BDC Magazine - Online version December 2015 Issue - 216 | Page 102

yorktel.qxp_feature 2 22/10/2015 14:13 Page 100

HEALTH & SAFETYS: YORKTEL

Empower Construction
Workers with Visual
Collaboration
An Interview with Yorktel’s Keith Gyford

T

he collaboration industry promises users an experience that is visually appealing and at the same time
fundamental to building business relationships —
and running a better business. Yorktel believes this
promise, and it is committed to delivering that

vision by combining the latest technologies with years of industry
knowledge and expertise.
Founded by Dr. York Wang in 1985, Yorktel focused initially on
the US video conferencing market, and over the years evolved to
include managed services, professional consulting, and unified
communications (UC) solutions and services. In 2012, the company expanded its footprint with the purchase of UK-based rival,
First Connections Ltd. Today, Yorktel's major data centres — based
in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific — are well stationed to cover
its increasing scope.
Over the years, Yorktel has grown to become a leading provider

“By combining real-time visual
communication with the cloud and
the latest medical testing equipment,
patients can receive better care
more quickly than ever before”

of visual communication services and solutions for commercial
and public sector clients. The company specialises in delivering
secure and reliable collaborative solutions that bridge the gap
between legacy on premise video communication systems, and the
latest cloud and mobile communications solutions. Tech savvy
companies like NASA entrust Yorktel to provide them with stateof-the-art video collaboration systems and other related professional and managed services.

explains: “Electronic communications open up a whole new way to

Voice communication’s popularity has evolved significantly over

do business. For example, by knowing a customer’s availability prior

the past decade to include video, online chat, text, instant messag-

to contacting them [i.e. through presence technology], salespeople

ing, and mobile communications. Yorktel’s customers not only

can have more frequent — and more effective — conversations.

receive access to all of these communication channels simultane-

Likewise, meetings requiring input from multiple participants based

ously; they gain access to intelligent applications that make tech-

in various geographies become less of an event to organise and man-

nology more effective. For example, during a live discussion, users

age. Each attendee becomes fully empowered to participate from a

can view one another on-screen and at the same time can add notes

desk at work, at home on a laptop or PC, or even whilst traveling via

or make edits to documents, drawings or other pr