1. Many businesses are in the process of returning to their office spaces and trying to establish how to make them hybrid ready – Where do they start?
Nigel Penny, Head of VC Enterprise Sales UK&I at Logitech: “The first step towards getting a hybrid office ready is considering why employees will be in the office, and how the office space and technology can support different needs.
“For example, by offering a mixture of personal desk space, meeting rooms, and open operational spaces which allow teams to gather and work together, and for wider company collaboration.
“When it comes to meeting spaces, they now need to be equipped with quality video conferencing systems to support collaboration between in-person employees and remote employees – as going forwards, it’s likely that all participants in a meeting will be face-to-face.
“It’s also important to consider video solutions for meeting rooms with different purposes. A large boardroom with a long table will benefit from a camera with the capability to zoom and pan to show the faces of individuals speakers in the room.
“Smaller huddle spaces will likely be better suited to a more portable and wider-angle camera that fits one or two people on screen – but uses high-quality audio and video.”
Hellene Garcia, Head of Global Commercials at Neat: “With a hybrid workforce, teams are going to continuously rotate between being at home or in the office.
“Given that, it makes sense that the office will become more of a collaborative place. If you’re in the office, it’s not to sit at your desk all day, it will be to engage and collaborate with peers.
“To support that, businesses need to create an environment that offers a broader variety of interactive meeting rooms and creative huddle spaces to foster discussion and innovation.
“Businesses also need to think beyond meetings to those spontaneous and casual social encounters that occur around the office on the way to the meeting or at the water cooler or coffee stand.
“To replicate those encounters for a hybrid team, businesses should consider connected breakout areas such as open areas, kitchens, and lounges.
“And of course, all of these spaces need to be equipped with technology that seamlessly connects office and remote workers to drive collaboration.”
Sof Socratous, Vice President, Northern Europe at Poly: “Businesses must start by considering the preferences of their workforce.
“Our latest report found that 77% of organisations plan to redesign the office to support new ways of working. They are redesigning existing spaces to create more open plan areas, collaboration spaces, and meeting rooms. But it’s important that decisions are based on a people-first approach.
“Finding the right solution for every workstyle, or persona helps match the right audio and video solutions to workforce needs in the office, at home, or on the go. Understanding these key differences improves technology spending, ultimately saving time, money and increasing overall employee productivity.
“Organisations that do hybrid well and enable their employees to collaborate with ease will create working environments that are engaging. Equalizing the virtual and office experience by bringing everyone together will also be key to retaining talent, growing businesses, maintaining culture, and becoming more productive than ever.
Nathan Shaw, Zoom Rooms Lead PMM: “Ensuring the health and safety of employees while they’re in the office is more important than ever before, and businesses need the right tools to help them manage resources and minimize contact wherever possible.
“Zoom makes this easy with our video-first unified communications platform and features to help teams return to the office quickly and safely.
“A few examples include Zoom Rooms Kiosk Mode, which includes a virtual receptionist that can greet you or your building guests safely using a Zoom Rooms for Touch device.
“Workspace Reservation is a new feature from Zoom that allows users to reserve a desk, space or Zoom Rooms before coming into the office. Upon arrival, they can ‘check-in’ which syncs their personal account to the local device dedicating that workspace to them.
“Zoom just launched an all-new, persistent, Zoom Whiteboard. This is an incredible solution that is key to hybrid work, supported across the Zoom platform, including Zoom Rooms for Touch devices like the Neat Board, DTEN D7, and personal Zoom Rooms appliances.
“Neat, a manufacturer of Zoom Rooms Appliances, released Neat Sense, which enables you to continuously manage and monitor air quality and the number of people in the room.”
2. There are lots of great vendors out there providing meeting room kits – how should companies work out what equipment suits them best?
Nigel Penny, Head of VC Enterprise Sales UK&I at Logitech: “There are a number of considerations to be made when choosing the right video collaboration equipment.
“One of the most important is looking for compatibility with existing software and other systems being used. For example, it’s worth considering a system that works seamlessly in parallel with an employee’s UC platform and is familiar across all meeting rooms, so employees quickly get used to the tech.
“Another important consideration is ensuring that any different systems can integrate with whichever software platform employees, and external visitors, currently use.
“A further factor to take into account is simplicity and ease of use, to ensure a system is intuitive for the end-user and there are no barriers to uptake. A system that allows users to join meetings with the touch of one button and has minimal cabling, for example, will make it easier for employees who may not have used video conferencing a lot in the past.”
Hellene Garcia, Head of Global Commercials at Neat: “Now is the perfect time to identify the specific behaviours of your dispersed teams and identify the technology that will best enable them to connect and collaborate.
“There are a couple of things to consider – first, it needs to be simple! Look for a meeting room solution that mimics the user interfaces your team is accustomed to using
“Your solution also needs to support natural and fluid conversations, so make sure it has exceptional audio as well as technology to suppress unwanted background noise.
“Additionally, we got used to seeing everyone up close on-screen when we were all remote, so finding a technology that restores the balance between people in a meeting room and those who are remote to ensure everyone is equally seen is key.
“Lastly, when we feel better, we’re more productive and engaged, so it’s important to provide tools that address ergonomics and aesthetics to reduce stress and fatigue and help employees feel comfortable, happy and healthy.”
Sof Socratous, Vice President, Northern Europe at Poly:
“Meetings have moved online. In any boardroom across the world nowadays, at least two people will be joining a meeting from home. That trend isn’t about to change so a key is creating an office-like meeting experience, regardless of location.
“Poly’s vision is total equality between those in the meeting room and those who aren’t. But it takes pro-grade equipment to create authentic and productive meeting experiences. And a real understanding of what tech performs best in what space and for what purpose.
“Working out what equipment suits an organization best should not be left to improvisation. It’s about solving pain points and understanding what businesses want their hardware and software to do, what insights they want to recover and where they want to be in a year’s time.
“Our solutions are based on tried and tested proof of concept programmes, based on real business cases, across numerous vertical industries.
Nathan Shaw, Zoom Rooms Lead PMM: “When it comes to selecting these solutions, companies should look for meeting room innovations that offer plug-n-play, frictionless connectivity, consistency across workplace solutions, and alignment to required room sizes, from desks, huddle rooms and breakout spaces to executive board rooms.
“Companies should also select equipment that gives all employees the same capabilities. With some employees in the office and others working remotely, companies should provide them with the solutions they need to create an enterprise-grade communications experience, regardless of where they are.
“Zoom has partnered with most major hardware vendors providing customers multiple options depending on the features and room sizes they need.
“An example of this from Zoom is Smart Gallery, a Zoom Rooms feature that uses cutting-edge hardware and AI to create individual video feeds of in-room participants, giving remote participants a clearer view of their in-room counterparts.
“By providing solutions like this that allow teams to collaborate digitally, create a distraction-free environment, and have the same capabilities as in-office workers, you can help ensure that your teams are productive and successful, no matter where they choose to work from.”
3. What meeting room technology is most in-demand?
Nigel Penny, Head of VC Enterprise Sales UK&I at Logitech: “The technology we’re seeing most demand for at the moment is collaboration tools that offer high-quality audio and video, to equip medium and large size meeting rooms with.
“As organisations transition to hybrid models, getting the kit in place to have effective, productive hybrid meetings is a big priority.
“Systems with 4K cameras to ensure the experience is as close to face-to-face communication as possible are very popular and features such as one-click join are also very much in demand.
“The focus is on quality meetings that allow employees to focus on just the meeting itself, with technology that works seamlessly for them every time.”
Hellene Garcia, Head of Global Commercials at Neat: “Video meetings will continue to be a significant part of people’s working days, but we’ve also come to recognize there’s no genuine replacement for being physically together in the same room.
“We see demand growing for technology that’s so innovative and comes so close to imitating meeting others in person that you forget you’re on video.
“That’s something we try to do with our technology – make it disappear. We don’t want people to think about technology, we want them to do what they came together to do – that’s to focus on each other and their interaction.
“What’s also apparent, is that we’ve all grown more conscious of our environment and its impact on our health and well-being, technology in the meeting room that can monitor air quality, humidity, temperature, noise and light can help ensure a healthier and more comfortable room environment.”
Sof Socratous, Vice President, Northern Europe at Poly:
“Meeting room solutions such as video conferencing bars and state-of-the-art cameras that automatically track speakers are most in-demand as they allow users to see and hear each other perfectly.
“Not all companies are equipped with devices and technologies that help co-workers feel like they’re sat together around the same table. Conversations are interrupted by background noise, which is unproductive and frustrating.
“We’ve all been distracted by people chatting between themselves or tapping their pens on desks but thankfully, the right tech provides a way around this. It filters noise, cancelling the distractions and focusing instead on speakers, following conversations automatically as they evolve.
“Poly Meeting AI, Poly’s advanced artificial intelligence-driven technologies are built into Poly Studio Room kits for Microsoft Teams. They help workers experience more engaging and stress-free virtual meetings with features that help all participants feel connected and empowered on every call.”
Nathan Shaw, Zoom Rooms Lead PMM: “In addition to a safe work environment, technology that creates a seamless communications ecosystem is in high demand. Employees want to be able to easily move between communications methods such as phone, video and chat.
“For a hybrid workforce, dynamic meeting rooms are a must-have. Zoom Rooms allows organizations to create meeting spaces that fit their specific needs. Zoom Rooms also has cutting-edge features like wireless screen sharing, touch-free controls, and much more.
“For hybrid employees, the home environment is equally as important. Zoom for Home allows anyone to deploy a dedicated personal collaboration device for video meetings, phone calls, and interactive whiteboarding.
“Zoom for Home is also compatible with all Zoom Rooms Appliances, including hardware solutions from Neat and Poly, allowing users to select the hardware they need to create the perfect work-from-home communications experience across spaces such as living rooms.”
from UC Today https://ift.tt/t9KLfNX
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