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Why You Need Actionable Business Intelligence to Develop Your Workplace Strategy

actionable business intelligence

When you’re developing a workplace technology strategy these days, you have a million aspects to consider:

  • Is the technology accessible to the entire workforce across generational, geographic, and cultural boundaries?
  • Is it easy to use, intuitive, and sophisticated – but not intimidating?
  • Does it provide instant, usable data (not just a flood for the sake of data)?

You have a variety of methods available to figure out this strategy: Survey your population and hope you asked the right questions and that it gets completed accurately; stake out your conference rooms and record what goes on for a month; find a consultant who may or may not be versed in your particular needs.AVI-SPL Symphony Analytics screenshot

Business technology investments are too important to just throw up your hands and settle for a solution that may not meet the needs of your team.  We’ve designed AVI-SPL Symphony to provide the type of data that you need, the actionable business intelligence that will make a real difference in how you design, deploy, and manage your collaboration environment.

Actionable business intelligence – what Symphony provides – enables evidence-based decision making that translates into effective communication, collaboration, and unlocks real business value.  It’s not a single report or a bunch of statistics: It’s a daily observance of what works, what doesn’t, and what engages your workforce. This long-term data allows you to track the changes in employee behavior with experimental equipment, see which manufacturer’s equipment is preferred (and which causes the most trouble), and determine the load that collaboration is placing on your larger network.

Employee preferences depend a lot on your workforce composition – age, gender, and location, among other factors.  Often, the preferences in one locality don’t extend to others, leaving you with the possibility of supporting multiple types of equipment or standardizing on technology that leaves some users out.  With Symphony’s analytics you can find those few items everyone agrees on and utilize them as the basis for building a collaboration solution that meets end user preferences and provides you with standards for the corporate environment.

Root cause analysis is invaluable for a variety of different applications for both your IT team and your AV team.  Are jitter or poor performance caused by network issues or bad design choices?  Is the network functioning, but your AV or UCC are configured incorrectly?  Is your network great, but suboptimal equipment choices in your AV are causing a poor user experience?  Without finding the real cause of any issue or set of issues, countless hours and dollars can be spent without improving the quality.  Actionable business intelligence ensures that you can narrow in on the root cause of an issue, spending less time and resources spinning your wheels.

Symphony isn’t just a tool in your toolbox – it is a complete solution to the challenge of excellent user experiences with collaboration technologies.  Actionable business intelligence gleaned from the deployment of Symphony on your networks will enable you to spend less time and effort while still receiving a better end user experience. 

Contact us for a demo today. You can also demo these features at ISE 2020 at AVI-SPL booth 11-C155.

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Nasdaq: The New Home for QMCO

CMMA Blog

I joined
Quantum nearly two years ago, drawn by the incredible potential of a company
with happy customers, loyal partners, dedicated employees and a world-class
R&D team – terrific assets that unfortunately had been saddled with a weak
executive management team making poor business decisions. This situation came
to a head in January 2018, when the SEC launched an investigation into the
Company’s historical financial reporting practices.  This event triggered an internal
investigation, shareholder litigation, restatement of multiple years of
financial statements, missed bank covenants requiring expensive amendments and
fees and ultimately the company’s delisting from the NYSE.

Over the last two years a new executive management team drove
a business transformation that included settling the legacy issues with the SEC,
settled the shareholder lawsuits, removed $70 million is costs on an annual
basis, restated multiple years of annual financial statements, returned to
innovation and launched six new products and returned to profitability in the
latest quarter. With this transformation complete, the company is now ready to
resume trading on a major national exchange.

When Quantum
was founded in 1980, the choice to list on the New York Stock Exchange was easy.
The NYSE had a rich history dating back to 1792. For nearly 40 years, Quantum
investors traded the company’s shares on NYSE under the ticker symbol QTM.

Now, after careful deliberation, we are
making Nasdaq our new home for trading Quantum shares under QMCO.

Why the change? In short, Nasdaq is the exchange for companies focused on growth. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Google are just a few of the premier brands among the 3,800 companies listed on Nasdaq. Technology companies have gravitated to Nasdaq because the exchange is designed with a more modern approach to trading, and is welcoming to smaller, more nimble companies. Nasdaq hosts a larger share of IPOs than NYSE, and has a reputation as the exchange with a more dynamic business community. The change to Nasdaq reflects Quantum’s transformation, as well as our aspiration to stand shoulder to shoulder with the most influential, innovative and vital technology companies of our time. As Quantum prepares to celebrate its 40-year anniversary, we’ll also look forward to ringing the bell on the floor of the Nasdaq exchange and opening a new chapter in our company history .

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Five Steps to an Outstanding Video Conferencing Experience

AV in Meeting Spaces

A big part of the user experience in meeting rooms is the user interface. And by that I just mean the control panel that participants will use to start the meeting, video call, and sharing capabilities. As I’ve learned from AVI-SPL’s programmers, these control panels should support the different ways people want to work in these spaces.

David Thorson, vice president, programming at AVI-SPL, reviews five steps to building a video conferencing user interface (UI) that delivers a positive meeting room user experience (UX) in your digital workplace. Thorson will help you understand issues like:

  • Defining user expectations for the meeting room experience
  • Creating the UX architecture
  • Choosing the right hardware and software based on your user interface blueprint
  • Using meeting room standards for a consistent experience
  • Monitoring the usability of your solution

You’ll also learn about some specific Crestron solutions that help meeting attendees experience an outstanding video conference.

Read “User Experience-Driven Meeting Spaces Meet the User Interface” >

 

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Simplifying the Video Production Process

CMMA Blog

The average consumer is watching short-form and long-form videos every hour of every day on every platform. In today’s content-driven world, we’re at a point where video is no longer a trend but rather a social normality. For companies and brands looking to connect with their audience on an advanced level, video is an essential piece of your content strategy that cannot be overlooked!

 

Fueling the Fire

Facebook, a brand known for its ever-changing, trend-based algorithms, is facilitating the growth of video on social media and requiring companies and brands to get on board. With native video posts on the platform increasing in the U.S. by 94% annually, Facebook has amended its ad structure to compel business owners to leverage video in return for the impressions they desire. If a marketer is looking to increase brand awareness on Facebook, they need to embrace video. Otherwise, their content won’t receive the engagement it deserves!

Without a doubt, YouTube has also helped fuel this fire – a fire they arguably started. YouTube reports a rise in mobile video consumption by 100% every year. According to Hubspot, with 400 hours of video content uploaded every minute, the sheer amount of video content on YouTube is overwhelming, yet wholly justified. People are searching and watching YouTube videos at a shocking rate of 1 billion collective hours per day. From tutorials to music videos to streaming for entertainment purposes, your customers don’t just want video content – they expect it and are growing to rely on it. 

 

What Goes Into Making A Great Video?

Unfortunately, video production is one of the most complex and intricate processes in all of inbound marketing. Compared to written content, this is especially apparent. Any company can combine a talented writer who understands SEO with a graphic designer, and they’ve got blogs, e-books, and white papers galore. But video? Video is a different game.

 

It starts in pre-production. 

Before you even begin storyboarding, you need to have a solid understanding of the capabilities and tools available to you. It’s essential to be aware of the budget, abilities, and limitations of your video production software and the team at your disposal. Be sure to establish facilities for shooting and a team of talented writers, actors, designers, editors, and so forth who are essential to complete the project. On top of everything, the most critical aspect of pre-production is crafting the message. No matter how advanced your technology and team are, the quality of the content and story is paramount to the success of the video. A great video elicits a response in its viewers and drives engagement. These factors impact everything from the successful production of the video to your efficiency and ROI.

 

Next up is production. 

Chances are, this is where you may need some outside help. Hands down, skilled camera operators, professional lighting, and sound equipment can vastly improve the quality of your video. From a psychological perspective, videos with higher production quality have a higher perceived value of the message. Consider your audience, buyer personas, or ideal viewers, and use that to gauge the level of sophistication that your video needs. Be creative and use what is available to you to express the message you strategically crafted

.

The final stage of the process is post-production. 

You’ve put a lot of great work into your video so far, but post-production is where the magic happens. Exciting transitions, graphics, or animation can enhance any video and make it come to life, drastically increasing viewer engagement and ultimately extending the reach of your video. 

The part that’s not magic is how long it can take. Post-production is a time-consuming and detail-oriented process. It’s important not to underestimate the length of time needed when building out your initial timeline. Having an experienced editor or post-production designer in your arsenal can prove to be extremely beneficial, especially when working under a strict deadline. An experienced editor can also correct or improve quality issues from the production stage, such as lighting and sound. Subtitles are also a highly recommended enhancement since WordStream announced that people watch 85% of videos on Facebook with the sound off. Subtitles will also ensure the inclusivity of those with hearing impairments!


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Outsourcing the Help You Need

 

Let’s all agree that video production can be a complicated process! For many marketing teams without a dedicated in-house video team, creating a video initiative requires a great deal of commitment. From having the essential tools and resources to the necessary training and skills, it’s easy to see why outsourcing is a standard solution. Outsourcing the video production and/or the post-production work allows your marketing team to play to their strengths in focusing on content creation to market the final video. Not only can it save you time, but outsourcing these processes also brings quality and professionalism to your message and brand.

However you choose to incorporate video into your company or brand’s strategy, it’s well worth it. According to Insivia, 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. Moreover, marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.

 

It’s time for you to take advantage of the flexibility of outsourcing! TeamPeople has an international database of 40,000+ freelancers specializing in digital media, technology, and creative work. We can bridge the gap between great marketing and excellent video and take the cumbersome process of producing a video out of your hands.

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Open Solutions Are Essential

CMMA Blog

The Myth: One Size Fits All

It’s a myth. One size does not fit all. This is also true
when it comes to streaming video solutions for the enterprise.

Video is a powerful tool. Although there’s a million statistics to prove it, common sense tells us it’s more engaging than text.

Video allows you to deliver more information to your audience in a shorter amount of time. And since the message is reinforced by visuals—whether it’s demonstrating how something works or seeing a person’s body language—it’s more believable. The reality is, video is as close as you can get to being there in person.  

But like most things, there isn’t a single video solution that works for every situation and every organization. You’re probably managing multiple platforms and supporting a number of business leaders. You might need one video platform for learning and development, a different one for onboarding, one for town halls, and yet another for digital displays.

For IT, this can be extremely challenging. In this edition of Strategies for Streaming Success, Wainhouse Research analyst Steve Vonder Haar reveals strategies for managing a multi-vendor video environment.

From One to Many

In the past, using video was a special event. As a result, implementing an end-to-end streaming solution from a single vendor was the easiest way to get video up and running.

But as streaming solutions get easier to use and video becomes more common in the workplace, it’s hard to find a single solution that fits every use case.  A multi-vendor approach might be the only way to meet this increasing demand for video.

According to Wainhouse Research, two-thirds of IT decision makers say they agree with the statement “Our organization prefers implementing best-of-breed video solutions from multiple vendors versus an end-to-end turnkey platform developed by a single vendor.” Almost one-quarter of respondents described themselves as “neutral” to the statement or said it is not applicable. That leaves only 11% saying they either “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with taking a multi-vendor approach.1

Best of Breed

So why is implementing best-of-breed video solutions from multiple vendors more common today? It’s unlikely one platform can serve every need in your enterprise. Video platform requirements for executive broadcasts or quarterly earnings calls may fall short of what’s needed for a global learning and development program.

noofstreamingplatforms
Number of streaming platforms implemented by organizations using streaming video.1

In fact, 77% of organizations are using two or more streaming video platforms1. As a result, many have adopted a more modular approach when it comes to streaming. By using best-of-breed, open solutions, you can build a video ecosystem that fits your organization to a T now and well into the future.

“Rather than implementing a single solution that can become
obsolete or a single element of a platform that can become outdated, an organization
can leverage ongoing streaming investments by mixing and matching vendor
solutions,” said Steve Vonder Haar, Wainhouse Research Analyst.

For example, you gain a ton of flexibility if you separate
the network infrastructure element from the video platform itself. Using a universal
enterprise content delivery network (eCDN) that works with all your platforms, can
save you time and money (and a few headaches!).

The Universal eCDN

Because an eCDN is a network overlay, deploying and managing a unique eCDN for each streaming platform is an IT nightmare—and fortunately unnecessary. Some video platform providers offer an eCDN as part of their solution, but most of those are proprietary and work only with their platforms.

Ramp is your only choice for a truly vendor-neutral solution. Our video distribution solutions are compatible with virtually all the market-leading streaming platforms. In addition, many of our partners have chosen to integrate Ramp directly into their products for the most seamless experience possible.

Our eCDN software supports any live and on-demand HTML5 video streaming across the corporate network. Ramp can also generate HLS from encoders supporting RTP or work with a media server such as Wowza Streaming Engine™ to ensure complete coverage from a single enterprise delivery solution.

Ramp’s solutions prove an eCDN can and should be able to retrieve and redistribute video from any video source, on any network and with any device. Not only does this simplify the deployment and management of the eCDN, but it provides maximum flexibility for the future as your streaming video landscape evolves over time.

Strategies for Streaming Success

Wainhouse Scalable Strategy for Enterprise Streaming 791x1024 1

Ready to take on more streaming in 2020? You need a solid road
map to get you from where you are today to where you want to be. In this
whitepaper, Wainhouse Research’s Steve Vonder Haar reveals the top five truths
for making video work better in your workplace.

Read ‘Building a Scalable Strategy for Enterprise Streaming’ >>

 

1Survey Insight: Enterprise Video, ITDM Perspectives – North America Q3 2019

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