We’ve had Microsoft OCS installed at my office since before
it was available to the general public. TGIWF and I were using it regularly back in May
2007 and we pushed it out to our entire company shortly thereafter. If I ever leave Gold Systems, I’m going to
be hard pressed to function without it because it’s become such a luxury of communication
and a way of life for me. It’s
dramatically sped up the time of doing business, ultimately utilizing my time
so well that I was able to cut my hours down to 32 hours/week by being so
efficient!
OCS has also enabled me to do things that I might not likely
have done before without it. In October
of 2007, I had a pretty serious knee surgery that put me on bed rest and unable
to drive for over 6 weeks! When I was finally
able to drive, it was very difficult and slow going, so I only came back in the
office two to three times a week to ease back into it. I couldn’t exactly afford to take 6+ weeks
off of my job, and I think TGIWF will even admit he couldn’t be without me for
that long! So after I got past the Vicodin stage, I was
able to work from my bed with my laptop and stay in constant communication with
TGIWF using OCS. We even had a few video
calls to show off my puffy swollen knee!
In April 2008, my now husband proposed to me while we were
on a weekend getaway in Downtown Denver.
I couldn’t get a hold of ANY of my family or friends to tell anyone!! Later I found out they were ALL waiting for
me at the Pepsi Center to join us at the Mammoth game, but I had to tell
someone! Since we were in our room at
the Grand Hyatt and my laptop was connected to Wi-Fi, I glanced at my OCS
client and saw TGIWF was online! So I IM’d
him! We went to video and with my new fiancée
looking over my shoulder to say hi, not only did I get to tell someone
important who was over 35 miles away, but I got to show him my ring too! The video quality was good enough that he
could see all the detail!
OCS has truly become a way of life here at Gold Systems for
all of us now. In fact, we hold all of
our quarterly company meetings using the Live Meeting OCS client! We had our most recent meeting just yesterday
and with all of our company in attendance either by gathering around the Polycom RoundTable in our conference room, or by dialing in remote from whatever city,
state, house or office they were in.
Everyone was able to hear TGIWF and others speak while seeing both the
camera that follows the speaker around the room as well as the PowerPoint
slides that I include at all meetings. Our meetings always start with a warm hello
from Lou, our RSM based in New Jersey which billows out of the RoundTable for
everyone to hear as if he were in the room.
Yesterday was a very special personal OCS day for me
because at the beginning of the meeting, TGIWF was able to share with the whole
company my special news that I was indeed (as wildly suspected) pregnant with
my first TWO children! Then we were able
to share my ultrasound picture showing my twins that are due in the fall! It was neat not only to have TGIWF make the
announcement, but also to see my baby twins being shared with my Gold Systems
family across the magic of the internet!
I suspect when they do arrive, I’ll be using OCS to tell
TGIWF that they’re here and we’ll probably elevate our IM chat window to a Live
Meeting so I can show them to him live, moving and crying!
Below is a screen shot of the playback of the recorded meeting and what the remote users could see. Thanks to everyone for your wonderful emails, well wishes and clapping with excitement at my special news.
So, you guys gettin' kickbacks from Microsoft for that glowing endorsement?
Posted by: Brian | May 11, 2009 at 07:20 AM