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Your Conferencing Considerations
Ask yourself the following questions to determine which conferencing option is the best for your business.

• How many participants does a solution support?: Any conferencing solution should be able to accommodate the maximum number of users at any given time. Furthermore, scalability is important, as that maximum could easily change in the future.
• How easy is it to use?: If the solution is overly complicated, it will get in the way of effective communication, especially if key users miss information. The mobile version should be equally as accessible.
• How compatible is it with your current solutions?: If the solution you want to implement doesn’t play well with your current infrastructure, there is little reason to invest in it, unless you’re considering a complete overhaul. Making it work and having it work immediately are two very different things.
• What kind of meetings will you be having?: Depending on the types of meetings you’ll hold, your solution will vary. Whether it’s company-wide forums, in-person lectures, or webinars, you will need a solution that can handle your specific needs.
• What else does it need to do?: If you can reuse your communications solution for multiple purposes, it will be more valuable. For example, recording and screen sharing webinars will help you reuse the resource as often as you want in the future.

How to Hold a Better Conference Call
Having the tools is one thing, but effectively using them is another entirely. Here are some pointers:

• Stick to the plan: Meetings are more effective when you go into them with a clear plan of action. With an agenda, you’ll be able to more effectively manage attendees and presenters.
• Resist discussing everything: Meetings should have a laser focus. Not everything needs to be discussed in the same meeting. Furthermore, asking questions that don’t need to be asked in the first place creates discussion that doesn’t need to happen, and it leads to a waste of time for all those involved. If a can of worms is opened, schedule another meeting for only those who need to discuss it.
• Don’t pack the meeting: That being said, not everyone needs to be in attendance; only those who are directly involved with the discussion should be there, as room constraints might become an issue. Plus, this will help to keep the conversation on task.

For all your conferencing solution needs, Digital Seattle can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (206) 709-9556.

Fleet Management

The first technology that we want to talk about is fleet management. Fleet management is actually a makeup of several different types of software that has been combined to create a comprehensive fleet management platform. The fleet management software includes an easy-to-use centralized dashboard. In this dashboard you can find all the information that needs to be known about your fleet, including:

• Work pending in priority order
• Any issues holding up progress
• Equipment status, permits, or other admin items
• Repair orders and repair status
• Employee information (Driver’s License, physical, and other administrative information)
• Approved and unapproved work orders
• Predictive maintenance schedules
• Predictive fleet schedules
• And more

Since fleet management software is designed to manage large numbers of vehicles, drivers, and combinations of the two, having one outfitting your distribution or transportation section of your business is a complete game changer. Not only can you tell who is driving what vehicle, you can see what it will ultimately cost to run the routes, providing actionable information in which to make decisions.

Internet of Things

An ever-growing part of modern-day technology, the Internet of Things, is beginning to revolutionize the way companies are able to track their assets. Since any manufacturing company relies on its procurement processes and its distribution, the IoT is a major benefit to manufacturers. With IoT-enabled asset tracking solutions integrated, you can remotely track your equipment, vehicles, and inventory on both ends to more effectively manage your assets.

IoT-enabled asset tracking provides the following features:

• Use real-time data to adjust your business to build efficiency
• Theft and loss prevention
• Comprehensive inventory management
• Negative impact reduction through predictive analysis
• On-point customer service
• And more

If your business has problems with route inefficiency, costs of doing business, or any other logistics-based aspect of your business, utilizing asset management software powered by the Internet of Things can be a good solution for your company.

Autonomous Vehicles

Finally, we get to the creme de la creme of transportation innovation: the driverless vehicle. It’s been years since the first driverless car was tested and today there are working trucks shipping products on southwest U.S. highways. While today’s driverless trucks aren’t advanced enough to make dock-to-dock runs, navigating the open road is no problem. Uber subsidiary Otto completed the first-ever autonomous delivery, delivering beer from Fort Collins, CO to Colorado Springs, CO. In the next few years it will be a viable alternative to hiring shipping companies; and, beyond may just make the truck driver an endangered species. Some of the main benefits of driverless trucks include:

• Fewer traffic accidents
• Reduction in-road congestion
• Cost reduction
• Lower product prices

Since there is a long way to go until autonomous vehicles will be the predominant form of shipping used by most businesses, finding out what solutions can work today to help you benefit your company is important. Call Digital Seattle today at (206) 709-9556 for more.

Some power users might have noticed that their Chrome browser has been a little slower as of late, with some pointing out the Windows 10 1809 update as the issue. Others found that Chrome was eating their system resources from time-to-time, and they have since been looking for a solution. We’re here to help.

First, remember that the major reason why Chrome is so popular is because it’s a fast browser, and that it has a lot of integration that allows for a great user experience. This might lead to the browser being jammed up for some reason or another. It might even be a simple caching issue or an update problem. Let’s take a look at some solutions to common browser issues with Google Chrome.

Update Your Browser

The latest version of Google Chrome might be one that eliminates the sluggishness that you’re currently experiencing. Google Chrome updates itself for the most part, but if it didn’t update for some reason, you’ll notice a small green arrow in the extension tray in the upper right-hand corner of the browser. Click on it and follow the instructions to download the most up-to-date version of Chrome. If you’re having difficulty doing this, you can find assistance by typing in chrome://help in the address bar.

Remove Your Dead/Useless Applications

Chrome uses extensions, or standalone programs that integrate with the browser, to provide additional functionality. However, these extensions can be resource-intensive depending on the service they are meant for. Just like a sluggish computer with too many programs open, you can speed your browser up by removing extensions that aren’t needed. You can manage your extensions by typing chrome://extensions into your address bar.

Enable Prediction Services

To best optimize your Chrome web browser, you’ll want each of its services to be optimized for speed. You should turn on network action predictions to accommodate this goal. This gives your browser plenty of tools to improve your browsing experience. To do this, follow these instructions:

• Type chrome://settings/ in the address bar
• Click on Show advanced settings.
• In the Privacy and Security section, toggle on both Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar and Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly.

Other options for improving browser speed include clearing the cache, deleting your browser history, and removing your theme.

What are some tips you want to see in the future? Let us know in the comments.