What AV integrators get wrong about hybrid working

The world of workplace AV integration in 2022 can almost be divided into two camps. Those who are all about Microsoft Teams Rooms. And those who have some scepticism that it is a panacea.

The latter take the view that there is a bigger picture that must be understood. And among them is Jon Knight, managing director of Ascentae, a distributor of workplace technology.

The bigger picture in this line of thinking involves understanding the concerns of the key decision-makers for hybrid workplaces. It involves partnership opportunities that will help integrators deliver a complete end-to-end service instead of taking a siloed approach. It also involves data’s value in making hybrid workplaces generate ROI.

Questions about this bigger picture – and whether AV integrators really have the skills and understanding needed for hybrid work – come up quickly when AV Magazine visits an Ascentae showroom.

Opened in partnership with Your Workspace, this space shows how a smart workplace can enable flexible working and data-driven decision-making.

It provides opportunities to consider issues involving workplace design, smart lockers, furniture and the big topics about the future of work – alongside insight into intelligent meeting room and visual collaboration solutions. It also enables partnerships in these broader areas to be forged.

It is afterwards, in a post-visit discussion, that Knight says: “I get an increasing sense that many integrators and end users see Microsoft Teams as the answer to the many challenges that hybrid working represents. But I would encourage integrators to consider the medium-term picture. Although Teams is a very important part of the jigsaw, neither Teams nor Microsoft are going to be the answer to every challenge created by hybrid working.”

Five years ago, instead of an application called Teams, we had one called Skype for Business. Ten years ago, it was Microsoft Lync. At that time, AV integrators selling video conferencing were promoting the benefits of (H323) standards-based video.

“Where will we be in five or 10 years’ time?” Knight asks.

But if AV integrators are going to do something more than simply supply cookie-cutter Microsoft Teams Rooms solutions, who are they key decision-makers in hybrid work projects that they need to understand?

“We believe the three key departments are facilities, HR and IT; but ultimately the big decisions are likely to be made at board level,” says Knight.

The traditional IT and AV decision-makers will be part of hybrid work conversations in organisations but may not always be driving them. Projects have often become multi-departmental and there is more to the ROI and risks involved than technology alone.

Facilities are involved because they must make choices about how much real estate they need now, in the next couple of years and in the long term. Hybrid work impacts decisions about property strategy – whether to own or lease, and for how long.

“We are currently hearing from end users who are embracing flexible working and seeing their workplace averaging 10%-20% occupancy,” says Knight. “Often they only know this because of door entry data or the CEO asking where everyone is. The design of a workplace and the amount of real estate represents a huge ROI for those who get this right.”

Concerns about well-being, mental health and retaining the right staff have come to the fore too as the pandemic progressed, and these topics are part of the HR agenda. Video fatigue has become a concern even though UC platforms such as Teams, Zoom and Google have kept businesses afloat.

“Aligning a technology strategy with an HR strategy is something we believe is fundamentally critical,” Knight adds.

All of these topics come together to be part of the C-level agenda, involving CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CIOs and COOs.

“But often we are hearing about ‘sticking plaster’ approaches or the great British culture of  ‘Keep calm, have a cup of tea and wait’. There is a spider’s web of interconnecting decisions that need to be considered and creating a one to five-year plan with confidence at this stage is challenging,” Knight says.

Tackling the agenda in a way that meets the concerns of these multiple stakeholders is a big opportunity.

But here’s where the problem lies. Do AV integrators really have the skills and understanding needed for multi-stakeholder conversations?

“Generally speaking, I would say no, which is not wholly surprising since this stye of working has been accelerated by the Covid pandemic,” says Knight.

He sees Ascentae’s role as facilitating the job of identifying the right technologies and partnerships for channel and end users, building on an understanding of how these trends were developing before Covid.

When Ascentae was launched as a distributor, in 2017, the company embraced the philosophy of agile working.

“The more we learn about the outcomes of the pandemic, the more we believe that agile working provides a framework for success,” says Knight.

Agile working has core principles, such as giving people choice regarding how and where they work, and creating spaces to support different styles of work or the different tasks people need to perform.

“Focusing on the task is an interesting opportunity for technology discussions. It begins to open the discussion regarding how organisations can embrace hybrid working on a long-term basis,” says Knight.

Understanding this provides an opportunity to deliver a much wider portfolio of technology than just video-conferencing enabled spaces.

“Organisations such as Deloitte, GSK, RBS, PwC and many more had all embraced the principles of agile working many years before the pandemic hit,” Knight says.

Agile working linked to data-driven decision-making are the cornerstone of how companies can tackle the opportunities and challenges of hybrid work in his view. The rewards are flexibility for employees, “five-star workplace experiences” and reductions in real-estate portfolios.

So what can go wrong if there are all these opportunities to partner for a complete end-to-end service from pre-design consultancy through post-installation service, and if these opportunities involving an understanding of real estate, office design, furniture and HR/culture as well as collaboration?

“Generally, we still see the majority taking a siloed approach currently and this disconnected approach often leads to frustrations with the final project,” says Knight.

“Examples such as power sockets in the wrong place and walls unsuitable to support a screen are all practical examples but now the challenge is even greater,” he says.

A hybrid work strategy needs to start with offering flexibility about where and how users can work, underpinned by good-quality data for decision-makers.

““The baseline for this is occupancy data. Once employees have a booking tool that allows them to chose where they work, and who with, the organisation can collect data to identify occupancy trends,” says Knight.

“We are not stopping there. We are continuing to work with our technology partners to integrate multiple data sources from meeting room and collaboration technology to provide a richer data output, enabling organisations to understand how spaces are used and how they are performing.”

Is it the integrator/managed service provider or end user who needs to own this data?

“We believe data needs to be owned by the end users because the richer the data, the more confidential it may become, and long-term data is only going to become richer,” says Knight.

But there are two key opportunities for the integrator or managed service provider.

First, to integrate multiple data sources to create “one source of truth”. Second, to provide proactive analysis and recommendations for future technology strategy and investments, based on analysis of the data.

“At the moment the majority of focus seems to be on is the room ‘ready’ and are there any problems that will prevent a user from using the space today rather than capturing data over time to highlight usage, behaviour and performance,” Knight says.

If AV integrators do not master an agile, data-driven approach, and hybrid workplace technology comes to be specified, installed and maintained by professionals without AV expertise, the results will not be pretty.

“This is currently my biggest concern for the AV industry. If we are not part of the solution, the experiences for the users may be poor,” Knight says.

“The skill of AV integrators – to deliver blended technology solutions – needs to be a key focus for our industry and highlighted as something that can only be achieved by working with a specialist.”

In addition, there needs to be ongoing support, service and maintenance in projects. Most hardware now receives regular software updates, with agile software development increasingly becoming standard practice.

“These software updates need to be rolled out, tested and supported to ensure products that are integrated today remain integrated long term,” Knight says.

“Simply saying we are going to put an all-in-one video conferencing system into our meeting rooms and stopping there will deliver an experience that is no better than working from home.”

Jon Knight is managing director of Ascentae, a distributor of smart workplace technology including solutions from GoBright, Nureva, MAXHUB, Valarea, Huddly, Evoko and Ditto.