Electronic Meeting Systems at Work

By Uday S. Murthy and L. Murphy Smith

The authors describe the guidelines and strategies for putting electronic meeting systems to work and present details and comparisons on two of the available less expensive software packages.

In many situations, a knowledgeable professional with the right tools can be very productive working alone. Some tasks, however, are best accomplished by teams of people working together to leverage the value of their collective knowledge‹in meetings.

Most meetings are conducted face-to-face with everyone present at the same time in one room. Such meetings are often not easy to organize; schedule conflicts make it difficult to find a time when all participants are available. Also, face-to-face meetings can be dominated by one or a few individuals to the point where valuable comments by others may never be expressed. Some people may remain silent for fear of criticism. Another drawback is the sequential nature of input in traditional meetings. There can be only one person speaking at a time while, presumably, the other participants are listening intently to the person speaking. Sometimes, an inordinate amount of time must be allotted spent if all participants are to be heard.

Apart from face-to-face meetings, conference telephone calls and video conferencing allow participants to meet from geographically distant locations. And, even these types of meetings are beset with many of the same problems as face-to-face meetings (e.g., schedule conflicts, dominating personalities, and sequential input).

Recently available information technologies permit new types of meetings--electronic meetings--which overcome many of the drawbacks of traditional meetings. Electronic meeting systems (EMS) permit anonymous and simultaneous input by participants, either at the same location or from geographically remote locations. EMS also allow for attendance at different times by different participants, eliminating the problem of conflicting schedules. EMS also allow conventional same-time, same-place meetings in which participants interact non-anonymously.

Description of EMS Technology

EMS software is typically installed on a local-area network (LAN). The personal computers networked on the LAN may either be in the same room or at different locations. An administrator or meeting leader determines the meeting type, sets the agenda, and invites participants. Participants enter a meeting by opening the EMS software tool, logging on, and selecting the meeting to attend. Participants view a common meeting blackboard with all participants' comments displayed together on each of their screens. Input to the meeting occurs by participants typing in new ideas or comments or their reaction to existing ideas and comments, and posting their input. The common screen is updated so that all participants can view the additions. In contrast with face-to-face meetings, electronic meetings permit simultaneous input. Participants do not have to wait their turn before entering a comment, allowing for an uninhibited generation of ideas and suggestions.

Meeting Time and Place. A significant feature of EMS is that meetings do not have to be attended at the same time and place. While traditional same-time, same place, meetings are still available if the EMS software is installed on a LAN within a single room, if the computers on a network are located in different rooms, participants can attend meetings without leaving their offices. Some EMS tools even allow for users to dial in and participate in a meeting from remote locations. Also with EMS, participants have the ability to attend the meeting at different times, overcoming the sametime conflicting schedules limitation.

Anonymous, Semianonymous, or Known Input. Unlike a face-to-face meeting, the administrator or leader of an electronic meeting has the option of making participants' input anonymous, semi-anonymous, or known. In an anonymous meeting, the identity of the author of a comment is not revealed. Comments can be evaluated based on merit rather than on the identity of the individual making the comment. Anonymous input is particularly useful for brainstorming, where an uninhibited exchange of ideas is critical. If participants' input is known, then the author of each comment is identified. This type of electronic meeting is similar to a face-to-face meeting, except, as noted earlier it can be time-independent‹participants do not have to be present at the same time.

In a semianonymous meeting, each participant is identified by a unique, randomly generated number. While participants' anonymity is maintained, comments made by the same individual can be recognized on the common screen by the same identifier number. The semianonymous meeting feature prevents a participant from stacking the deck. In a fully anonymous meeting, it is possible for a participant to enter a comment and then anonymously praise his or her own comment.

Types of Meetings. As with face-to-face meetings, electronic meetings support the notion of a meeting leader. The leader can be the individual who only calls the meeting or, where appropriate can exercise greater control over the conduct of the meeting. A significant advantage of EMS is the leader can structure the meeting, using EMS tools, so the meeting can be productive given the intended objectives. EMS meetings can be set up so that‹

* the leader proposes ideas and participants comment on those ideas,

* the leader and participants enter
ideas only,

* the leader and participants both enter ideas and comment on the ideas of others,

* the leader enters proposals and participants respond yes or no to each proposal, and

* the leader and the participants vote on alternatives.

Electronic meetings where the leader proposes ideas and participants merely respond to those ideas are useful in situations where someone in a position of authority is seeking input from peers or subordinates. For example, a human resources manager could enter names of potential job candidates, and participants could provide their comments about each potential candidate based on their evaluation of candidates' resumes. If the objective is to brainstorm, the meeting could be structured so that participants can only enter ideas, with no opportunity to comment on ideas generated. Participants would concentrate on developing ideas rather than on critiquing the ideas of others.

An EMS meeting could be designed so that the leader enters alternatives and participants simply respond yes or no to each alternative, either anonymously or on a known basis. A meeting of this nature can be conducted very efficiently through EMS, especially if the meeting is designed to be attended by participants at different times.

Voting. EMS meetings typically include a number of voting options. Participants can either record a single vote for one alternative, respond yes or no to each alternative, rank their top choices, assign points to each alternative, or simply abstain from voting. Depending on the meeting objective, the leader can select the most appropriate voting scheme. The EMS program consolidates participants' votes and automatically determines which alternative received the most votes. Some EMS permit the meeting leader to keep the results of voting confidential from the participants.

A Glimpse at Two EMS

Two of the currently available EMS software packages are The Meeting Room by Eden Systems Corporation and TeamTalk by Trax Softworks, Inc. The Meeting Room and TeamTalk are relatively low-cost Windows-based packages. A 20-user license for each of these packages can be obtained for approximately $1,500. More expensive systems are available which may cost in excess of $20,000.

The Meeting Room (TMR). TMR is a full-featured EMS that permits group discussions and also has a variety of voting tools. The system administrator has the ability to set up users on the system, and each user can be designated as either a leader or a participant. Only designated leaders can call meetings; other users are restricted to participating in meetings to which they are invited.

A meeting is created, first by giving it a name and establishing goals and objectives. The leader then determines whether participants will meet at the same time or at different times, and selects the type of meeting‹either fully anonymous (only leader knows participants' identities), semianonymous (unique three-digit identifiers), or known (names displayed alongside each comment). Meeting start and stop times are established, and the leader invites participants to the meeting.

The next step is constructing the meeting agenda. The agenda type determines whether participants can enter new ideas only, input both new ideas and remarks on existing ideas, or whether they can vote on alternatives. In setting the agenda, the meeting leader has options. Pre-defined meeting agendas are available, or the agenda from a prior meeting can be used. More than one agenda can be defined for each meeting. For example, a meeting could begin with an open discussion of ideas and alternatives and conclude after a fixed period of time with a voting session in which participants rank order their top five alternatives.

A significant strength of TMR is the variety of voting options available. One option allows participants to vote either "yes" or "no" or they can abstain. Another option allows participants to rank order alternatives. The voting can also be designed so that participants could allocate resources‹points or dollars‹to alternatives. Another option is the Category Vote which allows participants to assign each alternative to a category. Finally, the Single Vote option allows participants to vote for only one alternative.

TMR allows the meeting leader to determine whether participants can view voting results. If the leader is merely soliciting opinions and would like to make the final decision unilaterally, the results can be kept secret from the group.

After the meeting has been created, one final option allows the meeting leader to notify participants who have been invited via electronic mail.

Figure 1 shows the screen that appears when a participant logs on to TMR. The screen shows the meetings to which the user has been invited. To participate in a meeting, the user simply clicks on the meeting name and then clicks on the Enter Meeting button. The panel at the right of the meeting list indicates when the meeting is scheduled to end. Three sample meetings have been set up on the screen: Opinions on Recruits (soliciting views on candidates being interviewed for a job opening), Audit Problems FY '95 (discussion of problems faced during the audit), and Which tax software? (discussion of pros and cons of various tax software packages). As shown in Figure 1, users can control the order in which meetings appear‹by meeting name or meeting status‹and can choose to be notified when a meeting has a new agenda or when there is progress within a meeting agenda, e.g., when there are fresh ideas or remarks for an existing meeting.

Another screen appears when a participant enters a particular meeting, which shows the various comments that have been made by all invitees to that particular meeting. At the very top of the screen, below a typical Windows menu, is a button bar with one-click access to various TMR functions, such as showing the agenda for the meeting, adding a comment, and electronic mail. The meeting name and current agenda item are shown at the top of the Idea Summary. The buttons to the right of the list of ideas and remarks allow participants to jump to the next new (unread) idea or remark. The mark button allows users to mark or tag comments of interest and then view only the marked comments. The search button allows participants to search for words or phrases in the list of ideas and remarks. Participants can choose to view all ideas and remarks, ideas only, or only marked items.

Main comments are numbered sequentially. Remarks can be added to main comments and are indented below the relevant comment. The Opinions on Recruits meeting being used as an example, has been set up as a semi-anonymous meeting. A three-digit number would be shown in parentheses next to each comment and is the randomly generated unique identifier of each participant. If the meeting had been a fully anonymous meeting, the comments would appear with no identifier. Had the meeting been on a known basis, each participant's user name would appear next to each comment. Participants can add a main comment, a remark to a main comment, or a remark to a remark. A Return button allows the user to exit the meeting. A Refresh button updates the participant's screen to reflect new comments that other participants may have added. Ordinarily the screen is updated only when a participant enters a new idea or remark.

When participants click on the Add Idea button, they are presented with the screen showing a brief title for the idea with a more detailed description of the idea entered in the New Idea window. Unless the leader has restricted the entry of anonymous comments, even in a known meeting, participants have the option of submitting an anonymous comment. An interesting feature of TMR is a Microphone button . If the computers on the network are equipped with sound cards, then participants can add audio comments to the meeting.

TeamTalk (TT). TT Version 2.0, developed by Trax Softworks, Inc., is described as a "graphical conferencing system for Windows." TT also allows users to conduct meetings at either the same time or at different times. TT permits anonymous and known comments, but does not have a semianonymous capability. TT meetings are conducted in topics which authorized users create. As in TMR, the TT supervisor can control whether participants are able to create topics (i.e., meetings). Unlike TMR, TT does not allow the meeting creator to set up different kinds of agendas. However, subtopics can be set up within an overall topic to organize issues for discussion. All TT meetings are discussion type meetings; there is no voting capability built into the package. TT can, however, provide a Visual Basic add-in module that provides basic voting functions (e.g., yes/no/abstain voting). Users proficient in Visual Basic can modify the code to suit their needs. TT is designed mainly for group discussions.

To set up a meeting topic, a user enters the topic (meeting) name, defines the style of the meeting (simple or dynamic), and determines whether the meeting is a public or private meeting. A dynamic meeting is one in which remarks to previously made comments are attached to those comments--generating a thread of related comments. In a simple meeting, all comments are listed chronologically with no links to related comments. Public meetings are accessible by all TT clients, while private meetings are restricted to those TT users who are specifically invited by the topic creator. After a topic has been created, it is displayed on the main TT screen‹called the home screen‹as shown in Figure 2.

The TT home screen mimics an office environment with different rooms, complete with water cooler and potted plant! As in Figure 2, each topic is shown as a door to a virtual meeting room. The door also shows the number of new comments in the meeting. Compared with TMF, the TT environment is more graphical and user-friendly. One-click access to various functions are provided on the tool bar below the menu bar. The directory provides a listing of all topics, allowing the user to navigate to any desired topic. Once a user opens a topic by double clicking on a door, he or she is presented with the meeting screen shown in Figure 3.

The header line for each comment shows the author of the comment, when it was entered, and a brief title. If the comment was submitted anonymously, then the word anonymous appears in place of the user's name. The next update button on the tool bar takes the user to the next unseen comment in the conversation area. Buttons immediately above the conversation area can be used to add a comment, a reply to a comment, or a reply to a reply. An interesting feature of TT is the ability to convey the tone of the comment by adding icon stickers, like the sad face in the first comment in Figure 3. A powerful feature of TT is the ability to embed other objects such as a spreadsheet or a word processing file along with a comment.

The accompanying table summarizes and compares the key features of TMR and TT. Each package has some unique features which may or may not be important depending on your needs.

User Training & Satisfaction Issues

Although both TMR and TT are easy to use, they both assume that the user has basic knowledge of Windows. Studies, using students, have found that even first time users become adept at using these systems after a brief training session. Advanced functions, such as embedding spreadsheet, and word processing files, may require more extensive user training. A significant concern in using EMS is the diminished interpersonal contact that results. In some cases, even when participants found EMS to be very efficient, they still preferred face-to-face meetings. There are meeting situations in which face-to-face meetings work best, but there are also many situations where EMS works just as well or even better than face-to face meetings. The real strength of EMS software is that it facilitates different time/different-place meetings. *

Uday S. Murthy and L. Murphy Smith are professors of accounting at Texas A&M University.

Feature The Meeting Room TeamTalk

Eden Systems Corp. Trax Softworks, Inc.

Indianapolis IN 46260-1820 Culver City CA 90230

(317) 848-9600 (800) 367-8729

Meeting time Same time and different Same time and different time

time

Meeting type Comments only, Comments and

remarks only, or remarks

comments and

remarks

Organization of Through multiple Through sub-topics

meeting issues agendas within an defined for an overall

overall meeting topic

Voting tools Built-in Visual basic add-in

Voting options Yes/no/abstain, Yes/no/abstain (other category voting, types require coding in Visual Basic)

resource allocation,

single vote

User identification Fully anonymous, semi- Fully anonymous or

anonymous, or known known

E-mail notification of

invitation to a meeting Yes No

E-mail notification of

progress in a meeting No Yes

Audio capability Yes No

Ability to embed objects No Yes

Ability to quickly view

new comments Yes Yes

Ability to "tag" important

comments and view only

tagged comments Yes No

DECEMBER 1995 / THE CPA JOURNAL