The good news is there’s a wealth of data available to help you make smarter decisions. But how do you gather the right information and translate it into actionable insights?

Get insights in our Q-SYS on-demand webcast, Q-SYS Delivering on Meeting Space ROI. Our expert panel discusses how IT and AV departments can turn uncertainty into flexible, scalable, and repeatable meeting spaces with an AV cloud strategy.

The power of APIs and interoperability

Interoperability is crucial for AV cloud strategy. People want their clouds to talk to each other so that they can see the data they need to get their job done. For example, the IT team may want to know how Q-SYS data is reflected in the IT platform. Or the AV team may want to know the status of the IT network and how it impacts the AV technology.

API integrations allow technologies to “talk” to each other and can reduce human error while increasing employee productivity. Vendors, like Q-SYS, that prioritize APIs, are ensuring that their solution will be able to exchange data with the other solutions that your organization uses.

Benefits of an AV cloud strategy

Cloud strategy for audio video conferencing has shifted from monitoring and management to being an essential part of day-to-day operations. An AV cloud strategy enables you to manage security of systems at scale and provide consistency across your organization, which benefits in-house and remote employees.

How do you create an AV cloud strategy? Start by defining what your goals and objectives are so that you can understand what you are trying to achieve. Outline which of your meeting spaces are currently used and which are not.

Ensure robust security and compliance

Secure AV devices are critical, especially when they are on a cloud network. Cloud management allows your operational security team to keep an eye on devices to make sure that they meet security requirements, are up to date, and that traffic is flowing where it should.

Many organizations are concerned about data governance and compliance. Being aware of data privacy and following local governance is a key component of an AV cloud strategy.

How to maximize meeting space ROI

With the help of artificial intelligence, manufacturers are innovating and enhancing their products and solutions much quicker. Because of these ongoing improvements, manufacturers can easily share with end users updates on security enhancements and new features or capabilities.

In the past, ROI was looked at as the cost of the technology versus the cost of travel. That calculation didn’t always include facility costs to maintain the meeting spaces. The focus was on the individual solution and not everything that was a part of making that solution happen.

Cloud solutions have changed that. Today, organizations realize that ROI encompasses much more than technology and travel. You have to take into account all of the technology in the meeting space, the furnishings, and the support team. Adoption and support of your new meeting spaces are critical to achieving positive ROI.

Ultimately, organizations measure ROI a little differently. To start calculating your meeting space investment, consider the ROI of the technology you’ve deployed and the ROI of the platforms you put in place to support those technologies. AVI-SPL looks at everything that make up a meeting space or AV cloud solution to build out what the ROI story could be.

Watch the Q-SYS on-demand webcast today and learn how to leverage data and technology to achieve a favorable ROI on your meeting space investments.

And if you have questions after watching the webcast, contact AVI-SPL—our experts are here to help.

The post How data-driven meeting space design drives ROI appeared first on AVI-SPL Digital Enablement Services Provider.

Today’s post is by guest author

Laurie Berg

AVI-SPL Vice President, Symphony Product Operations

In 2021 and 2022, I became obsessed with organizing my home. I focused on the kitchen and bathroom. I felt those were the most “visible.” Next was the closet. Not highly visible, but an important room for me. Less of a priority were the basement and garage.

I threw out things I did not use often, or perhaps were just too weathered. I fixed some items that needed some tweaking. I even started looking at expiration/best by dates more closely. Everything has a date. I bought different styles/types of organization boxes depending on the space.

Plastic was my choice for the kitchen. I went more decorative for the bathroom. My choice for the closet was a blend of linen for clothes and plastic for shoes. And that label maker got a workout. As time passed, I found myself using things I hadn’t in years, wearing clothes I couldn’t find before, and not buying duplicates because I forgot what I had.

You may be asking yourself, “Am I on the right blog?” Well, here is what I discovered that triggered the connection. What I was doing at home is no different than what AVI-SPL does with customers every day…creating standards based on priority and need. This process includes understanding today’s usage and goals for tomorrow, selecting products that accomplished the objective, with all the caveats intact, and proving the ROI.

Bringing it all together

This all sounds basic. As I mentioned, AVI-SPL does this every day with you. The reason I was able to do it alone is because I only have so many things. I could complete all the tasks related to the kitchen in a weekend because I only have one kitchen.

But here is where it gets complicated. When you think about your organization, the locations, the buildings, the rooms, the spaces, and the assets that go into those rooms and spaces, that can be daunting. How do you know all the items you have, across a campus or the globe?

How do you know what is working, what could work with some tweaking, and what is simply outdated? How do you build standards to accommodate the different use cases and people? And how do you know if your decisions were successful or need some modifications?

That is where Symphony comes in. Symphony provides six main values:

• Asset Capture: Knowing what you have where, works in progress, and budgetary data
• Cloud Migration: Merging of traditional technologies with cloud technologies
• Centralized Monitoring: Enabling 24×7 proactive communication with technology with auto-ticket creation
• Incident Management: Configuring triggers, priorities, auto-clear and auto-close procedures
• Workplace Management: Triangulating data related to technology, space, and people to automate common activities and make changes based on data
• Success Metrics: Proving ROI, space utilization, downtime, health, resource allocation, and more in digestible interactive visuals
  
  

 Think beyond the technology

When we think about the standards, the investments, and the ROI, we often think about the technology spend. However, how do your simple assets also play a role in your decisions? Simple assets, by default, are not monitored. They have no proactive data to provide. But they are just as important in your decisions as the technology.

Symphony now enables the inclusion of simple assets into your onboarding. Simple assets such as executive chairs vs. office chairs, official conferencing tables vs. standard tables or modular tables, hosting items, and peripherals such as remote controls and cables. All of these items will impact your standards, your investments, and getting a truer sense of utilization and ROI.

In terms of standards, creating executive offices, standard offices, conferencing spaces, local brainstorming spaces, and the like can all mean something in Symphony and enhance those standards. You know what furniture is required based on the space type you are creating.

That leads to the investments you make. Here are some things to think about:

• What are the simple and technology assets you need in the room?
• Are their requirements for them, i.e. glass vs. traditional whiteboard, desk vs. stand-up desk?
• Does technology have requirements, i.e., do you need to purchase brackets or create new electrical outlets?
• Do you need to report on utilization and ROI?
• Will simple assets help with that understanding, i.e., what are the reasons one room is chosen over another? Is it the technology or the “perks” of the room?
• What is the total cost of the space created?

When you can marry simple assets with technology assets, you can get at the heart of utilization and cost. That data aids in proving ROI and making more data-driven decisions moving forward.

Request a Symphony demo and let us help you visualize your standards and investment and prove ROI. Contact AVI-SPL to get started  today.

The post Think Beyond the Technology appeared first on AVI-SPL Digital Enablement Services Provider.

Laurie Berg

AVI-SPL Vice President, Symphony Product Operations

Chocolate or vanilla? We are faced with decisions at every turn. While decisions come at all levels of importance, we can go through an entire day of benign choices. In 2020, Barclays found that making these daily decisions can utilize 2.5 hours each day…2.5 hours a day. That’s over 900 hours a year. What about the decisions we must make at work? How many hours might that take up for some of us? And how much anxiety and stress can that cause?

A choice facing IT

Organizations are increasingly deploying technology to make it easier for their employees to collaborate and to provide a more synergetic environment with “return to office” plans. While some spaces are considered “simple” to use, they are still complex to support.

Spaces often include any manufacturers with various types and categories of devices that encompass audio-video, video conferencing, and unified communications. I work in the software industry building AVI-SPL Symphony, a platform geared towards those IT departments and their ability to support the deployed technology. Symphony enables proactive remote monitoring, managing, controlling, and analyzing of your technology environment.

The purpose of Symphony is to make the life of IT departments easier and reduce stress by ensuring a more productive workspace for end users…verifying technology is working as expected when expected. And when it is not, facilitating quicker time to resolution by providing data driven information about the estate. This allows you to minimize downtime of assets your colleagues require for collaboration.

When I talk to people, I am often asked, “Why Symphony instead of <insert AV, Video, or UC manufacturer platform here>?”

This is the choice facing IT. Vanilla or chocolate? But here’s my thought: why do you have to choose?

I prefer a vanilla/chocolate twist. I prefer the stability of vanilla with the richness of chocolate that creates something better than either alone.

Why both make for easier IT decisions

This is the philosophy we have taken with Symphony. Symphony communicates with technology 24 hours a day. Alone, it will tell you ping latency and up/down status of your technology via ICMP, regardless of what you have deployed.

It’s the vanilla. It’s stable. It provides you information across all your deployed manufacturers in one platform. Information about healthy spaces, troubled spaces, and trends in your location and across the globe.

AV, Video, and UC vendors have their management platforms as well. They drill deeper, but into their specific portfolio. This is the chocolate. It may have a richer flavor, but one is not enough because you undoubtedly have many different manufacturers and technologies deployed.

However, when you blend the 2, that is when the flavors come together to give you something stronger. Via SNMP, APIs, Controller Module for your deployed controllers, and our Device Management and Control Agent (DMCA) for your room-based computers, Symphony has rich integrations with those deployed manufacturers. Symphony provides that depth into not only one vendor but many vendors.

Manufacturer mix-ins power decisions too

Vendors including, but not limited to, Biamp, Barco, Cisco, Crestron, Gude, Jabra, LG, Microsoft, Middle Atlantic, Sharp/NEC, Netgear, Poly, and Zoom all have a place in Symphony. Extended value with our adapter development ranges from device details, configurations, audio and video settings, as well as meeting information including calendaring, scheduling, and live quality data.

And because of the Symphony framework, all data points can trigger auto-ticket creation based on your needs and requirements, decreasing end-user-led problem reporting. And many data points can be remotely controlled, increasing the ability to create common, repeatable workflows and remote resolution and validation.

Add jimmies

(I’m from New England, so yes, add jimmies, a.k.a. sprinkles.) Once you have a good base of ice cream, add flavor and texture. The jimmies of Symphony rich monitoring represent our ability to communicate directly to individual devices and to vendor management systems, or aggregators. Whether you are deploying Crestron XiO, Poly Lens, or another platform, Symphony will gather data directly from the aggregator as well.

When you work with Symphony, it provides the guidance for resolution. The platform will tell you the what, where, and when of issues, and enable tracking of who, why, and how of resolution. This data together provides you the strategic guidance you need for future investments.

Request a Symphony demo and let us help you make your decision…vanilla/chocolate twist, with jimmies. Contact AVI-SPL to get started today.

The post Vanilla or Chocolate: stress less with data-based IT decisions appeared first on AVI-SPL Digital Enablement Services Provider.