudsen (2004) long time exposure to

video mediated communication result in a feeling of “loneliness”.

49 percent of the respondents state that they meet their colleagues face-to-face every

day. 10 percent replies that they meet their colleagues face-to-face less then once a

week. Among these 10 percent 50 percent fell a need for more social communication

with their colleagues: 37,5 percent want more social communication with support of

video/web-cam and 12,5 percent want more social communication supported by Instant

messaging. Noteworthy is that some of the overall respondents commented that they on

the contrary wanted less social contact with their colleagues.

“It nice to get away from them sometimes”


27

Comments given by the respondents in both the questionnaire and in the interviews

gives at hand that distributed teams need to meet in person from now and then on a

regular basis and that team building activities need to be performed face-to-face to

achieve and maintain the feeling of fellowship.

A virtual corridor in the form of e.g. Windows Messenger can somewhat replace the

absence of a physical corridor were you can see who is in or out of the office. The tool

for instant messaging can be used for social small-talk and quick questions thru text-

chat or voice over IP, which can be combined with a video image from a web-cam. The

respondents’ experience of using Windows Messenger varied a lot. Many of the

respondents did not know about the tool and/or had never used it. Yet 60 percent of the

respondents had a positive attitude to a supposed requirement from the company or a

single manager always to logon to Windows Messenger while working and 31 percent

had some doubts. (This issue is also connected to the topic Integrity).

Awareness & Presence

There is a small distinction between social presence and awareness, where awareness

means consciousness about other people’s activity (Sallnäs, 2003). The results from the

observations and interviews show that many of the participants perform other parallel

activities while participating in meetings, such as reading and writing emails or

answering phone calls. On an individual level this is a way of being effective by doing

several things at once and a common comment was “I sit in meetings all day, so this is a

way of getting work done”. Some of the moderators on the other hand stated a

frustration over this phenomenon and said that face-to-face meetings (or video

conference) are the only way of “controlling” the participants’ attention.

Part of the answer to the question whether you can do two or more things in parallel e.g.

reading and sorting your email box while participating in a telephone meeting, are

related to cognitive psychology. Psychologists propose the existence of a serial

bottleneck in human information processing, i.e. a point at which it is no longer

possible to continue processing everything in parallel. The various perceptual systems

(vision and audition), the various motor systems (speech and manual movements), and


28

central cognition are independent systems that progress in parallel. However, each

system is itself serial – one can only execute one pattern of hand movement, or think

one thought. The central bottleneck occurs when you must do the thinking for each

task. One cannot think about multiple things at once (Anderson, 2000). This means that

“simple” tasks that are more or less done automatically, without “thinking”, such as

deleting old emails are not in conflict with content and meeting efficiency and that

require more “thinking”. On the other hand it is easy to be caught up by something

interesting while scanning the emails and thereby let “the mind slip away” from the

meeting. It’s a difficult task to keep a balance between two parallel activities.

One of the negative experiences reported by users in the studies by Knudsen (2004) is

“mental fatigue after a long time of concentration”. The majority of the respondents in

this study stated that two hours is a maximum meeting time for telephone conferences

and also for Internet conferences which are combined with parallel telephone

conferences. For video conferences the maximum length was considered to be three

hours and for longer meetings face-to-face was the only option. Some of the

respondents stated that six hours or more for face-to-face meeting is okay if the topic is

very interesting and the meeting is well structured.

Trust

Hossain and Wigand (2004) suggests that initial face-to-face communication is an

essential prerequisite in establishing higher levels of trust among people working in

distributed places. This is in line with Knudsen (2004) findings, that relationships

already established, either face-to-face or through extended virtual contact, may easily

be maintained and developed also in mediated communication using “poor” media

technology. Totally new relationships and the initial trust building process seem to

require a richer flow of perceptual cues either by face-to-face meeting or by meetings

with technology transparency that gives an illusion of non-mediation.

“When I call to a (important) meeting, were I need to get a feeling of emotions and

atmosphere etc I always call to a physical meeting”


29

Status/Impact

As much as 30 percent of the respondents experiences that decisions and result from

face-to-face meetings have higher status than decisions and result from virtual

meetings.

“Virtual meetings feels like they are not personal and no one cares”

“Just look at all the councils etc. Everybody makes a pilgrimage there to be seen and

position themselves☺. I think that the higher management must set a good example and

practice what they preach […]”

The majority (81%) of respondents did not experience any status differences among the

virtual meeting forms regarding decisions and result.

Meeting-external Implications

Only 15 percent of the respondents have an own office, the rest are situated in a

landscape or sharing room or workplace with other people. Worth noting is that on the

question “When you participate in a telephone meeting, which physical place do you

usually participate from?”. 76 percent of those situated in a landscape answered “At my

ordinary workplace/desk”. A common comment to this question was “I usually sit at

my ordinary desk when I’m foremost listening to a meeting; otherwise I try to find a

silent room”. The answers and comments shows upon a meeting culture were many

meetings or part of meetings are mostly one-way information.

The fact that a lot of participants in telephone conference meetings are situated in a

landscape with other people and colleagues around them raises a question whether this

has a negative impact on the meeting quality due to disturbance of surrounding noise.

The answers and comments in the questionnaire show that other meeting participants

don’t seem particularly annoyed or disturbed by external surrounding noise. A common

comment is that “You just have to remind the participants to use the mute button”.

Although many respondents implied that many participants have problems knowing


30

how to use the mute/silent function. The biggest disturbance problem seems to be

external noise in the moderator’s surrounding.

“Twice this year the moderator sat in such a noisy environment that we had to

terminate the meeting […] It cost almost one hour of meeting-attempt for approx 20

persons times 800 kr!”

Mostly, the respondents find car noise most annoying and disturbing. An interesting

finding from the interviews is that the surrounding colleagues in a landscape often

consider themselves disturbed by persons talking while participating in a conference

call.

”I’m disturbed and annoyed that people sit in the office landscape while participating

in a telephone meeting.”

Cost and Business Case Analysis

NetMeeting are available free of charge for MS Office users.

The charge within TS for telephone calls is confidential. The figures used in this report

(table 1) are therefore based on what TSS officially charges their customers. This has a

positive impact for the general use of this report.

Service Price SEK/min (VAT not incl.)NetMeeting 0TeleMöte Webb 1.50Telemöte Direkt 3.00 + ordinary minute call chargeTelemöte Kod 3.10 + ordinary minute call chargeTelemöte Telefonist 5.00Telemöte Event 5.00 + ordinary minute call charge Table 1: TS official prices for telephone meeting services (no special agreements)

The following statistics regarding telephone conferencing are derived from the internal

financial and accounting system MUS/DIVA and provided by Liselott Brännefors:


31

On average a telephone conference meeting (TeleMöte Direkt and TeleMöte Kod5) at

TSS during 2005 was 46 minutes. The average meeting time with TeleMöte Web was

73 minutes, i.e. 1h and 13 minutes. Overall this shows an average meeting time within

TSS of approximately 1h. The average number of participants at a telephone conference

meeting (TeleMöte Direkt and TeleMöte Kod) were 5,7. The equivalent number for

TeleMöte Webb was 4,1. Which gives a total average of 5,2 participants.

The cost for meeting service and traffic for telephone conferences increases with

meeting time and number of participants. The conditions are the opposite when it

comes to Video conferencing. Since the cost for equipment, service & support are fixed

the cost per participant and meeting time decreases with increased use. The minute

costs that are shown in table 2 are calculated by the fixed yearly cost divided with the

actual time the equipment is being used. If 100 percent usage of the video conference

facility equals nine hours a day (8-17), then five6 percent is equal to 27 minutes a day.

The yearly cost is calculated by equation:

C=I*r/(1-1/(1+r)t) C, Yearly cost

I, Investment cost

r, Interest rate: 5%

t, Depreciation time: 3 years

For older equipment that could be considered depreciated the yearly cost for ISDN7,

service and support are e.g. for Tandberg 6000 58,000 SEK. For a new investment the

yearly cost for a Tandberg 6000 the first three years will be approx. 300,000 SEK and

for a Tandberg 990 the equivalent figure is 140,000 SEK. In table 2 the minute cost for

new and depreciated equipment are compared depending on two different usage percent

(100% and 5%).

5 TeleMöte Telefonist was only used once during the period Jan. thru Oct. 2005 with two participants for 85 minutes. Therefore it is excluded from the calculation. 6 The actual usage percent in Oct/Nov 2005 7 Fixed cost and traffic


32

100% use 5% useExisting Tandberg 6000 (depreciated) 0,4 SEK 8,6 SEKNew Tandberg 6000 2,2 SEK 44,6 SEKNew Tandberg 990 1,0 SEK 20,8 SEK Table 2 Theoretical cost per minute for video conferencing depending on how much the equipment

is used8

The cost is also depending on the geographical distribution of the participants, i e how

many sites are included in the conference. One site is equal to e.g. one conference

phone or one video conference equipment used by one or several participants. The

interviews and observations indicated that video conferences today at TSS are primarily

used between two nodes. In table 3 the different conference solutions are compared

based on three different meeting cases.

Case 1: 2 sites, 10 persons



Video conference, 5% usage, depreciated equipment 17,20 34,40 43,00Video conference, 100% usage, depreciated equipment 0,80 1,60 2,00Video conference, 5% usage, new equipment 41,60 83,20 104,00Video conference, 100% usage, new equipment 2,00 4,00 5,00Telephone meeting 8,00 16,00 20,00Telemöte Webb with parallell telephone conference 11,00 22,00 27,50Telemöte Webb with VoIP (not used today) 9,00 18,00 22,50 Table 3 Cost (SEK/min) for three meeting cases depending on conference solution.

A 100 percent usage of the video conferencing equipment is not considered realistic in

a near future and maybe not even desirable. When comparing the cost for telephone

conference with video conference the usage percent of depreciated video conference

equipment has to be 11 percent to reach the same minute cost as for a telephone

conference. The corresponding break-even point for new video conferencing equipment

is a usage percent of 56.

8 Based on 249 working days/year


33

These figures regarding the cost for virtual conference solutions should be compared to

the travelling cost for a face-to-face meeting. Since each meeting constellation is unique

it is difficult to give a general figure for travelling cost. The following example

describes a hypothetic meeting case and provides an indication of travelling cost9:

Four persons assume to be travelling from different parts of Sweden to participate in a

meeting in Farsta. The other meeting participants are already situated in Farsta.

One person lives in Sundsvall and takes a taxi to Sundsvall/Härnösand airport from

were he flies to Arlanda. From Arlanda he takes a taxi to the Farsta office.

Total round trip travelling time: 4 hours

Total travelling expense: 4,730 SEK

One person lives in Gothenburg and travels by taxi to Gothenburg train central were

she takes the train to Stockholm. From Stockholm central she then takes a taxi to the

Farsta office.

Total round trip travelling time: 8 hours

Total travelling expense: 3,220 SEK

One person drives from her home in Uppsala to the meeting in Farsta by own car.

Total round trip travelling time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Total travelling expense: 500 SEK

One person drives from TSS office in Haninge to the meeting in Farsta by own car.

Total round trip travelling time: 30 minutes

Total travelling expense: 60 SEK

Total accumulated travelling time for this meeting: 14 hours 40 minutes

Total accumulated travelling expense for this meeting: 8,510 SEK

9 A detailed specification of the calculation are to be found in Appendix 7


34

Based on the assumption that half of the travelling time is used for work and a man

hour cost of 600 SEK/hour, the total cost for unused travelling time for this particular

meeting case is then 4,400 SEK (7h 20min x 600 SEK). The total cost for that these

four persons travel to the meeting in Farsta is then 12,910 SEK (8 510 + 4 400). This

figure can then be compared to the usage cost of virtual conference equipment stated in

table 3 (case 3). Example: for 12,910 SEK the most “expensive” conference equipment,

(Video conference, 5% usage, new equipment) can be used for 124 minutes.

The internal cost for a man hour, specified as 600 SEK/hour, has a major impact on

meeting cost when you focus on efficient meetings. If a meeting are well planned and

efficient the potential cost gain regarding man hours is much greater than whether you

use this or that tool. If a meeting, by efficient meeting procedures and tools can be

shortened by e.g. 30 min and still get the same result the gain should be counted in

release of resource. Since an average number of participants in a meeting at TSS are

five persons you can potentially release five times 30 min, i.e. 2,5 hours10 which

hopefully could be used either for other activities and result in shortened lead-times, or

less personnel resources. Since the total number of telephone conferences (including

TeleMöte Webb) held at TSS during the period from January thru October 2005 were

105,744 (with the total amount of 27 million minutes) and at least the same amount of

face-to-face meetings the potential gain with efficient meetings are clear.

Comments regarding unnecessary meetings, lack of meeting efficiency and

unproductive meetings in terms of lack of result/decisions shows upon a lack of

meeting discipline.

“Whoever is called to a meeting, every Tom, Dick and Harry, [In Swedish: Kreti och pleti]

just because…”

“I have been in decision meetings were some decisions could not be made due to lack

of mandate. This becomes apparent after valuable meeting time has been spent on

presenting and discussing the subject”

10 Equivalent to 1500 SEK


35

“There are meetings were I have to sit for like 2 hours and listen to things that not

concern me because I have a interest in a certain topic of the meeting that maybe takes

like 10 minutes to discuss”

This last statement can be addressed and avoided by a time-set agenda were “guests”

can come and leave at predetermined times.

Security

In TSs’ Corporate Information Security Policy there are restrictions on how to handle

information based on a security classification model. There are four information

classes: Public, Internal, Confidential and Secret. This security policy must be taken

into account when deciding on a format for a distributed meeting. Information classified

as confidential are not allowed to be discussed in public areas or over NMT network

(due to lack of encryption in NMT). Secret information shall always be encrypted and is

not allowed to be handled over the telephone network.

There are problems with NetMeeting in combination with firewalls. The problem is that

NetMeeting uses a complex set of protocols (H323) that require it to be able to

negotiate the use of arbitrary communication ports. Such behaviour is difficult for a

firewall to support in a secure way, because it has no knowledge of which ports are

being used, and why. Due to this TS cannot use NetMeeting in meetings with external

participants. TeleMöte Webb only uses port 80 and therefore all data are perceived as

www-traffic which is allowed to pass through the firewall.

Availability

This topic concerns the availability of conference equipment and technology for

information and communication. As much as 34 percent stated that they do not know

whether or not they have access to video conference equipment at their office and for

42 percent of those that stated that they do not have access a following check-up

showed that they DO have access to video conference equipment at their office

location. 11 of TSS’s 28 geographical locations have video conference facilities.


36

13 percent of the respondents do not know if they have access to a web camera or a 3G

mobile phone. 80 percent respectively 70 percent states that they have no access to a

web camera respectively a 3G mobile phone.

83 percent of the respondents have DSL connection or faster when working at home

and 23 percent has a privately owned web camera.

Flexibility/Mobility

38 percent of overall respondents would like to increase the amount of telecommuting.

Several respondents commented that the possibility of working from their homes now

and then saves a lot of travelling time, enables them to manage a bit of work while

nursing sick family member or just reading documents without being disturbed. Of the

respondents that stated that they never work anywhere else then at the office 38 percent

wants to work from distance once in a while. The reasons why some respondents are

unable to work from home can be several. Maybe it is unsuitable for the type of work

they do or maybe it is a resources question e.g. lack of home computer. TSS has a

policy of only one computer per employee.

“I have asked for a workplace at home but cannot get one since I have a stationary

computer at work”

“I like being mobile, i.e. to be able to walk around the premises and between places

while participating in a telephone conference. You are sort of stuck to you seat when

participating in a NetMeeting or video conference.”

61 percent of the questionnaire respondents stated that they sometimes participates in

telephone conferences while sitting in the car or walking. More than half of the

respondents stated that they sometimes participate in a telephone conference from

home.


37

Usability

A general opinion both among the respondents and also among others is that video

conferences equipment is difficult to operate and that there is no proper support for

problem solving.

”Video conferences are complicated; the moving image does not provide anything

important to the meeting.”

“Video conferences are not very much used; I think it is because of that they are not

easy to use”

Peter Fagerström (2005) suggests, in an interview, a couple of measures to increase the

usage of videoconferences:

It must be easy to book a video conference and the procedure/tool shall be

common for all organisations within TS. Today it is different booking systems

in different countries.

The conference rooms must be suited to the purpose and the system easy to use.

Support must be close at hand.

Answers and comments by the participants also shows that conference systems with

equipment that people are used to handle in their daily work (and spare time) such as a

phone seems to be more easy to adopt.

”Since there are so many meetings and so much to do all the time, meetings needs to

be simple and easy to handle from a technical point of view. Therefore I prefer

telephone conference. It is messy to operate and manage several devices such as

computer and video equipment.”

The more experienced the user is of a system the more a positive attitude is shown.

Proper tools and aids to help facilitate the meeting process for the participants are

required.


38

“It is important with proper peripheral equipment (since most people use mobile

phones) like headset, speakerphone add-on for mobiles.”

The conference system should resemble the meeting process and the perception of face-

to-face meetings as much as possible.

“It should be a conference system that you perceive as about the same as a physical

meeting […]”

Integrity

As stated before, 60 percent of the respondents had a positive attitude to a supposed

requirement from the company or a single manager always to log on to Windows

Messenger while working and 31 percent had some doubts.

“Has to apply to all employees”

“It has to be my choice and not the employer’s whether I should be reached or not”

“….it is too disturbing to always be available…”

When it comes to the question if the respondent feels uncomfortable while being filmed

during a meeting, either by video or web camera, 15 percent stated that they do. But

only four percent of those also stated that they, for that reason, systematically avoid

such meetings. On the question if the respondent would prefer to be presented by a still

image instead of video image, 64 percent stated “No”.

Quality

According to the respondents quality and reliability of the different tools and systems

for virtual conferencing are relatively high. The problems that occur are mostly

connected to difficulty in managing the equipment.


39

“During the last year there has been trouble with Telephone conferences a couple of

times, mostly when there are large meetings and the moderators want the participants

to use “silent mode” or that they have booked to few lines.”

“The problems that have occurred are that the lines have been full” [comment regarding

telephone conferences]

“Sometimes people have problems with accessing the network” [comment regarding

NetMeeting]

Since very few of the respondents (only 2 percent) had any recent experience11 of video

conferences it is very difficult to make any general conclusions about the quality of the

video conference system.

Other

One conclusion regarding efficiency can be drawn from the observations and

interviews. Conferences with NetMeeting and TeleMöte Webb are often more

structured and prepared in detail which leads to higher meeting efficiency. If this is

because of the tool or because of the types of meetings that these tool are usually used

for can not be concluded by the result of this study

11 In the last year

Discussion

41

Discussion This chapter contains source and method critique. The scope for this thesis has been quite extensive which has resulted in a large quantity

of data. The depth of the analysis has therefore suffered on the behalf of the goal to

provide an overall picture of the situation.

The majority of the respondents can be considered to have a personal interest in and

knowledge of communication and information technologies since they are employed at

TeliaSonera, a leading telecommunication company. This might have a negative effect

of the general aspect of this study. However, companies with a similar business and/or

employee structure will hopefully find this thesis and result useful.

Proposals for Improvement

43

Proposals for Improvement In this chapter TeliaSonera are provided with a number of improvement proposals on

how to address certain company specific issues regarding virtual conferencing within

their organisation. The issues addressed here has been identified in the study.

The use of voice over IP is a great way of cutting cost in an organisation like TS that

has an extensive telephone communication both for conferences but also regular phone

calls.

Considering the difficulties of learning and maintaining the knowledge of how to use

different tools the suggestion is to terminate one of the two solutions for Internet

conferencing (NetMeeting or TeleMöte Web). Since everyone seems agree upon the

importance of using the meeting services that are provided to the customers by the

company and also considering the security problems with NetMeeting the suggestion is

to terminate NetMeeting and spread propaganda for TeleMöte Web. However, the user

interface for starting a meeting by TeleMöte Web must be simplified and improved.

Make sure that all co-workers know about what communication equipment that is

available at their location, for example video conference facilities, and the possibilities

to borrow a web camera or a 3G mobile phone to make video calls.

Since many of the co-workers are situated in an office landscape there is a need for an

appropriate quantity of so called “silent rooms” were they can be seated while

participating in a virtual conference. Because of the fact that some of the respondents

stated that they have fixed working stations (computers) an inventory should be

performed and the need to equip some of the silent rooms with a computer and web

camera should be investigated.

If the trend of flexibility and mobility continues in combination with increased use of

video communication (either by video or web camera) there is a need to prepare the

virtual conference systems with the ability to interconnect traditional video conference,

Proposals for Improvement

44

internet conference with web-cam and video phone calls. Tandberg can already provide

such a solution (Figure 6: ©TANDBERG ivigo).

Figure 6: ©TANDBERG ivigo

There is also a need for TSS to do a clean up among all guide-lines, instructions and

manuals regarding meetings on their intranet. Different scattered instructions are found

and some of them are in a need of update.

Proposal for Further Studies

45

Proposal for Further Studies In this chapter suggestions for further studies to be performed either by TeliaSonera or

by other interested parties or organisations are presented.

There is a need to carry out more extensive case studies with experimental elements to

compare how efficient the different conference solutions are for different tasks and

group constellations. The conclusions in this study are mainly based on the

respondents’ opinions, experiences and attitudes. It is important that such experimental

studies include participants with an average experience and interest in technology for

information and communication.

Another interesting thing is to look at virtual team building activities and if these partly

can replace physical team building. This might be a way to increase the feeling of

togetherness in distributed teams without exceeding the travelling budget.

Conclusion

47

Conclusion Based on the result of this study this chapter provides a guideline for planning and

managing a meeting and choosing appropriate meeting form for distributed teams.

Well planned and structured meetings are more efficient and often shorter, therefore

such meetings saves money. The meeting time should be minimized as much as

possible with the help of well planned agenda and by focusing on deviation reports in

the follow-up and status activities rather then on a presentation of what is going

according to planned. This deviation information is of interest for concerned parties.

Normal progress reporting can be extracted and communicated by e.g. a web board for

the project.

In many meetings decisions cannot be made due to the participants’ lack of mandate. It

is important to make sure that the meeting is proper constituted to take a decision. This

minimise the risk of “wasting” valuable meeting time (and money).

It is important for the affinity among members of a distributed team to sometimes meet

face-to-face. It enforces the trust and motivation for the team members and has a

positive effect on collaboration.

It is important that all participants (including the moderator) have approved parallel

activities in the meeting such as reading emails and are aware of the implications. This

type of meeting behaviour is not recommended and should be considered as an

exemption. There is a distinct difference between prioritising personal email reading

over other personal individual activities (such as listening) and the email reading versus

the quality and result of the overall meeting. As a moderator it is always easier to

“control” the other participants’ activities thru face-to-face meeting or video

conference.

For a moderator of a video conference (or Internet conference with web camera) it is

important to consider and respect that some people are uncomfortable being filmed and

Conclusion

48

to think about alternatives for that person to participate in the meeting. Another aspect

of integrity is the use of web cameras in office landscape. Therefore the recommend-

ation is only to use web camera in a private office, a conference room or a silent room.

Depending on how many participants that needs to travel and how far, the cost gain can

be very large when choosing a virtual meeting form over a face-to-face meeting. For a

group constellation with a geographical distribution with four persons in Gothenburg,

Sundsvall, Uppsala respectively Haninge and the rest in Farsta, the cost is the same for

a two hour meeting using new video conferencing equipment with an average usage of

five percent as the total travelling cost for the non-Farsta employees to participate in a

face-to-face meeting. If the group instead uses telephone conference for the meeting the

travelling budget corresponds to a total meeting time of nine hours! However it is

important not to focus only on the “visible cost” but also to consider the appropriate

meeting form regarding quality and efficiency.

Conclusion

49

Before anything else one should ask oneself “Is a meeting really necessary?” If so, here

is a flowchart to serve as a general guideline for choosing appropriate meeting form12:

12 Strictly confidential information is not included in the flow chart since meetings containing such discussions are not so common. 13Important to take into consideration that meeting participants can feel uncomfortable with being filmed

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Between 2h and 4h

≥4h ≤2h

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Telephone Conference

Face-to-Face meeting

Video Conference13

Internet Conference

Web board or similar

Meeting length

Delicate Subject Negotiation Building Trust Information with

significant impact

Need for physical interaction between meeting participants

Purpose: Start-up meeting Team building Get to know each other

START

Part of the meeting content can be

communicated via web board or similar unsynchronized tool

Extract suitable information for the web board

More than 4 nodes or 10 participants at

one node

Need for awareness, feeling of presence,

fellowship or togetherness

Need for electronic interaction between meeting participants

More than 300

participants

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51

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http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/hossain_wigand.html

Oral Sources

Fagerström (2005), discussion with Peter Fagerström, System mgmt Support N&P, 26

October 2005.

Randén (2005), discussions with Michael Randén, Service technologies P&S, at several

occasions during Sept-Dec 2005.

Appendix 1 Questionnaire

55

Hjälp oss möta dina och företagets behov av effektiva former för samverkan på distans! (tar ca 15 min) Senast 7 november TeliaSonera är en geografisk spridd organisation och dagligen genomförs det möten där deltagare befinner sig på annan ort. Som ledande Telecom-leverantör ställs det krav på att vi själva förstår när och hur man på bästa sätt skall utnyttja de verktyg och tjänster som finns för distribuerade möten. Denna enkät är en del av ett större arbete initierat av Human Resources på TeliaSonera Sverige i samarbete med BCC Infrastruktur. Målet med arbetet är att ge medarbetarna inom TeliaSonera Sverige ett stöd för att välja rätt typ av mötesform, teknik och process för möten där en eller flera deltagare befinner sig på annan plats. Syftet med enkäten är att utvärdera de existerande konferenssystemen inom TeliaSonera för möten på distans utifrån ett användarperspektiv varför din medverkan är mycket viktig. De enskilda svaren på enkäten kommer att behandlas konfidentiellt. När arbetet är avslutat kommer ingen att kunna ta reda på vilka svar just du har lämnat. Enkäten har skickats ut till ett antal utvalda inom TeliaSonera Sverige. Resultatet av arbetet och enkäten kommer att presenteras i en rapport vid årsskiftet. Enkäten tar ca 15 minuter att svara på. Den finns även inlagt i Proof och går att besvara online istället för den som så önskar. Vid eventuella frågor kontakta Maria Sillén, ansvarig för enkäten på TSS Staff & Management (070-520 25 60 eller [email protected]). Svaren på enkäten önskas senast måndagen 7 november 2005. Använd bifogat svarskuvert eller svara direkt i Proof: http://proof.teliasonera.net/enkatpoll.asp?ProofID=2763 Tack på förhand!

1. Vilken befattning har du? 2. Vilken ort arbetar du på? 3. Hur ser din ordinarie arbetsplats ut?

a. Eget rum b. Eget skrivbord/arbetsplats i kontorslandskap c. Delar skrivbord/arbetsplats med någon eller flera andra d. Arbetar på ”fältet”/Mobilt arbete (dvs har ingen fast plats) e. Annat: ……………………………………………..


56

4. Hur stor del av arbetstiden jobbar du på annan plats än på kontoret?

a. Aldrig b. 1-20 % c. 21-40 % d. 41-60 % e. 61-80 % f. 81-100 %

Kommentar:

5. Hur ser du på ditt framtida distansarbetande jämfört med idag?

a. Vill jobba mindre på distans b. Vill jobba mer på distans c. Ser inget behov förändring

Kommentar:

6. Hur ofta träffar du dina arbetskollegor (face-to-face)?

a. Varje dag b. 1-4 dagar/gånger per vecka c. 1-3 dagar/gånger per månad d. 1-4 dagar/gånger per år e. Aldrig

Kommentar:

7. Har du behov av mer social kontakt med arbetskollegor?

a. Ja, vill ha mer personlig (face-to-face) kontakt med kollegor b. Ja, vill ha mer social kommunikation med kollegor med stöd av video,

webbkamera eller liknande c. Ja, vill ha mer social kommunikation med kollegor med stöd av chatt,

Windows Messenger eller liknande. d. Nej, har inget behov av mer social kommunikation med kollegor

Kommentar:

8. Har du tillgång till webbkamera på din arbetsplats?

a. Ja b. Nej c. Vet ej

9. Har du tillgång till webbkamera hemma?

a. Ja b. Nej


57

10. Har du tillgång till videokonferensutrusning på den ort du arbetar?


11. Har du i ditt arbete tillgång till 3G-telefon för videosamtal?


12. Vad har du för datoruppkopplingsmöjlighet hemifrån?

a. Telefonmodem b. DSL (ex ADSL, SDSL, VDSL) c. Fast bredband d. Mobilt bredband (t ex Telia Connect) e. Ingen f. Vet ej

13. Hur ofta, i genomsnitt, deltar du i möten där en eller fler deltagare är med på distans?

a. Aldrig b. 1-6 gånger/år c. 7-12 gånger/år d. 2-4 gånger/månad e. 1-2 gånger/vecka f. 3-5 gånger/vecka g. Fler än 5 gånger/vecka

Kommentar:

Om du svarade alternativ a. Aldrig kan du gå direkt till fråga 40.

14. Hur ofta, i genomsnitt, är du sammankallande/ledare för möten med en eller fler deltagare från annan geografisk plats som antingen reser till mötet för att delta eller deltar på distans?

a. Aldrig b. 1-6 gånger/år c. 7-12 gånger/år d. 2-4 gånger/månad e. 1-2 gånger/vecka f. 3-5 gånger/vecka g. Fler än 5 gånger/vecka

Kommentar:


58

15. Vilka av följande verktyg för möten på distans har du använt under det senaste året? (Här kan du välja flera alternativ, men kommentera gärna valen).

a. NetMeeting b. Telemöte Webb c. Videokonferens d. Telemöte Kod e. Telemöte Direkt f. Telemöte Event g. Telemöte Telefonist h. Projekt webbar/Diskussionsforum i. Windows Messenger j. Egen flerpartsuppkoppling via mobil eller fast telefon

Kommentar:

16. När du deltar i ett telemöte, vilka fysiska platser brukar du delta från? (Här kan du välja flera alternativ, men kommentera gärna valen)

a. Vid min egen ordinarie arbetsplats (t ex skrivbord) b. Ett konferensrum c. Ett s k ”tyst rum” eller liknande (små enskilda rum inom TeliaSoneras lokaler

som ej behöver bokas i förväg) d. Bilen e. Hemma f. På ”gående fot” inom TeliaSoneras lokaler g. På ”gående fot” utanför TeliasSoneras lokaler. (Hit räknas även buss,

tunnelbana, tåg etc.) h. Har aldrig deltagit i telemöte

Kommentar:

17. Händer det att du reser till möten som du anser lika gärna kunde ha hållits över ett virtuellt media (t ex telemöte, videomöte, NetMeeting/telemöte webb, Windows Messenger)?

a. Ja b. Nej

Kommentar:

18. Händer det att du deltar i virtuella möten (t ex telemöte, videokonferens, NetMeeting, telemöte webb, Windows Messenger) där du anser att det skulle ha varit bättre med ett fysiskt möte, s.k. face-to-face?

a. Ja b. Nej

Kommentar:


59

19. Finns det någon typ av möten du generellt anser bör vara fysiska möten, s.k. face-to-face (pga. syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?

a. Nej b. Ja, följande:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:

20. Finns det någon typ av möten du generellt anser bör kunna hållas som telemöte (pga.

syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:

21. Finns det någon typ av möten du generellt anser bör kunna hållas som videokonferens

(pga. syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:

22. Finns det någon typ av möten du generellt anser bör kunna hållas via

NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb (pga. syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:


60

23. Finns det någon typ av möten du generellt anser bör kunna hållas via Windows Messenger (pga. syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:

24. Finns det någon typ av möten eller delar av möten du generellt anser bör kunna hållas

via projektwebb/diskussionsforum (syfte, geografisk spridning, mötesmetod, socialt behov, mötestyp, etc.)?


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kommentar:

25. Hur skulle du uppleva ett krav från företaget eller en enskild projektledare/chef på att

alltid vara inloggad på Windows Messenger när du befinner dig på jobbet eller arbetar hemifrån?

a. Helt okej b. Tveksamt c. Inte okej

Kommentar:

26. Känner du dig obekväm med att i möten bli ”filmad” via videokamera/webbkamera?


Kommentar:

Om du svarade alternativ b. Nej eller c. Vet ej kan du gå direkt till fråga 29.


61

27. Avstår du från möten där du blir ”filmad” av just av den anledningen att du känner dig obekväm/besvärad?

a. Alltid b. Ibland c. Aldrig d. Har aldrig deltagit i sådana möten

Kommentar:

28. Skulle du föredra att du istället presenterades med ett stillbildsfoto?

a. Ja b. Nej

Kommentar:

29. Hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

a. Alla b. Mer än hälften c. Hälften d. Mindre än hälften e. Inga f. Har ej deltagit i telemöten det senaste året

Kommentar:

30. Hur många av de videokonferenser du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

a. Alla b. Mer än hälften c. Hälften d. Mindre än hälften e. Inga f. Har ej deltagit i videokonferens det senaste året

Kommentar:


62

31. Hur många av de möten med NetMeeting du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

a. Alla b. Mer än hälften c. Hälften d. Mindre än hälften e. Inga f. Har ej deltagit i möten med NetMeeting det senaste året

Kommentar:

32. Hur många av de möten med Telemöte Webb du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

a. Alla b. Mer än hälften c. Hälften d. Mindre än hälften e. Inga f. Har ej deltagit i möten med Telemöte Webb det senaste året

Kommentar:

33. Hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. störande omgivning hos en eller flera deltagare?


Kommentar:

34. I hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har en störande omgivning hos en eller flera deltagare haft negativ inverkan på möteseffektiviteten eller mötesresultatet?


Kommentar:


63

35. Upplever du någon skillnad i status mellan beslut och resultat från fysiska möten, s.k. face-to-face, respektive beslut och resultat från virtuella möten (telemöte, videokonferens, NetMeeting, Telemöte Webb, Windows Messenger)?

a. Ja, beslut och resultat från fysiska möten har högre status b. Ja, beslut och resultat från virtuella möten har högre status. c. Nej, ingen skillnad

Kommentar:

36. Upplever du en skillnad i status, på samma sätt som i frågan ovan, mellan de olika formerna för virtuella möten (telemöte, videokonferens, NetMeeting, Telemöte Webb, Windows Messenger)? Kommentera i så fall gärna på vilket sätt.

a. Nej b. Ja, beslut och resultat från följande har högst status:

Kommentar:

37. Hur långt anser du att ett telemöte maximalt får vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i ett telemöte?)

a. 8 timmar b. 6 timmar c. 4 timmar d. 3 timmar e. 2 timmar f. 1 timme g. 30 minuter h. Annat: …… i. Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet av telemöte

Kommentar:

38. Hur långt anser du att en videokonferens maximalt får vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i en videokonferens?)

a. 8 timmar b. 6 timmar c. 4 timmar d. 3 timmar e. 2 timmar f. 1 timme g. 30 minuter h. Annat: …… i. Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet av videokonferens

Kommentar:


64

39. Hur långt anser du att ett möte med NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb maximalt bör vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i ett möte med NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb?)

a. 8 timmar b. 6 timmar c. 4 timmar d. 3 timmar e. 2 timmar f. 1 timme g. 30 minuter h. Annat: …… i. Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet av NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb

Kommentar:

40. Hur långt anser du att ett fysiskt möte, s.k. face-to-face (där alla befinner sig på samma plats) maximalt bör vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i ett fysiskt möte?)

a. 8 timmar b. 6 timmar c. 4 timmar d. 3 timmar e. 2 timmar f. 1 timme g. 30 minuter h. Annat: …… i. Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet av fysiskt möte (face-to-face)

Kommentar:

41. Hur ser du på interna användandet av TeliaSoneras mötestjänster?

a. Viktigt, det visar att vi själva använder oss av de tjänster vi erbjuder och har en positiv inverkan på TeliaSoneras affärer.

b. Inte så viktigt c. Oviktigt, det har ingen betydelse för TeliaSoneras affärer. d. Mötestjänsterna har så låg kvalitet att de inte bidrar till intern effektivitet

Kommentar:

42. Hur lång tid kan du tänka dig att lägga ner på att lära dig nya hjälpmedel/system för möten på distans?

a. Ingen alls b. 1-3 timmar per år c. 4-8 timmar per år d. 9-14 timmar per år e. 15 timmar eller mer per år

Kommentar:


65

43. Om du har några övriga förslag eller synpunkter på virtuella konferenser, eller möten

rent generellt, ur ett socialt eller tekniskt perspektiv så får du gärna skriva ner dom här: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Appendix 2 Questionnaire Result

67

Result Hur ser din ordinarie arbetsplats ut?

15%

72%

7%0% 6%

Eget rum

Eget skrivbord/arbetsplats ikontorslandskap

Delar skrivbord/arbetsplats mednågon eller flera andra

Arbetar på "fältet"/Mobilt arbete(dvs har ingen fast plats)

Annat:

Figure 7

Hur stor del av arbetstiden jobbar du på annan plats än på kontoret?

24%

40%

22%

8%6% 0%

Aldrig1-20 %21-40 %41-60 %61-80 %81-100%

Figure 8


68

Hur ser du på ditt framtida distansarbetande jämfört med idag?

0%

38%

62%

Vill jobba mindre pådistansVill jobba mer på distans

Ser inget behov avförändring

Figure 9

Hur ofta träffar du dina arbetskollegor (face-to-face)?

49%

41%

9%

1%0%

Varje dag

1-4 dagar/gånger pervecka1-3 dagar/gånger permånad1-4 dagar/gånger per år

Aldrig

Figure 10


69

Har du behov av mer social kontakt med arbetskollegor?

12%

5%

9%

74%

Ja, vill ha mer personlig(face-to-face) kontakt medkollegor

Ja, vill ha mer socialkommunikation medkollegor med stöd avvideo, webbkamera ellerliknandeJa, vill ha mer socialkommunikation medkollegor med stöd av chatt,Windows Messenger ellerliknande.Nej, har inget behov avmer social kommunikationmed kollegor

Figure 11

Har du tillgång till webbkamera på din arbetsplats?

7%

80%

13%

JaNejVet ej

Figure 12


70

Har du tillgång till webbkamera hemma?

23%

77%

JaNej

Figure 13

Har du tillgång till videokonferensutrustning på den ort du arbetar?

44%

22%

34%

JaNejVet ej

Figure 14


71

Har du i ditt arbete tillgång till 3G-telefon för videosamtal?

17%

70%

13%

JaNejVet ej

Figure 15

Vad har du för datoruppkopplingsmöjligheter hemmifrån?

13%

55%

23%

5%

3%

1%

Telefonmodem

DSL (t ex ADSL, SDSL,VDSL)Fast bredband

Mobilt bredband (t ex TeliaConnect)Ingen

Vet ej

Figure 16


72

Hur ofta, i genomsnitt, deltar du i möten där en eller fler deltagare är med på distans?

5%12%

8%

16%

22%

28%

9%

Aldrig1-6 gånger/år7-12 gånger/år2-4 gånger/månad1-2 gånger/vecka3-5 gånger/veckaFler än 5 gånger/vecka

Figure 17

Hur ofta, i genomsnitt, är du sammankallande/ledare för möten med en eller fler deltagare från annan geografisk plats som antingen reser till

mötet för att delta eller deltar på distans?

33%

14%11%

15%

18%

8% 1%

Aldrig1-6 gånger/år7-12 gånger/år2-4 gånger/månad1-2 gånger/vecka3-5 gånger/veckaFler än 5 gånger/vecka

Figure 18


73

Vilka av följande verktyg för möten på distans har du använt under det senaste året? (Här kan du välja flera alternativ, men kommentera

gärna valen).

0,00%10,00%20,00%30,00%40,00%50,00%60,00%70,00%80,00%90,00%

100,00%N

etM

eetin

g

Tele

möt

e W

ebb

Vid

eoko

nfer

ens

Tele

möt

e Ko

d

Tele

möt

e D

irekt

Tele

möt

e E

vent

Tele

möt

e Te

lefo

nist

Pro

jekt

web

bar/d

isku

ssio

nsfo

rum

Win

dow

s M

esse

nger

Ege

n fle

rpar

tsup

pkop

plin

g vi

am

obil

elle

r fas

t tel

efon

Figure 19


74

När du deltar i ett telemöte, vilka fysiska platser brukar du delta från? (Här kan du välja flera alternativ, men kommentera gärna valen)

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

70,00%

80,00%

90,00%Vi

d m

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arb

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Ett k

onfe

rens

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Ett s

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aru

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om T

elia

Sone

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Bile

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På "g

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Sone

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På "g

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r Tel

iaSo

nera

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r.(H

it rä

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ss, t

unne

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g et

c.)

Har

ald

rig d

elta

git i

tele

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e

Figure 20


75

Händer det att du reser till möten som du anser lika gärna kunde ha hållits över virtuellt media (t ex telemöte, videokonferens,

NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb, Windows Messenger)?

39%

61%

JaNej

Figure 21

Händer du att du deltar i virtuella möten (t ex telemöte, videkonferens, NetMeeting, Telemöte Webb, Wnidows Messenger) där du anser att

det skulle ha varit bättre med ett fysiskt möte, s.k. face-to-face?

61%

39%

JaNej

Figure 22


76

Hur skulle du uppleva ett krav från företaget eller en enskild projektledare/chef på att alltid vara inloggad på Windows Messenger

när du befinner dig på jobbet eller arbetar hemifrån?

60%

31%

9%

Helt okejTveksamtInte okej

Figure 23

Känner du dig obekväm med att i möten bli ”filmad” via videokamera/webbkamera?

15%

48%

37%

JaNejVet ej

Figure 24


77

Avstår du från möten där du blir ”filmad” av just av den anledningen att du känner dig obekväm/besvärad?

4%

0%

32%

64%

Alltid

Ibland

Aldrig

Har aldrig deltagit i sådanamöten

Figure 25

Skulle du föredra att du istället presenterades med ett stillbildsfoto?

36%

64%

JaNej

Figure 26


78

Hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

1%3%

24%

69%

3%

Alla

Mer än hälften

Mindre än hälften

Inga

Har ej deltagit i telemötendet senaste året

Figure 27

Hur många av de videokonferenser du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. tekniska problem?

9%

84%

0%4%

1%2%

Alla

Mer än hälften

Hälften

Mindre än hälften

Inga

Har ej deltagit ivideokonferens detsenaste året

Figure 28


79

Hur många av de möten med NetMeeting du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga.

tekniska problem?

2%

1%

1%

33%

62%

1%

Alla

Mer än hälften

Hälften

Mindre än hälften

Inga

Har ej deltagit i möten medNetMeeting det senasteåret

Figure 29

Hur många av de möten med Telemöte Webb du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga.

tekniska problem?

4%

0%

16%

80%

0%

AllaMer än hälftenHälftenMindre än hälftenInga

Figure 30


80

Hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har inte kunnat genomföras/fullföljas som tänkt pga. störande omgivning hos

en eller flera deltagare?

19%

79%

1%

0%1% 0%

Alla

Mer än hälften

Hälften

Mindre än hälften

Inga

Har ej deltagit i telemötedet senaste året

Figure 31

I hur många av de telemöten du deltagit i under det senaste året har en störande omgivning hos en eller flera deltagare haft negativ inverkan

på möteseffektiviteten eller mötesresultatet?

11%

6%

46%

36%

1% 0%

Alla

Mer än hälften

Hälften

Mindre än hälften

Inga

Har ej deltagit i telemötedet senaste året

Figure 32


81

Upplever du någon skillnad i status mellan beslut och resultat från fysiska möten, s.k. face-to-face, respektive beslut och resultat från virtuella möten (telemöte, videokonferens, NetMeeting, Telemöte

Webb, Windows Messenger)?

30%

0%

70%

Ja, beslut och resultat frånfysiska möten har högrestatusJa, beslut och resultat frånvirtuella möten har högrestatusNej, ingen skillnad

Figure 33

Upplever du en skillnad i status, på samma sätt som i frågan ovan, mellan de olika formerna för virtuella möten (telemöte, videokonferens, NetMeeting, Telemöte Webb, Windows Messenger)? Kommentera i så

fall gärna på vilket sätt.

91%

9%

Nej

Ja, beslut från följande harhögst status:

Figure 34


82

Hur långt anser du att ett telemöte maximalt får vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i ett telemöte?)

0%

0%

24%

47%

18%

1%

2%

0%

8%

8 timmar

6 timmar

4 timmar

3 timmar

2 timmar

1 timme

30 minuter

Annat:

Vet ej. Har ingenerfarenhet av telemöte

Figure 35

Hur långt anser du att ett möte med NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb maximalt bör vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i ett möte med

NetMeeting/Telemöte Webb?)

0%

0%

23%

45%

12%

0%

1% 9% 10%

8 timmar

6 timmar

4 timmar

3 timmar

2 timmar

1 timme

30 minuter

Annat:

Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet avNetMeeting/Telemöte Webb

Figure 36


83

Hur långt anser du att en videokonferens maximalt får vara? (Hur länge orkar man sitta i en videokonferens?)

0%

0%

8%

18%

8%

1%

0%

59%

6%

8 timmar

6 timmar

4 timmar

3 timmar

2 timmar

1 timme

30 minuter

Annat:

Figure 37

Hur långt anser du att ett fysiskt möte, s.k. face-to-face (där alla befinner sig på samma plats) maximalt bör vara? (Hur länge orkar man

sitta i ett fysiskt möte?)

30%

20%21%

9%

8%

6%

0%

5%

1%

8 timmar

6 timmar

4 timmar

3 timmar

2 timmar

1 timme

30 minuter

Annat:

Vet ej. Har ingen erfarenhet avfysiskt möte (face-to-face)

Figure 38


84

Hur ser du på interna användandet av TeliaSoneras mötestjänster?

98%

2%

0%

0% Viktigt, det visar att vi självaanvänder oss av de tjänster vierbjuder och har en positivinverkan på TeliaSoneras affärer

Inte så viktigt

Oviktigt, det har ingen betydelseför TeliaSoneras affärer

Mötestjänsterna har så lågkvalitet att de inte bidrar till interneffektivitet

Figure 39

Hur lång tid kan du tänka dig att lägga ner på att lära dig nya hjälpmedel/system för möten på distans?

3%

16%

41%

14%

26%

Ingen alls1-3 timmar per år4-8 timmar per år9-14 timmar per år15 timmar eller mer per år

Figure 40

Appendix 3 Interview plan

85

Interview plan Exempel på frågor till deltagare i telemöte:

Frågor till alla: Hur och när fick du information om eller kallelse till mötet? Förväntades du ha förberett/läst något innan mötet? Har du i så fall gjort det? Om inte varför? Har du träffat alla deltagare på mötet någon gång? Dvs har du ett ansikte till rösten? Vilka fördelar och/eller nackdelar upplever du med telemöte kod?

o Rent allmänt o Jämfört med fysiskt möte (alla sitter på samma plats) o Jämfört med videomöte o Jämfört med netmeeting/telemöte webb

Finns det enligt dig någon skillnad i hur långt ett telemöte får vara jämfört med ett fysiskt möte med tanke på trötthetskänsla, koncentrationssvårigheter etc?

Frågor till dig som deltog på telemötet den [datum]: På vilken fysisk plats befann du dig under mötet? Vilken typ av telefon använde du (mobil, IP, konferenstelefon – padda, traditionell fast

telefon)? Förekom det några tekniska störningar som påverkade mötet negativt?

Fråga till dig som inte deltog på telemötet den [datum]: Om du inte kunde delta på mötet hur tillgodogör du dig information om vad som avhandlades

och eventuellt beslutades på mötet?

Exempel på frågor till mötesledaren i telemöte:

Vad var syftet/målet med mötet (planering, information, beslut, diskussion, förankring osv)? Hur väl känner mötesdeltagarna varandra? Var det första gången som mötet hölls eller har det

pågått en längre tid i mötesserie? Varför valde du tjänsten telemöte kod för mötet? Fanns det något alternativ? När och hur kallade du till mötet? Förväntades mötesdeltagarna förbereda sig på något sätt innan mötet? Protokollförs mötet på något sätt? Hur hanteras eventuella åtgärdspunkter och beslut? Hur informeras de som inte kunde delta på mötet om vad som diskuterades och beslöts på

mötet? Är du nöjd med dagens möte? Uppfylldes mötets mål och syfte? Vilka fördelar och/eller nackdelar upplever du med telemöte kod?

o Rent allmänt o Jämfört med fysiskt möte (alla sitter på samma plats) o Jämfört med videomöte o Jämfört med netmeeting/telemöte webb

Finns det enligt dig någon skillnad i hur långt ett telemöte får vara jämfört med ett fysiskt möte med tanke på trötthetskänsla, koncentrationssvårigheter etc?

På vilken fysisk plats befann du dig under mötet? Vilken typ av telefon använde du (mobil, IP, konferenstelefon – padda, traditionell fast

telefon)? Förekom det några tekniska störningar som påverkade mötet negativt?

Appendix 4 Selection of questionnaire respondents

87

Respondent statistics Geographic location representation: Gender representation: Replied: Did not reply: Replied: Did not reply Malmö Borås 39 ♀ 18 ♀ Göteborg Uppsala 42 ♂ 22 ♂ Farsta Köping 5 other13 5 other14 Luleå Falkenberg Jönköping Sundvall Örebro Stockholm Sundbyberg Växjö Skellefteå Haninge Norrköping Karlstad Gävle Östersund Kalmar Umeå Nacka Strand Falun Västerås

13 unidentified gender 14 unidentified gender

Appendix 5 Observation Plan

89

Observationsplan Förberedelse: Ring upp mötesordföranden, berätta om projektet och be om tillstånd att få delta på mötet för att iaktta beteende och skeenden. Be även om att få kopia på kallelse. På så sätt får jag dels reda på när kallelsen skickades och till vilka samt om de förväntas förbereda/läsa något innan mötet. Fråga om det är okej att ställa lite kompletterande frågor efter mötet dels till ordföranden/sammankallande och dels till de andra deltagarna. Under mötet: Datum: Mötesnamn/typ: Planerad starttid: Verklig starttid: Ev. uppstartsproblem: Antal deltagare och fysisk plats som de deltar i mötet från: Presentationen av deltagare sker genom: Anteckna om deltagare ansluter eller avviker (klockslag och sätt): Verktyg som används: Övriga observationer (klockslag och art): Notera hur många av deltagarna som är aktiva (pratar): Mötet avslutas genom att:

Appendix 6 Summary of Interview Result

91

Short summary of interview results: Of the 17 observations followed by interviews two were video conferences, three were

meetings with NetMeeting, one was TeleMöte Webb meeting, two were face-to-face meeting

and the rest (9) were telephone conference. In addition to this observations (without

interviews) were made at one video conference, one TeleMöte Webb meeting, one

NetMeeting and two telephone conferences.

The majority of the meetings in the study were routine meetings, i.e. reoccurring meetings for

a specified group of people and with a more or less fixed meeting agenda. Therefore the

“notice to attend” the meeting was mostly delivered to the participants on the prior meeting.

On an average the agenda was sent out two days in advance. But 24 percent of the meetings

had a fixed agenda that were not sent out prior to the meeting. It is noteworthy that

participants in the same meeting often had different opinions of whether they were expected

to prepare or read anything before the meeting or not. As much as 59 percent of the meetings

had one or more participants that never had met face-to-face. The video conferences took

place in video conference rooms within TSS and all three observed meetings were between

two nodes with one to two participants at one node and three to five at the other. For the

meeting with TeleMöte Webb, 8 percent (1 of 12) of the participants were located elsewhere

(at home) than at their ordinary desk. In the NetMeetings all participants were situated at their

ordinary work place. All observed meetings with TeleMöte Webb and NetMeeting were held

with a parallel telephone conference. Two types of meeting characteristics for telephone

conferences were shown: one type where all participants each represented a single node

(average number of nodes: six) and one type with a smaller group (approx. four participants

with one conference telephone) at one node connected to a small number of nodes with one to

three participants at each node. 36 percent of the participants in a telephone conference used a

conference phone and 57 percent participated via their mobile phone and the rest by a fixed

phone or IP phone (only 1 percent). On an average the participants are satisfied with the

quality of the conference technique used. A common comment is that background noise at

telephone conferences are an existing but manageable problem. A few participants find the

ghost voice that informs about participants entering and leaving the meeting disturbing (not

all meetings used this feature). The observations show that on an average the meeting starts

five minutes after announced starting time. It is also noteworthy that participants in the same

meeting have different views on whether minutes of meeting are taken and available for

Appendix 6 Summary of Interview Result

92

reading afterwards. The meeting moderators states that important information and decisions

are communicated to those absent from the meeting. About 41 percent of the moderators state

that they write official minutes of meeting that are distributed to the participants. No one of

the moderators in these observations had used the possibility to record a meeting by the

telephone conference services. The comments about appropriate meeting length and pros and

cons with each conference system do not differ from the questionnaire result, with one major

exception. Participants and moderators of the observed video conferences showed a more

positive attitude to the video conference system than the average TSS co-worker. Most of the

moderators of the telephone conferences in the study had chosen this conference solution out

of habit and in a routine manner without considering an alternative. The moderators for the

video conferences stated that the reason for choosing it was “It is fun seeing each other”, “It

brings people closer together”, “It gives a feeling of togetherness” and “Why do not use it

when it is possible?!”. The moderators for NetMeeting and TeleMöte Webb had chosen these

conference tools because of a need for document or application sharing. TeleMöte Webb was

chosen for meetings with participants located outside TS.

Appendix 7 Travelling specification

93

Travelling specification and calculation 1 person lives in Tomtegränd in Sundsvall and flies from Sundsvall/Härnösands airport to Arlanda. Takes a taxi from Tomtegränd to Sundsvall/Härnösand airport and from Arlanda to Mårbackagatan in Farsta. Takes a taxi 20km15 from home to the airport at a cost of: 39SEK+ 20km x 9.90SEK + 0.25h x 470SEK = 354.50 SEK (Basic charge: 39SEK, km-charge: 9.90SEK, time charge: 470SEK/h)16 15 minutes of travelling The Check-in are to be done at the latest 20 min before departure17 i.e. approx. 30 minutes wait at the airport between taxi and flight. The flight takes 50 minutes and the ticket costs 1 340 SEK18. The wait at Arlanda between flight and taxi are estimated to 10 min. Takes a taxi 55km19 from Arlanda to Mårbackagatan 11 at a cost of: 42 SEK + 55km x 7.80SEK + 0.67h x 299SEK = 670 SEK (Basic charge: 42SEK, km-charge: 7.80SEK, time charge: 299SEK/h)20 40 minutes of travelling 1 person lives in Agnebäcksvägen in Gothenburg and takes the train from Gothenburg Central to Stockholm Central. Takes a taxi from Agnebäcksvägen to Gtbg C and from Sthlm C to Mårbackagatan in Farsta. Taxi trip 18km21 from home to Gtbg C at a cost of: 29SEK + 18km x 10.20SEK + 0.25h x 359SEK = 302 SEK (Basic charge: 29SEK, km-charge: 10.0SEK, time charge: 359SEK)22 15 minutes of travelling Wait at the Gtbg train station: 15 minutes The train trip takes 3.05 hours and the ticket costs 1 108 SEK23. Wait between train trip and taxi at the Stockholm train station: 10 minutes

15 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 16 According to www.taxisundsvall.se [2006-01-13] 17 According to www.sas.se [2006-01-13] 18 According to www.sas.se [2006-01-13] (FLEX ticket) 19 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 20 According to www.taxistockholm.se [2006-01-13] 21 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 22 According to www.taxigoteborg.se [2006-01-13] 23 According to www.sj.se [2006-01-13] (Klass 2 ticket, X2000)

94

Taxi trip 11km24 from Sthlm C to Mårbackagatan 11 at a cost of: 42SEK + 11km x 7.80SEK + 0.25h x 299SEK = 200 SEK (Basic charge: 42SEK, km-charge: 7.80SEK, time charge: 299SEK/h)25 15 minutes of travelling 1 person lives in Uppsala and travels by own car to Mårbackagatan 11. The trip is 90 km26 and takes 70 minutes (one way). Mileage compensation: 28SEK27 x 9 = 252 SEK 1 person travels by own car from the office at Rudsjöterassen in Haninge to Mårbackagatan 11. The trip in 10 km28 and takes 15 minutes (one way). Mileage compensation: 28SEK29 x 1 = 28SEK Note: The travelling time by car in Sundsvall, Gothenburg and Stockholm are estimated in consideration of the type of road and average speed.

24 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 25 According to www.taxistockholm.se [2006-01-13] 26 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 27 According to www.teliasonera.com [2006-01-13] 28 According to www.eniro.se [2006-01-13] 29 According to www.teliasonera.com [2006-01-13]

TRITA-CSC-E 2006:021 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--06/021--SE

ISSN-1653-5715

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