Don't Cut Corners with your Office Technology
Setting up a functional and effective office space takes a lot of hard work. Not only do you have to find the right space in the right location, but a lot of planning and execution is necessary to set it up in the right way. From conference room and huddle space technology to room scheduling and sound masking, there are many ways to make your office space work for you. Taking the time during the planning stages of your new office to plan for your AV and IT needs is key.
How important is technology in the workplace?
Microsoft created a report this year on technology in the workplace, Digital culture: Your competitive advantage, which canvassed opinions from 20,476 workers in large and small businesses. Microsoft sought information on the technology in use in these businesses, and workers' attitudes to their jobs and their performance. They concluded that the stronger the digital culture, the lower the percentage of employees who feel unproductive, lacking innovativeness and short on empowerment. Technology is important in the workplace, and the culture around that technology is even more important.
It can be difficult for business owners to spend enough time planning for the digital part of their workspace. We are a technology company, and when we first moved into our office, our first priority wasn’t exactly getting our office technology perfect. Our first priority was to serve our customers without causing downtime. We were the shoemaker without shoes! (Our office technology is pretty awesome now by the way)! But a lot of the time technology is an afterthought. Displays, speakers, and video conferencing software are added to meeting rooms, only to realize the software and hardware solutions don’t integrate seamlessly with the IT infrastructure.
Hire an AV company like you would hire a general contractor
When you plan to move into a new office space, you hire a general contractor to help manage the project and all of its moving parts. They are with you from conception to completion, and make life easier for you. The same is true for hiring an established AV company that knows how to not only design a properly engineered solution, but also knows how to integrate AV hardware with your IT infrastructure. We work with our corporate customers to improve their office space functionality from the design phase, to installation, to supporting that solution after-the-fact. There is a lot of crossover between networking, telecom, video conferencing, AV hardware, cabling, etc. All of these pieces need to talk to each other in order to have a seamless AV solution.
Many times we meet with customers because they’re office technology isn’t functional or efficient. How much time have you wasted during a presentation with remote clients or colleagues because of a shotty network connection or poor quality audio? We usually find out that the AV technology was piecemealed together without taking into consideration how it would talk to the rest of the technology in the office.
Conference Rooms & Huddle Spaces
As more millennials enter the workforce, employers are faced with creating a technology-heavy environment that supports a growing desire to work remotely. Randstad US, a global staffing company, recently released results from its quarterly Randstad Workmonitor survey that showed:
Sixty-six percent of workers say they like the option of occasionally working from home or another location.
A third of employees disagree that their employers provide the necessary technical equipment to enable them to work from home.
Thirty percent of workers say they regularly have online or virtual team meetings via video conferencing
This just goes to show that video conferencing solutions and investments in unified communications in the office are becoming extremely important. A good unified communications platform (this is everything from internal chat platforms, telecom, video conferencing, etc.) should allow you to:
Attract top talent to work for you
Create an environment where communications amongst your team members is easy and functional
Facilitate project management
Create an easy way to share content with your team and clients
Help you close more business
Whether discussing a project with a prospective client or having a virtual meeting between teams in different remote locations, the systems that are supporting these communications need to be functional.
Plan for the office of the future
We help our customers anticipate their future technology needs, whether that is estimating their employee growth (hiring more people, opening more locations) or growing their business to a national or global scale. Your office technology is important. Let us help you plan, design, and integrate your systems so that your team can be more productive and communicate easily!