Any time you hop online to present, huddle with your team, or even do a quick check-in, new technologies can help you get the most out of everyone's time. At Cisco, we believe in maximizing that potential, no matter where you are or who you're talking to. To help you out, we're highlighting five rules that can help you conduct top-shelf collaboration.

No.1 Actually Start on Time

How often is someone "running late" in your meeting? And how often is it a technology issue...the wrong dongle...an incorrect meeting code...maybe even a bad connection? Whatever the issue, meetings that start late or run long can seriously cost you. According to Atlassian, the price tag for unnecessary meetings cost U.S businesses$37 billion every year, with 31 hours a month spent in unproductive meetings.(1)

When time is literally money, it's never too late for tech that allows you to start any meeting at the drop of a dime, with no fuss. This is especially true if it allows participants to join in anywhere, from any device, with just a simple click. Bonus points if no plugins or downloads are needed!

No.2 Always Attend in Person

Face-to-face collaboration encourage accountability and attentiveness. We're all human. Eye-to-eye contact, being able to read changes in body language, all make every meeting, from small huddles to large-scale presentations, more successful. However, distance, scheduling and other issues can prevent everyone from being in the room at the same time. When these kinds of challenges present themselves, leveraging virtual space to ensure everyone can see and be seen is always the best solution.

To that end, technology can definitely help but you need to be discerning. A better video meeting solution will have the same quality and uptime, regardless of your meeting size. That means all the difference when you need to scale a small 4-person huddle to a 650-person all-hands meeting. When a gesture or a simple reaction can shift the tone of a meeting, HD quality is nearly priceless in helping you achieve the outcome you want.

No.3 Stay Very Focused

Like it or not, open floor plans area a reality for a lot of businesses. Sadly, they don't always encourage collaboration. A recent Harvard study revealed that employees working in these spaces "spend 73% less time in face-to-face interactions," with "email and messaging use [shooting] up by over 67%."(2) Some of this may be due to the fact that open floor plans translate to more noise, interruptions, and general busyness in the background at any given moment.

When choosing a meeting solution, always check to see that it has noise suppression. This kind of feature can help ensure that A to B conversations remain clear, quiet, and secure, from beginning to end. Getting that level of seamless communication is especially crucial when you consider that 43% of the U.S. workforce already works outside the office most of the time. (3) To that end, noise suppression also helps remote workers. By preventing typing, barking dogs, and doorbells from disturbing your collaboration, background noise reduction ensures everyday inconveniences don't become meeting-stoppers.

No.4 Keep Things Upfront and Accessible

Briefs. Works in progress. Drafts. Demos. Doodles. Memos. Every meeting, huddle, and check-in has its supplementary items. The key is being able to share and then edit them quickly without having to hunt, re-send, or otherwise stop everything you're doing. Stopping and starting a meeting, let alone having to wrangle 101 files after it ends, is anything but efficient.

You should be able to share and create on the fly without constraint. So, when you're looking for the right platform, it should champion integration, working with most common business tools. That way, it's always easy to share your screen or presentation, whiteboard with anyone on any device, and record and enjoy a host of other tools to stay on track. Believe us when we say this: achieving perfect synergy when you need it most always makes the difference

No.5 Invest In The Right Meeting Platform

More and more, business is a team sport demanding perfect coordination and frequent collaboration. We've talked a lot here about how you can get there. But if you want to do it right, and quickly, the answer is simple. Cisco Webex is the only platform you need to communicate across your organization, with simplicity, consistency, and crystal-clear quality. All it takes is a click to connect and get your best work done, on time, and on budget. You don't have to take our word for it either-113 million people around the world use Webex to meet effectively, including 95% of Fortune 500 companies.

And in case you missed it, Cisco Webex was just named CRN's 2018 Product of the Year for our notable updates to the Webex platform.

Webexceptional, webexcellent, sometimes even webexhilarating. Sign up for a free trial and see what Webex Meetings can do for you.

Don't just take our word for it, see how we compare or check out the analyst reports.

1. https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

2. https://www.fastcompany.com/90204593/heres-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-open-plan-offices

3. Gallup,State of The American Workforce, 2017: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx