In addition to Mitch's suggestions also look for a GOOD quality speaker phone or Bluetooth speaker if you plan to use a cell phone for most of your communications. If using the cell phone also get a docking station/charging station for it as some of these conference calls can go on for hours!
With my setup I use a Jabra Speak 510 to connect to my work provided cell phone (it actually has 2 device capability so also connects to my personal phone at the same time) When using WebEx/Skype and the variants I have the Conference call me on my cell number and use the speaker. We do have Video capability via the laptops and the Skype For Business client - you should be able to use your tablet for that function if the laptop doesn't have a camera. But note the video calls really only work 1:1 - group video sessions don't really work for us. Jerry Whitteridge Manager Mainframe Systems & Storage Albertsons - Safeway Inc. 925 738 9443 Corporate Tieline - 89443 If you feel in control you just aren't going fast enough. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mitch Mccluhan Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2016 9:58 AM To: [email protected] Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: remote system support (i.e. the data center is 2 states away from you). John, You almost must have a camera for 2-way communication. You can get a good quality USB camera for your computer from Amazon or ebay. They work exceptionally well. I recommend you get one with an internal microphone. Seeing people's facial expressions when they are talking can make a huge difference. Do you have external speakers? If not, I recommend them as the sound quality is much better and this is important when you are working with a variety of people that have varying quality of microphones themselves, along with accents. Mitch McCluhan [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: John McKown <[email protected]> To: IBM-MAIN <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Sep 27, 2016 11:27 am Subject: Re: remote system support (i.e. the data center is 2 states away from you). On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 11:11 AM, Mitch Mccluhan < [email protected]> wrote: > John, > > I've been working remotely for years. The issue is being relevant. > Stay on top of things. Look for areas that might benefit from your > experience and expertise. Don't miss ANY meetings, conference calls, > etc. Don't be shy about requesting anything and everything you would > need to be an integral part of the support team. > Which leads me to another question: how do you do meetings? Video conferencing? Skype? I don't have a camera on my home computer, but I do have a very nice (10 inch) Android tablet. > > Regards, > > > > Mitch McCluhan > [email protected] > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: John McKown <[email protected]> > To: IBM-MAIN <[email protected]> > Sent: Tue, Sep 27, 2016 10:57 am > Subject: remote system support (i.e. the data center is 2 states away > from you). > > This is kind of a curiosity question and kind of serious. There is a > chance that I might be offered a job where the data center is about 20 > hours away by car (according to Google maps). Needless to say, there > is no going in overnight to fix a problem. So I'm wondering if others > here support a z/OS system where getting to the data center would be a > long commute (unless you have your own plane, like some I know). How > does that work out? In this shop, we haven't had any "operators" for > about 5 years, maybe more. We systems people do all the hardware > interfacing, tape management, IPL'ing, and "CE baby sitting" (being > on-site while they work). This is really removed me from the historic > paradigm. I somewhat like the thought of working from the house. But I > also worry about being somewhat excluded from the unofficial > information channels (i.e. company gossip). I also wonder about things like > meetings and just being "invisible" and so "out of mind" > when decisions are made. > > -- > Heisenberg may have been here. > > Unicode: http://xkcd.com/1726/ > > Maranatha! <>< > John McKown > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Heisenberg may have been here. Unicode: http://xkcd.com/1726/ Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ________________________________ Warning: All e-mail sent to this address will be received by the corporate e-mail system, and is subject to archival and review by someone other than the recipient. This e-mail may contain proprietary information and is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s). If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient(s), you are notified that you have received this message in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. 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