How to Simplify Your Conference Room Chaos

Welcome Back & Happy New Year! The start of the new year is often filled with resolutions made with the intention and goal of sticking to a plan for the rest of the year – eat healthy, save money, read more, etc.! For businesses, many aim to be more sustainable, reduce costs, and work smarter, not harder. Let’s apply these same principles to one of the current business challenges that our customers are facing. As employees return to the office, they expect and demand a superior video and collaboration solution than they can get at home. That is why adding more video-enabled conference rooms and refreshing video in existing conference rooms is a top priority for around 60% of CIOs. (source: Morgan Stanley) Unfortunately, some companies are wasting effort on cobbled-together multi-vendor Frankenstein video deployments. More vendors = more costs, more complexity, more service contracts, more support, and experience issues, with all-around frustration for IT and end users.

If you checked out my previous blog, Don’t Overengineer your Meeting Room, you probably read a bit about how Cisco can help reduce video complexity and cost, while also providing the best meeting experience. We’ll touch on these previous topics and also focus on a deep dive comparison between Cisco vs. a typical AV Frankenstein Meeting Room that can create conference room chaos. This includes a critical focus on the total cost of ownership – be prepared to be shocked by some of the hidden costs that can and should be easily avoided.

Conference Room Strategy

With the majority of CIO’s focused on video enabling more conference rooms and improving the experience of existing rooms, they need to be aware of hidden and unexpected costs that could derail their Hybrid Work strategy. As more conference rooms become video enabled — investment protection, simplicity and manageability become core to their strategy. As the Video Conferencing market leader, Cisco has made investments over the last 15 years to deliver world-class video experiences combined with powerful but simple device management. Even more important is that we deliver the investment protection that our customers demand, providing almost double the useful lifespan of competitive platforms.

Let’s talk about some of the challenges you might be facing and the impact your decisions make on your conference room strategy.

Behind the Scenes of the Hidden Costs & Complexity

Now, let’s dig into some details…

When interviewing some partners for this blog, we examined customers that have split deployments of PC-based Microsoft Teams Rooms and Cisco Device Rooms. Many of these customers were previously using Cisco video devices but made a change to PC-based MTR devices when they moved to Microsoft Teams. Now that Cisco has delivered a full portfolio of MTR-Android devices powered by RoomOS, many of these customers are returning to Cisco. This gave us an opportunity to examine their experiences and some of their support challenges. We found that on average there were 5X-10X more support cases over a year for a multi-vendor “Frankenstein” room versus a recommended design Cisco Video room. This is not surprising when using a PC-based platform, with them almost always requiring multiple third-party products to function, to deliver a next-generation voice and video AI-enabled conference room.

When overcomplicating the room with additional third-party vendors, we see the cost of the room purchase, deployment, and support increase by up to 120% percent, creating a nightmare for IT deployment, support, and budgets. There are several challenges when setting up these rooms such as an inconsistent user experience, multiple vendors, complexity with deployment, management, and troubleshooting when issues arise. Deploying a room with multiple vendors makes a customer’s ability to self-support unlikely and will often require costly managed services from an AV integrator.

Cisco devices solve these challenges. Beyond the amazing user experience, Cisco device solutions have significant differentiators in comparison to those of our competition:

• Cisco Video Devices when deployed in Microsoft Teams Experience mode support native Microsoft and Webex Meetings
• World-class leading Interop with all meeting platforms including One Button to Join Google, Zoom, Microsoft, and of course Webex Meetings.
• Secure Linux-based RoomOS with Android (MTR-A) uniquely in a secure container
• All the power of RoomOS including our industry-leading Interoperability, groundbreaking audio and video AI, are available in Webex and Microsoft Teams meetings
• World-class manageability through Control Hub is available at no cost to our customers
• No need to deploy 3rd party solutions for always-on people count and environmental sensors
• Integration with Thousand Eyes (in RoomOS and Control Hub) for advanced management

For the large majority of your conference rooms, Cisco meets your requirements without additional complexity requiring 3rd party products. For those complex divisible rooms, auditoriums, and/or classrooms that require a more complex design, our products integrate with whatever additional solutions are needed to meet your requirements.

4 Tips for your conference room strategy

1. Don’t Duplicate Infrastructure:

• Environmental and occupancy sensors
• Wireless sharing devices
• 3rd party room booking solutions
• Digital Signage solutions
• Hot Desking Solution (and not just for video and rooms, but for voice and desks too)

These capabilities are all built into our Cisco video solutions.

2. Use 3rd party products ONLY when necessary:

• Third-party products add significant costs and create complexity for users and IT support
• Reconsider AV controllers if it is not a divisible room
• Even if you want to do advanced integrations with HVAC, lighting, and/or blinds, minimize 3rd party gear whenever possible
• Analog Microphones and the requisite DSP’s and Controllers often increase costs, while causing support problems in customer conference rooms
• Avoid purchasing external speakers in all but the largest of conference rooms. With the right video product and design, they aren’t needed.

3. Pay really close attention to out-of-control deployment, support, and managed service costs

• Multiple vendors can require expensive mandatory managed services
• Avoid custom programming in the vast majority of your rooms (over 80%)
• The majority of your video deployment should be self-supportable.

4. Don’t underestimate the value to your Facilities or Corporate Real Estate team:

• Always on people-count (delivered only by Cisco video devices) has a HUGE value to plan future buildings and remodels. With people-count, organizations have insight into exactly how employees are using conference rooms even when they aren’t in a video meeting.
• Environmental sensors can be integrated into your HVAC system, so when the air quality goes down during a meeting (this happens way more often than you think) we can automatically improve air circulation in the room. (See how the NY office used this during the recent fires.)
• Hot-desking solutions (covering desks, rooms, phones, and video devices) support the business requirement to move away from dedicated desks and spaces for individuals
• Control Hub offers a world-class management with workplace insights and analytics available in a single dashboard.
• Learn how we Cisco (and our customers) can have a massive impact on Hybrid Work. We increased employee utilization of Cisco offices and showcases by 300% while reducing power by 40% per square foot. Check out this video on our Penn Plaza office and how Cisco Spaces can help you digitize your real-estate strategy.

Don’t Waste Money on your Conference Rooms

Remember to think about how quickly the costs add up, the length of deployment, recurring costs management will incur, user experience, IT management, and other functionalities the team needs when revamping your conference room strategy. Be sure to pick a savvy Cisco partner or AV integrator that focuses on simple and recommended room designs. Ask your partner for typical room designs and a Bill of Materials for the different types of spaces you might need – huddle, small/medium, large conference rooms, etc. Finally, make sure to ask them how they will handle changes to software and additional costs you might have.

Register here to attend the “Simplify the Conference Room Webinar” with Chris Barwick, VP of Device GTM and Acceleration, on January 31st, where we will examine specific meeting room designs (the good and bad), customer stories, why to standardize on Cisco, and additional ways to avoid unnecessary complexity and costs!

We look forward to helping you implement your Hybrid Work strategy and providing the industry’s leading video and Collaboration solution for your employees.

More from Chris Barwick:

• Simplify the Conference Room Chaos [Webinar]
• Don’t Overengineer your Meeting Room
• If everything has changed, why hasn’t my office?