The Official Cogi Blog

While there are a variety of project management tools out there, sometimes it can be enough that everyone’s working off of the same information.  It’s almost a maxim that the larger or longer a project is the more people proportionally will be involved with it.  Inevitably, a number of those people come in to the project once it’s already started.  How do you ensure that everyone’s up to speed? Add to that more and more companies have virtual and remote workers and the challenges only become more significant.

With Cogi there is an easy way to keep everyone on the same page, increase productivity and ultimately save your company time and money.  Imagine if you could reduce the amount of time spent trying to recreate the critical action ideas and data from important calls and meetings. With Cogi’s innovative audio recording software you can more effectively keep your team focused on the project at hand.

• Keep everyone on the same page
• Searchable, sharable, actionable content
• Improve team productivity
• Capture and share important ideas

Capture Conference calls and Meetings

Now any brainstorming session, weekly team meeting or project roundtable can be recorded whether the team is spread out across the country or all in the same office.  With Cogi’s audio recording software you can capture all of your important conference calls and meetings.  Going way beyond simple call recording, Cogi gives you the ability to effortlessly capture, annotate, take notes, produce transcripts, share and store these valuable conversations.

Using Cogi’s downloadable calling software or access number, simply dial into your conference call and begin recording.  To record a meeting in your office, just dial the Cogi access number from your speakerphone and your office phone becomes a digital voice recorder.  With Cogi there is no need for additional equipment or hardware.  During the call or meeting you can highlight or flag parts of the meeting, add notes and even play back sections that were previously highlighted.  After the call you can request a transcript of the entire call or select just portions of the call for transcription.  All recordings are archived and can easily be reviewed and shared with other team members whether they were on the call or not.

Easily Share, Search and Review conversations and meetings

With many companies supporting virtual and remote workers the likelihood of people using different operating systems increases, with Cogi‘s online interface team members can easily access calls intended for them.  All recordings made by you with Cogi are automatically archived in your online account.  From your account you can share those calls with other team members, whether they were on the call or not, by selecting the share feature.  There you can enter in the email address of those on the team and even add a note about the call to include additional context or instructions.  If they already have a Cogi account the call will automatically appear there, if not Cogi will create a password protected guest account for them and email them their log in credentials.  If they don’t have online access you can download the audio as an MP3, save it to a CD and mail a copy.

Because “getting it right the first time” can save you and your team time and resources, Cogi makes it easy to not only capture important details from any conversation, but quickly find them later.  With Cogi’s search capabilities you can search your call portfolio for conversations by subject title, person called, time and date and even for any key words that appear in the highlight notes and transcripts.  With Cogi you can effectively turn any conversation you’ve recorded into an online archive for your team. 

Quickly transmit important ideas with Cogi Memo

In addition to being able to record and share your phone calls and meetings with Cogi, you can also quickly capture ideas and “post” them to your team or assistant.  Better than a group voicemail or email blast, Cogi lets you capture your ideas and easily get them to your team by turning any phone into a personal dictation device.   Once the “call” is completed you can share it with others by using the share feature.  Team members will now have that “call” in their portfolio along with a transcript for review.  Easily share action lists, brainstorming ideas, follow up information and instructions with your team.

With all the different project management tools out there you may find that Cogi is one of the easiest to work with.  Cogi helps you and your team get the most out of their time by making every call or meeting an online resource.  Not only can team members hear the original conversation at any time, but with Cogi’s highlighting and search features they can quickly find what they need.

Read more about these powerful features that can save time and make your team more productive:

• Record conference calls, meetings and interviews (read more…)
• Annotate calls and create transcripts of meetings (read more…)
• Easily share recordings of any length with your team at any time (read more…)
• Sort, browse & search and review your recordings (read more…)
• Dictate and record memos and share them with your team or assistant (read more…)

If you’ve tried any of the many services for recording calls that are available these days, you may have encountered the problem that suddenly no one answers because they don’t recognize the Caller ID or they missed your call and can’t call you back because it’s not your number.

Not to worry: Cogi solves this problem by showing your Caller ID number on the callee’s phone.  And what’s even better is that the more numbers you register with Cogi, the more options to choose from. Here’s how it works:

When you first register, you only have one phone number – called your “Primary Phone” that is displayed as the Caller ID number for all calls.

As you continue to use Cogi, you may enter more “Call From” numbers – like  a cell phone, home phone, work phone, or conference room phone. Here’s where you get some choices: Click  in the Settings link in your Cogi Portfolio, and select “Software Options”. Here’s the screen you’ll see:

You have two choices:

1. “Primary Phone” – this will display your Primary Phone as the Caller ID on all calls, regardless of what phone you are actually calling from.
2. “Call From Number” – this will display the Caller ID number of the phone you are actually calling from.

Be sure to click ‘Save’ once you’ve made your selection.

Is there a feature that you’d like to see? Email us at feedback@cogi.com

Conference calls are increasingly common in business these days. It’s no surprise, as teams are distributed across many offices, and more and more tele-worker or tele-commuters work from home offices or alternate locations.  Conference calls enable these teams to “meet” and collaborate much more efficiently compared to having each participant travel to one location. However, these ‘virtual meetings’ present their own productivity challenges, many of which are similar to the issues I described in a recent Cogi whitepaper on Maximizing your ROM (Return on Meetings), but others are unique to conference calls.

The Challenge: Capturing the “Virtual Conversation”

Conference calls present a challenge in capturing all the valuable spoken content. Even if you are using a Web conferencing tool like WebEx or Citrix GoToMeeting so attendees can see the screen of one of the participants, there is almost always tremendous value created in the verbal discussion.

Who captures that verbal conversation? How? How much is invested in that effort?

Often the meeting/conference call organizer takes notes. This might be a team leader, VP, project manager, product manager, or one of many other roles who coordinate teams and projects. But taking notes distracts them from the meeting, breaks the flow of ideas and slows down the pace of the meeting.

Moreover, how do you ensure everyone is on the same page? Usually the organizer/note taker writes everything up and sends an email. This is time consuming, and often very prone to shortcutting or even skipped altogether.

Another issue is that the note taker may not capture everything important to all people. He or she has enough to do just to do their job right. Other participants may have heard information that is important for their job, but that the note-taker may not have captured.

Last but not least, we must acknowledge that not everyone on the call is always “tuned in.” It’s common for a conference call participant to put his phone on mute and continue working at his computer during times he is not actively part of the discussion.  People’s attention fades in and out, its hard to get much out of it.

The Cogi Solution: Capture Conference Calls as Sharable Recordings with Optional “Precision” Transcription

Cogi gives you the tools to not only make a high-quality recording of a conference call, but also to optionally transcribe some or all of that recording with a few clicks, and at the best rates to turnaround time we’ve seen anywhere.

Cogi will work with any conferencing service. Our customers have used Cogi to record and transcribe audio conferences using GoToMeeting, WebEx, InterCall, GlobalConference, FreeConference, and many other providers. Also note that any participant on the call can use Cogi: You do not have to be the conference organizer or the person with the conferencing account.

First, here’s how it works:

Once you sign up for Cogi, you have two options for activating Cogi on your conference call:

1. Using the Cogi software, which gives you a graphical view of the call timeline as its being recorded
2. Using just a phone and the Cogi Access Number

1. Connecting to a conference call using the Cogi Software

Once you register and install the Cogi software, you are ready to call into your conference. Open the Cogi software (you may have to click the Cogi icon in the system tray).  Follow the steps below to enter your conference call using Cogi to record it.

What happens next: Answer your phone when it rings (The CallerID will be from Cogi 415-691-4045), Then you’ll hear the far end ring and the conference system should answer. Proceed to login to the conference with the code provided by your meeting organizer or conference provider.

[Tip: You’ll see a reminder to inform everyone on the call you are using Cogi recording and note-taking service.  You must click “OK” to begin recording. This reminder and “this call is being recorded” announcement can be changed in settings www.cogi.com/settings]

Now your conference has begun, and recording is on.  The Cogi software has two buttons you can use to request exactly the moments you want transcribed:

1. During the call: Use Highlighting for “precision transcription” – This requests 30 seconds around that moment to be transcribed. This moment is also visible on the audio timeline when you or others view the call later. Or you can also toggle the highlight on/off to get transcripts of any length using the Lock button.



2. Immediately after the call finishes, you also have an option to request “Transcribe Entire Call.” For example, if your call is finished and you’ve decided you want “Verbatim notes” of your entire call: Click the hang up button to end the call, then you’ll see these options in the software:

2. Connecting to a conference call by phone using the Cogi Access Line

There are a few circumstances you may not be able to use the Cogi Software: you may not have your computer near you during the conference call, or didn’t want to load the software. Or you’re calling from the conference room phone and it’s not a direct-dial line.

Whatever the reason, it’s no problem: You can use Cogi by dialing into your conference call ‘through’ the Cogi Access Line.  Here’s how:

1. From your phone, dial the Cogi Access Line (415) 691-4045
2. You should get logged in automatically to Cogi if you are calling from the phone you first registered with (called your “primary” number). If not, you’ll be asked to “please enter your primary phone number”, and the four-digit PIN code provided in your confirmation email.
3. Next, dial the “conference dial-in number” provided by your conference host or company.
4. Once the conference system answers, login to the conference just as you would if you dialed directly.

How to transcribe during the call using your telephone keypad:

• To mark a highlight, press 1 1  (press the One key twice)
• To toggle the Highlighting Lock on or off, press 3 3
• To toggle the recording settings, press 7 7

Listening to the recording, requesting transcripts, and sharing the call

Your calls are stored in your online Cogi Portfolio. Got to www.cogi.com/login and log in. You will see your calls listed. Click a call to open it. Here’s a detailed view of the call playback, and the transcripts from our tutorial https://www.cogi.com/welcome/making_call_gadget_idle:

[Tip: Cogi also sends transcripts to your email address when they're completed.]

Lastly, the Cogi Share feature lets you send this “Cogi Conversation” to others via email. This is especially powerful for bringing others up to speed who may have missed the call: They can quickly scan the highlights, and zoom directly to the important parts to hear the details.

In conclusion, Cogi gives you powerful tools to boost productivity of your conference calls by capturing those important conversations in a searchable and sharable format.