News
Audio conferencing cuts travel costs for NHS Workforce Review Team
3 April 2008
The NHS Workforce Review Team (WRT) has successfully deployed audio
conferencing services from MeetingZone to enable staff from different
offices around the country to hold meetings without leaving their desks
or while working from home.
The NHS WRT produces detailed analyses, forecasts, models and
information on the current and future supply of qualified staff working
in all specialties and professions in the NHS.
It is using the audio conferencing services to coordinate plans for
the 11th International Medical Workforce Conference, for annual UK
workforce review meetings held by the different medical specialties and
for its weekly ‘full team meeting’.
The International Medical Workforce Conference is a discussion forum
for representations from Australia, Canada, the US and the UK to
regularly come together to share knowledge and views on medical
workforces.
Julie Tunnicliffe, Project Manager, Comms & Events for the WRT, said,
“MeetingZone’s audio conferencing services have been instrumental in
enabling us to bring together the steering groups involved in the
organisation of The International Medical Workforce Conference (IMWC),
to be held in Edinburgh this September.
“By enabling all of the Steering Group members to quickly and easily
attend meetings from their desk or home office without having to spend
time or incur costs on travel, MeetingZone’s solution has helped to make
our meetings as productive and efficient as possible.”
“The next conference is being hosted and coordinated by the UK. As
part of preparation for the conference, monthly steering group meetings
are held involving representatives from all countries. Although audio
conferencing solutions used by organisers from the other participating
countries had not always run smoothly, we could see the value of using
audio conferencing to bring participants together across the different
time zones without anyone having to travel. But we understood the need
to deploy an audio conferencing service that was reliable, flexible,
easy to use and which allowed us to monitor and control the costs of
each conference,” explained Tunnicliffe.
A 'click to conference' feature enables participants to be
automatically brought into a conference simply by clicking on the host’s
individual conference URL. Another key feature for the WRT is the
ability to see who is and who is not connected to a conference via the
conference portal.
Audio conferencing is also being used to reduce the need for
participants to travel to the annual review meetings held by different
medical specialties, which take place in London. The WRT holds regular
‘full team meetings’ every Monday morning between members of staff in
Winchester and those located at the WRT’s satellite office in Leeds.
Audio conferencing enables members of the team working from home or
other locations to take part without travelling to either of the two
offices.
“The WRT’s use of audio conferencing once again demonstrates the
business benefits deployment delivers across all business sectors.
Reducing the need to travel saves both time and money at the same as
improving an organisation’s productivity and efficiency, helping to
improve the bottom line,” concluded Tim Duffy, CEO, MeetingZone.
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