This is a guest blog post by Chris Matthieu, Founder and CEO, XRPA.NET (GroupRoom.io).
GroupRoom was created out of the need to help people get back to working together again — if not in person — as close to working in person as possible. In real life (IRL), people walk around the office space and have many planned and spontaneous conversations with colleagues in the same space. GroupRoom mimics this behavior by providing spatially aware communications in familiar and shared digital office surroundings. Whether you’re working in the office or from home, GroupRoom makes it possible for both types of workers to move around the same office space digitally and still have planned and spontaneous hallway and water-cooler conversations throughout the day!
“Virtual fatigue” is real
Have you ever logged out of your last virtual meeting for the day and found yourself completely drained? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of people are dealing with virtual fatigue. It refers to the exhaustion you feel after a long day of video meetings.
When the global pandemic forced everyone to work remotely, legacy video collaboration tools were the only option for ongoing communications. We all resorted to video conferencing tools for meetings as well as chat applications to try to improve response times and productivity over email.
Unfortunately, teams fell into the trap of scheduling back-to-back and often overlapping meetings to make up for missed office dynamics such as impromptu hallway and water-cooler conversations. Eighteen months later, not much has changed. We are still having these back-to-back video conferences regardless whether we are working onsite or remote. How do we break this cycle and get back to working together?
Back to the office
Large companies are in the process of trying to bring their employees back to their offices. As you can imagine, this is a slow and arduous process. These offices must practice social distancing as directed by the CDC, which means every other desk must remain empty (6 feet apart). This being said, many companies don’t have physical space for all of their employees to return at once. As a result, 50 percent of their workforce is moving back to the office while 50 percent will continue working remotely for the unforeseeable future. In fact, one-third of remote workers surveyed have gotten accustomed to working from home (or have moved) and have made decisions not to return to the office. Others may not be allowed back into the office due to vaccine reluctance or an inability to take it.
Introducing Hybrid Work Models
This 50/50 mix of onsite and remote workers is commonly referred to as the hybrid-work model. Unfortunately, this model is creating even more divisions between onsite and remote workers. Onsite workers are able to have more in-person, impromptu conversations with other onsite workers, which reduces their meeting schedule and improves immediacy. but their remote counterparts are left out of the results of these office conversations. In addition to impromptu conversations, remote workers also don’t have the flexibility to knock on a colleague’s door for a quick conversation or get face time with their bosses, thus continuing to rely on legacy video conferencing meetings and asynchronous chat tools and more back-to-back meetings.
In order to advance equal opportunities and acknowledge the importance of all team members, it’s time to normalize the next generation of communications and collaboration tools with GroupRoom’s digital hybrid worksplace to build equitable experiences and make worklife even better than it was even pre-pandemic for both onsite and remote workers.
GroupRoom brings hybrid-work models online
It’s obvious that “work,” as we knew it, has changed forever due to the global pandemic. This missing component is having a common workplace. GroupRoom was developed to be that common workplace and bring both onsite and remote workers back together in a global “digital hybrid workplace.” Best of all, GroupRoom seamlessly integrates with Citrix Workspace as microapps!
How does GroupRoom work?
GroupRoom provides digital hybrid and virtual workplaces allowing companies of all sizes to create digital twin floor plans of their physical offices and allow onsite and remote employees to work in the same digital office space together. GroupRoom also creates a listening radius around worker’s video avatars allowing workers to engage with people nearby. Add in collaboration tools such as Google Docs, YouTube videos, whiteboards, screen shares, and private video rooms, and we may start feeling back to normal, included, and productive again.
These synchronous GroupRoom communication opportunities frequently eliminate planned meetings and result in faster and more efficient turnaround times with better communication over asynchronous chat tools and easier on your schedule over video conferencing meetings.
GroupRoom introduces microapps for Citrix Workspace
Citrix Workspace customers can now seamlessly add GroupRoom’s new microapps into their company-wide Citrix Workspace implementation to bring real-time digital hybrid workplaces to Citrix Workspace! Integrating the new GroupRoom Citrix Ready-approved microapps is easy. Here’s a quick video demo of the new microapp in action.
The GroupRoom microapp allows Citrix Workspace users to easily create and manage their team’s GroupRooms, receive real-time Workspace notifications when colleagues join their GroupRooms, and even enable Citrix Workspace users to chat with colleagues in their GroupRooms without leaving Citrix Workspace.
GroupRoom currently supports up to 50 people per space with many conversations and collaboration sessions happening at once. GroupRoom can also link 100s or 1,000s of digital workplaces together allowing colleagues to “teleport” to workplaces in other countries in a matter of seconds! You simply move your video avatar around the space to speak with people near you (just like “in real life”). Collaboration tools include embedded web pages, Google suite, YouTube videos, screen shares, whiteboards, and private video meeting rooms.
Getting started is simple:
- Download the GroupRoom microapp integration and import it into your Citrix Workspace.
- Contact hello@grouproom.io for an apiKey.
- Add your new apiKey to the Citrix Workspace configuration screen.
Imagine your entire global office floor plan digitally available online, allowing your onsite and remote employees to work together seamlessly and even teleport from campus to campus or office to office in seconds without travel time.
GroupRoom is your new digital hybrid workplace. Pair this with Citrix Workspace and now you have secure automation tools to streamline daily operations with real-time workplace and collaboration tools making it even easier to get back to work together again productively and equitably.
Let’s get back to working together by encouraging both your onsite and remote workers to join you in GroupRoom’s digital hybrid workplaces today!
Take a look at the GroupRoom microapp for Citrix Workspace. Reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook or drop us an email if you would like a demo of GroupRoom or discuss your team needs in more detail with us. And listen to this interesting podcast discussing the power of Citrix and GroupRoom!
