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Webinar Recording: Devices That Improve Cloud Collaboration

AV in Meeting Spaces

In this session presented by Sherri Pipala, you’ll learn how Poly devices bridge the gap between platforms and how they ensure the best collaboration experiences for your users. You’ll also learn about:

  • The prevalence of UCC solutions in the workplace
  • What people expect out of their workplace meeting experience
  • Top three collaboration pitfalls and how to avoid them
  • Poly solutions for Amazon, Microsoft, and Zoom
  • How the AVI-SPL Symphony user experience application manages and monitors the Poly devices that drive your collaboration

Get the recording for “Why Devices Matter: Realizing the Full Potential of Your Cloud Collaboration Solutions” >

About the presenter
Sherri Pipala joined Polycom in 2008 and has held numerous sales leadership roles.  She currently leads the Poly Field Alliance Team, where she’s focused on alignment and joint solutions with Poly’s Strategic Alliances. Sherri has over 25 years of experience marketing and selling collaboration solutions and advanced services for the enterprise and global account markets.  She focuses on executive relationships, business development, and partner enablement to support the best solution engagements. Sherri brings a “voice from the field” perspective to ensure product solutions, marketing and support drive customer success.

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How to Build Your Company’s Activity-Based Work Spaces

activity-based spaces

We want flexibility in how and when we work. When we’re at the office, we expect to have the tools to do our jobs efficiently and to the best of our abilities. That sometimes means being able to rely on one another’s knowledge as we work through projects. It also means being able to exchange that knowledge in ways that engage us and feel comfortable.

Activity-Based Work Spaces and the Technology That Supports Them

When you have a variety of activity-based spaces, you enable people to work with one another using tools that facilitate collaboration. And that capability can build a strong team culture. Just a few of the activity-based spaces we find at work include conference rooms, huddle rooms, ideation spaces, and quiet rooms. Depending on their size and purpose, these areas may have solutions like BYOD web conferencing, interactive displays, digital signage, and wireless presentation and content sharing.

In AVI-SPL’s white paper on multigenerational teams, you’ll find a helpful chart that shows how seven types of technology solutions can be applied across seven room types. Here’s a sneak peek:

Activity-based spaces chart

Benefits of Activity-Based Work Spaces

Meetings can be about what has been done, what could have been done better, and planning for upcoming projects. A lot of meetings — perhaps yours as well — follow this format. Activity-based spaces encourage productivity; they are places to do the tasks that are usually on the to-do list following a meeting that’s long on talk and short on action.

And when you have a variety of activity-based spaces, you enable everyone in a workplace to gather in groups, work one-on-one, and alone. Some of their benefits include:

  • Giving different generations the spaces where they feel comfortable working.
  • Encouraging collaboration. Bring people together, and you create a environment for innovation. 
  • Empowering people to be more productive because they have the resources — including colleagues and technology — to work effectively.
  • Attracting and retaining talent. Give people the tools and culture they need to work at their best and grow into their positions, and you’ve created a workplace where people want to be.

Activity-Based Work Spaces Close the Generation Gap

AVI-SPL’s white paper “Building an Inspiring Digital Workplace for Multigenerational Teams” explains the differences in collaboration, communication, and work-space preferences among different generations. And it shows how activity-based spaces meet the needs of boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z, whether they prefer video conferencing, working face to face, or collaborating in groups.

You’ll learn how you can create a collaborative environment that works for everyone as you gain insight into the kind of work spaces and technology that can bring the generations together and foster teamwork. 

Get your copy of “Build an Inspiring Digital Workplace for Multigenerational Teams” >

To view our Partner blog, click here

Webinar Recording: Intersection of AV and ADA Compliance

ADA compliance

Access this webcast for a look at the issues you’ll encounter with accessibility and ways you can ensure your AV technology complies with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

When technology solutions don’t follow compliance dictates, they have the potential to create more barriers. For example: a lectern where the AV controls are not accessible to people in wheelchairs or a display that sticks out too far from the wall and becomes a hazard for those with sight disabilities.

In this AVI-SPL webinar, Legrand | AV’s Kathryn Gaskell and Karen Smidt discuss a few sections of the ADA (American With Disabilities Act) most relevant to AV, including:

  • Reach Ranges (section 308)
  • Operable Parts (sections 205 and 209)
  • Protruding Objects (sections 204 and 307)

You’ll gain an understanding of the AV challenges inherent in each section, and learn solutions for creating a more inclusive environment.

Get the recording for “The Intersection of AV Technology and the ADA: Challenges and Solutions” >

About the presenters

Kathryn Gaskell
Director of Product Management – Chief Brand
Legrand | AV
 
Kathryn has worked at Legrand | AV for six years, leading product management for the Chief brand. Her efforts have led to the development of industry-leading display mounting solutions for education and corporate environments, digital signage applications and more. Her interest in ADA was spiked by frequent questions from customers, and a desire to solve their accessibility challenges with practical, well-designed solutions.
 
Karen Smidt
Director of Marketing – Commercial Brands
Legrand | AV
 
Karen began working at Legrand | AV 13 years ago and is currently leading the commercial marketing team in their efforts to provide useful, educational content to our customers and end users. Working with Kathryn to better understand customer questions around ADA, she has developed educational resources to help explain and solve many of the challenges at the intersection of AV and accessibility. 

To view our Partner blog, click here

How to Calculate the Value of Your Digital Workplace Solutions

AV Everywhere

Just about any significant expenditure you make in business needs to be justified with an estimated return on investment (ROI). Because AVI-SPL provides the digital services that are designed to improve how your business operates, we’ve created a calculator that you can use to figure out the financial value of digital workplace solutions.

Our new productivity calculator will factor in your company’s information and show the benefits of solutions that improve the employee experience and productivity in the workplace.

Forrester Consulting’s “Total Economic Impact of AVI-SPL’s Digital Workplace Solutions” shows the kind of value you can get from improving your collaboration solutions and outsourcing their support to AVI-SPL. Based on a three-year model, the study showed a meeting productivity increase worth $11.9 million. Other findings from the report, which aggregated four different AVI-SPL customers into a composite company, found:

  • 14.3% net reduction in total cost of ownership of digital meeting solutions 
  • 20% increase in meeting-room utilization
  • $1.5M in savings on management and support costs

To estimate your savings, go to this landing page to access the calculator. Once you’ve downloaded the spreadsheet, you can enter information like:

  • The number of meeting rooms in your company
  • How many rooms will be equipped with video conferencing systems
  • Hourly cost of your full-time employees
  • Cost per square foot of meeting spaces

Take a few minutes to gather the info needed and a few seconds to enter it into the spreadsheet. Our calculator will then determine the value delivered by higher meeting-room utilization, improved staff productivity, and AVI-SPL’s managed services. And you’ll have the ROI numbers that clear the path for digital workplace transformation that improves the culture, productivity and efficiency of your business.

Download the AVI-SPL Digital Workplace Solutions ROI Calculator >

To view our Partner blog, click here

Q&A With Ericka Shumpert, Winner of AVIXA Women’s Council Award

AVI-SPL

Ericka Shumpert leads AVI-SPL’s participation in events like trade shows and conferences, and organizes many of our own educational/networking public events. She’s also an active member in the AVIXA’s Women’s Council, which recognized Shumpert with its Ultimate Team Player award at InfoComm 2019. In the Q&A below, Shumpert talks about the win and the valuable mission of the Women’s Council.

Q: When did you join the AVIXA Women’s Council?

Shumpert: I’ve been a member for over two years, since it was known as the Women of InfoComm. I attended my first session at ISE [Integrated Systems Europe), and then Coleen Sterns Leith and I started the Tampa chapter, which we continue to co-chair.

Q: When did you find out you were being recognized for your contributions to the council?

Shumpert: I knew I had been nominated, but I didn’t know I won until the Women’s Council breakfast on Thursday, when they showed my photo on the presentation display.

Q: What were your first thoughts?

Shumpert: I was shocked and honored. It helps that people at AVI-SPL voted. We have a large group representing the Tampa chapter.

Q: Talk about the mission of the Women’s Council and how the Tampa group supports that.

Shumpert: The purpose is to empower women in the AV industry. At the Tampa chapter, we do this by hosting tech tours, networking events, and activities where we give back to the community through events like Dress for Success and a Metropolitan Ministries program called Inside the Box.  For our chapter’s events, Coleen and I handle all of the logistics like venue coordination and agenda creation.

Q: Do you think your win will affect your work on the council?

Shumpert: My attitude of being part of a team doesn’t change, because we accomplish more as a team than as individuals. 

Q: What about the council made you want to join?

Shumpert: I believe so strongly in the women’s council and things we’re trying to accomplish. We’re on a mission to increase awareness and education and help women in the industry. And that’s easy to do because of the team working together.

Q: What’s it like working with the Tampa chapter?

Shumpert: We learn from others’ experiences. Coleen is a great co-chair and has a very active role in AVIXA. Other women in the group, like Heather Callaway from APG Electric, are great mentors. Sherri Beck, AVI-SPL’s director of learning and development, is on the committee, so we’re growing the group and involving our manufacturing partners.

Q: On the topic of growth — how has the group changed or improved since you joined?

Shumpert: Our group has grown from 15 members to over 100. We recently surveyed our members and asked, “What do you need from us?” We want to reach their goals, like hosting tech tours and offering specific training. That shows the group is dedicated to what it’s intended to be – helping women in the industry. 

To view our Partner blog, click here

Show Us Your Collaborative Work Space on National Selfie Day

AV Everywhere

Friday, June 21, is National Selfie Day. Which probably means it’s a day like any other for people who love (or live) to share on social media. But whether you’re a novice at the self portrait or a seasoned expert, we have a special request.

AVI-SPL is taking part in this unofficial holiday by asking its clients, offices, and LinkedIn and Twitter followers to share their favorite collaborative work spaces and tag them #NationalSelfieDay. To give you some guidance on what we’re looking for, AVI-SPL’s Marketing team has shared its enthusiastic contribution.

As we receive photos, I’ll upload them into a gallery in this post, so check back over the next few days for more images — and possibly some inspiration for your organization. 

AVI-SPL specializes in being a digital services provider to organizations around the world — which means we provide them with the collaboration technology that helps team members share knowledge, brainstorm, and drive better business outcomes. We work with our customers to define what collaboration looks like to their organization. And over the next few days, we hope to see examples of where that collaboration takes place for you.

Share your images to our Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. 

AVI-SPL Canada selfie
AVI-SPL Marketing Team

To view our Partner blog, click here