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Benefits of Staff Support for Your Collaboration and AV Technology

AV Everywhere

For those times when you wished you could have a robot clone of yourself (or at least a third or fourth hand), AVI-SPL Managed Services is here to help create a strong end user support experience while doing the heavy lifting to keep your systems functional.

How can AVI-SPL Managed Services strengthen your operations?

Improved Response Times

When we place our staff on site, whether augmenting your current support staff or providing staff in a remote office that needs it, we’re removing the phone call barrier to support.  The ability to walk into a conference room and demonstrate how to conduct a meeting, and to begin troubleshooting immediately when an issue arises builds your workforce’s trust in their collaboration technology and improves their experience.  We’ll even provide backfill when your employees are out for a day – ensuring you always have a smiling face with expert knowledge available to help. 

Improved Staff Capabilities

As the industry and technology evolve, you need staff who can support your current and future environments.  AVI-SPL has some of the most knowledgeable staff in our industry, and our size and scope make us a top prospect for potential employees.  All AVI-SPL employees, including those at your site, have access to our internal training initiatives, as well as partner and industry training.  We remove the cost and time associated with employee training from your budget, while providing staff who are extremely capable and incentivized to continue learning and improving.

Best Practices of the Industry

AVI-SPL follows documented industry best practices.  This means that your organization will benefit from processes that provide the best operational efficiencies, security, and lifecycle management.  Our ITIL-certified staff are experts in IT as well as collaboration technologies, ensuring clear communication with your IT department and compliance with their standards. We also follow best practices with regard to the training and development of on-site personnel, so that you are assured of support from staff members who follow mutually approved documented processes. Your on-site staff effectively coordinate the response to incidents, collaborate with your teams, answer their questions, and make recommendations to your operations and technology based on their qualified assessments.

Even More Efficiency with Symphony

Beyond just managing your day-to-day collaboration estate, our patented AVI-SPL Symphony remote monitoring and control application can provide operational efficiency and reduce staff costs.  Integrating all your workflows into a single workflow provides easier management, while also automating previously manual procedures.  Our Room Sweeps provide a daily health check of each space, alerting you to issues before they impact an end user.  Beyond daily support, Symphony provides analytics and actionable business intelligence to ensure your current and future systems continue to meet your collaboration goals and unlock business value. 

With over 350 employees on site at client locations daily, AVI-SPL has the operational experience to support small, one-location organizations up through multinational Fortune 50 enterprises.  We have the standardized roles and the flexibility to create a role for your specific needs. so tell us about your support staff challenges and let’s begin strengthening your operations with AVI-SPL Managed Services.

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Coronavirus Highlights Value of Remote Work

AV Everywhere

With the recent news of the coronavirus dominating world headlines, this is a good opportunity to evaluate your company’s emergency plans. We’ve already seen the effects of the virus, also known as COVID-19, on the global markets. On Thurs, Feb. 27, the Dow fell almost 1,200 points, its highest one-day point drop in history. Much of that is being attributed to the effect of the virus on supply and demand. As a result, some of the largest companies in the world are restricting their employees’ business travel while also allocating more resources for virtual work. 

At around the 3:40 mark of this TechCrunch podcast, the speakers discuss Zoom and its ascent in price from the low $70s just a month ago to reaching over $120 in early trading on Friday, Feb. 28. That notable rise is occurring as video conferencing has become not just attractive but necessary. The TechCrunch discussion notes a number of major conferences – including Facebook’s F8 – that have been cancelled out of caution against the coronavirus.

Whether the cause is a virus, natural disaster, or some other disruptive event: How you will handle interruptions and minimize a negative impact to your business?

Uninterrupted Workforce Collaboration

Branch office locations need to function even if a main office is closed, and employees need a reliable, agile collaboration environment to enable them to work from home without missing a step.  AVI-SPL’s digital workplace solutions can ensure your workplace has the collaboration tools to handle any challenge and keep your talent and operations connected even amidst a crisis like the one we’re currently facing. 

By deploying a solution such as Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex Teams, your workforce can continue to communicate regardless of distance or time zone.  These platforms also provide video conferencing to enhance the collaboration experience.  Popular cloud-based solutions like Zoom and Pexip can be easily integrated with these collaboration platforms.

A Better User Experience of Collaboration Technology

Some offices may have to close because of an event like the coronavirus.  But that circumstance only underscores the need to support those offices that are still open for business. AVI-SPL Symphony enables you to keep your operations functioning and your workforce productive – even when some of them can’t be at the office.

You can remotely monitor and control all collaboration technology from any of your locations. By leveraging Symphony, either as a managed service or Symphony as a Service, organizations can manage their meeting scheduling and launching. They can also monitor their meeting health status while it’s in progress by monitoring connection status and giving staff the information they need to provide in-meeting support without being in the room. You will know what rooms and devices are ready for use and can make fixes before the participants are impacted.

Be Prepared – And Reap the Benefits at the Same Time

Digital workplace collaboration can’t just be part of a contingency plan in the face of rare – we hope — emergencies. This is the way we work today, and it’s a big reason why companies can so easily expand into locations and markets and attract the talent that drives their success.

How can you ensure that your investment in collaboration is having the desired impact? The key is having the data. AVI-SPL Symphony provides tactical and strategic business intelligence through analytics as customized insight through Build Your Own Reports. You can then make informed decisions about room construction/repurposing, technology refreshes, and addressing issues like technology adoption.

Not only will you gain more insight into your environment, but AVI-SPL digital workplace solution deployments will help your organization save time and money.  In 2018, Forrester Consulting’s “Total Economic Impact of AVI-SPL’s Digital Workplace Solutions” found a meeting productivity increase worth $11.9M over three years for a large enterprise organization, and savings of 122,500 hours per year due to meetings that start on time.  In an uncertain economic environment, these savings will help your organization maintain its agility to meet the ever-changing climate.   

While we all hope that no emergencies ever impact our offices, events like the coronavirus bring into sharp relief the value of collaboration technology. Build your digital workplace, and your company will have more than a set of just-in-case tools; it will be equipped to compete in today’s business environment by empowering your people to share the ideas and create the value that leads to growth.

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Five Ways Displays Help Students Join the Workforce

augmented reality

Read AVI-SPL’s eBook “From Sim Labs to Huddle Spaces” to find out how to attract more students to your school with interactive displays and stand out in a competitive market. Providing modern technology like simulation labs and huddle spaces can also encourage alumni to support your organization after graduation.

To give but one example, technologies like augmented and virtual reality are expanding the opportunity for immersive experiences. Interactive displays are helping deliver those experiences in spaces that benefit learners who are making discoveries on their own, and those who are collaborating and solving challenges as a group.

This eBook, made with insight from NEC, shares five ways your school can use technology to help students enter the workforce. It also explains how interactive displays support workforce readiness by helping students build communities, drive research and innovation, support collaborative learning, and more.

Fill out the form to download “From Sim Labs to Huddle Spaces: 5 Ways Interactive Displays Help Students Join the Workforce” >

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How to Work With Service Providers That Focus on the Employee Experience

AV Everywhere

For your digital workplace program to succeed, you need to choose your service providers wisely. A service provider with experience in creating the digital workplace will help guide you through each stage of your journey and provide benefits that reduce the implementation cost and ensure best practices are followed.

In this research paper by Gartner¹, we believe you’ll learn about the best practices for selecting and working with a service provider. You’ll gain valuable insight and advice, including:

  • The importance of a service provider who can address business and cultural issues
  • The three phases of a digital workplace transformation project and the role of your service provider in each one
  • Recommendations for working with service providers to address implementation plans, digital workplace roadmaps, and the user experience

The success of your digital workplace program largely depends on your service provider. With the right service provider, you’ll get the intended business outcomes and ROI of your workplace transformation.

Download your copy of “Deliver Digital Workplace Programs With Service Providers That Focus on Employee Experience” >

¹Gartner “Deliver Digital Workplace Programs With Service Providers That Focus on Employee Experience,” Rashmi Choudhary, Craig Roth, 7 January 2020

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

 

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Webinar Recording: Preparing Your Meeting Rooms for the Teams Experience

Audio Conferencing

The growing popularity of Microsoft Teams is a testament to our need to collaborate efficiently in real and virtual spaces. Poorly designed rooms undermine the collaboration culture. The user experience has to be consistent across the spectrum of spaces, from huddle spaces to lecture theaters.

Sneak preview:

During this webinar, Chris Fitzsimmons, product marketing manager for Biamp, looks at ways you can bring the Microsoft Teams experience into a variety of meeting spaces. Download this recording and you’ll learn about:

  • The difference between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms 
  • AV best practices (with a focus on the importance of audio quality)
  • Microsoft-certified solutions from Biamp and how they improve the collaboration experience

Fitzsimmons also addresses audience questions on topics like network security and the features of Biamp solutions.

Here’s a short preview from this Biamp event that emphasizes the importance of audio to successful meetings:

Find out more of Fitzsimmons’ advice for creating an engaging collaboration experience in a variety of meeting spaces.

Get the recording for “Preparing Your Meeting Rooms for the Teams Experience” >

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The Role of Workplace Intelligence in Today’s Business

actionable business intelligence

Organizations are on track for success when they see workplace intelligence from two related perspectives: 1) as information that shapes the individual’s ability to take the actions that achieve business goals; 2) as information that shapes a company’s approach to achieving business outcomes.

“When AVI-SPL talks about workplace intelligence with companies, we focus on the data that predicts user needs for routine tasks in meetings, particularly where collaboration is involved,” says Tim Riek, SVP of services for AVI-SPL. “Typically we’ll have conversations about issues like what functions should engage when they enter the room and how to make this process consistent across all their meeting spaces.

The intelligent workplace empowers people to work smarter rather than longer or harder. For businesses in any industry, this approach reduces the cost of wasted effort and inefficiency. At the AVI-SPL stand at ISE 2020, which is the world’s largest AV and systems integration show, guests representing businesses like yours will talk to our collaboration experts about their approach to designing a workplace that optimizes for the user experience.

“We want employees to be agile and efficient,” says Riek. “The solutions that support that agility will attract and keep the talent that drives a company’s success.”

Workplace intelligence is also the information that arises from the ways employees are using their collaboration spaces and room devices – and how often. Companies can use that information to predict user needs for routine tasks, technology needs for meetings and collaboration, and work space needs for organizations and businesses.

Consider both perspectives and we see that workplace intelligence:

  • Springs from actionable business intelligence gleaned from rich technology and space utilization analytics
  • Gives back crucial resources, like time to employees (work smarter rather than longer or harder), and wasted costs to the business bottom line
  • Improves the effectiveness of workforce and the efficiency or agility of the business
  • Understands and optimizes user experience
  • Makes a healthier, more successful business

At ISE 2020, which runs from February 11-14, AVI-SPL is going to help its guests understand workplace intelligence, including its importance and how to gain its benefits. Guests at ISE will see how the AVI-SPL Symphony application offers a window into ROI through workplace data like space and device utilization analytics.

“Symphony delivers workplace intelligence by which companies can assess the value of their investment in their collaboration solutions and spaces,” says Riek. “Combine that with our services and support, and we can help them reach their business outcomes.”

If you’ll be attending ISE 2020, visit AVI-SPL at stand 11-C155.

If you want to know more about how AVI-SPL can deliver the workplace intelligence you need to work smarter, contact us.

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