We need to do something with the emails that keep piling up, cut down on redundant meetings, and unplug that desk phone once and for all, yet still stay connected. Why not try a tool that does all three without you having to get up from your desk?

WebRTC enables browsers and mobile apps to do Real-Time Communications (RTC), bundling text, voice and video in a single package. Hubgets leverages this technology by fusing together all your communication and collaboration channels and making them accessible from a single, intuitive interface. You don’t have to install a separate app to harness this power – it works in a typical web browser like Chrome or Firefox. Here’s how this clever tool can render email, meetings and desk phones extinct.

Communication, sans email

Mark Twain once said about the weather, “Everybody’s talking about it, and nobody’s doing anything about it.” It’s the same with email, according to Don Tapscott, Strategy Consultant, and Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In a 2013 interview, he stressed the dire need for rethinking knowledge management, replacing email with a new collaborative platform where you log on and all the documents that are pertinent to your project are instantly available. This solution would also let users create a subgroup and conduct a digital brainstorm, exchange files in real time, microblog etc.

Fast forward to today, Hubgets addresses all of these challenges from a single interface. Direct messaging is not only faster and more efficient, it also lets you send and receive files on the spot. No more digging through emails to find your attachments – everything is there in your discussion, ready to be viewed in the browser or to be downloaded as many times as you need.

The Activity space streams updates instantly and the last status update is always at the top – complete with @mentions that give the people in question a heads up that the discussion might concern them. It promotes free discussion organization-wide and acts like an alternative to email-to-all.

With meetings, less is more

What is a meeting if not an office hangout? Considering how many of us shouldn’t be there in it in the first place. Not to mention those meetings where you can tell who’s really in the room and who isn’t, when they’re fiddling with their phones once every 30 seconds. Enter Topics in Hubgets and you’ll need to have less face-to-face gatherings by enabling discussions among groups concerned by a specific project, complete with file sharing (documents, audio, video files) and tagging, to keep information information neatly organized.

A Topic stays open for as long as it’s needed, which means you don’t have to adjourn your discussion every day. The data stays there for future reference. Instead of scrolling through month-old emails, you just revisit the Topic and use search to find what you’re looking for. Or just click on the tags to jump from stone to stone. Of course, Topics can and should be considered a complementary asset to face-to-face encounters ;) Quarter-end meetings are not something you want to conduct in a chat window.

Voice & video, in-browser

One of the coolest things behind WebRTC is the ability to conduct calls, including video calls, in a traditional web browser. Hubgets integrates with your available microphone and webcam so you can instantly tap anyone in your list and ring them up. The key advantage here is that calling people no longer requires taking your hands off the keyboard, and your desk will thank you for not having to piggyback a phone system.

TL;DR

Email is a walled garden of expired information – Hubgets always keeps the fresh fruit on top and focuses on connecting the team and its members. In fact, Hubgets bridges the very communication gaps that generate so much email in the first place. If it’s an addiction you don’t want to give up just yet, you can always email others directly from Hubgets.

Meetings take us away from our desks and into boredom – Hubgets lets us have virtual meetings that are fast, productive and fun. And don’t involve projectors.

Desk phones are so last-century – Hubgets enables next-gen communication with voice and video without detracting your attention.

And this is just scratching the surface of what our teamwork platform can do. Directly in the browser or by using the desktop version for busy environments. Try it out for free!