There have been studies commissioned on how prevalent technology in conference rooms are and studies many times often prove what is known by many conference room users. The technology that is inside of the room rarely satisfies the entire need for the meeting being held and often presents challenges that inhibits the intended use of that space.

• Maybe you just have a phone and gather around that as your meeting experience?
• Maybe you have a puck that gets put into the USB of a laptop that you bring to the meeting to have just an audio call?
• Maybe you have a fully capable conference room that has so much technology that starting the meeting takes almost as long as the meeting itself to figure out how the room works?

Regardless of the specific study that you would like to reference, they all indicate that only 10–20% of conference rooms are video enabled now and that is the reason why I wanted to post a few different articles addressing this.
 

At best 2 out of every 10 rooms are properly equipped for your employees to properly collaborate.

To this day, these numbers are still very low and not only manufacturers, but also platforms are trying to change that and are attempting to make video the new audio in expectation for what a conference room can supply in regard to technology. Let’s analyze the following slide and make some points about meetings.

1 University of Virginia. 2 US IW Survey, 2014. 3 BusinessWire, June 2015. 4 Microsoft Business Meetings Habits Practices Study, February 2018. 5 CSS Insight, August 2016
 

If 80% of your employee time is spent collaborating, but you don’t provide the proper technology in the meeting space for your employees to accomplish their tasks, you are not optimizing their ability to collaborate effectively.

If these numbers are correct and you will be having more remote workers by 2020 than ever before, then you will need more tools to engage that collaborative experience. It is proven that a video experience far exceeds that of an audio only experience when employees are collaborating and you can not only explain things, but you can see things as well.

THIS MEANS THERE IS A TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY, but what are the hurdles and why are the numbers still low?

One of the reasons that many rooms have not been video enabled in the past has been price. Integrating these rooms and purchasing all the different equipment that was needed presented those whom were in charge with the challenge of:

• Finding budget
• Evaluating different systems and worked and what didn’t.
• Difficult to train users how to use the system.

Well let’s address a few of these concerns and see what is the reality now.

BUDGET:

A typical room of the past might cost as little as $50k (US) and could go up to even 7 figured depending on how complicated and how much equipment was needed for that room Even these rooms have come down in price over time and as technology improves.

But the truth is, that you can outfit a room now for as little as $2000 (US) and fully video enable the room. Microsoft Teams Rooms (which are listed on the store here) are more affordable than ever and provide users that collaboration that they seek when using a meeting environment.

EVALUATING DIFFERENT SYSTEMS:

One of the great things about the Microsoft Teams Rooms is that they come as a package with everything that you need. From cameras to audio devices and even to the Crestron kits that provide every single cable that you need so you just unbox and configure and your systems are now a fully capable native collaboration device.

DIFFICULT TO USE:

I was presented by a C-Level employee that was new to my organization whom was so excited to tell me prior to coming to Crestron, his meeting life was difficult phone numbers with pin codes and now he enjoys going to a meeting room because Crestron has video enabled almost 95% of their meeting spaces and all of these spaces just present what is called “ONE TOUCH JOIN”. This means that when you invite the room, it has all the conference details already and you just simply touch that button and your employees are now in that designated meeting. NO CODES, NO PHONE NUMBER, NO COMPLICATED DIALING!
 

CONCLUSION:

If your organization is on its Microsoft Teams adoption path, there are compelling reasons to look at ALL of the spaces that your employees meet, train or just collaborate. Look into equipping these spaces with a Microsoft Teams Room system to further enhance collaboration. Shop at the Microsoft store or contact one of the Microsoft partners (like Crestron) and have them show you how these systems are transforming so many organizations into further assisting the collaboration journey.

This article is reposted here with the consent of the author.  The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, view, or opinion of Crestron Electronics, Inc., or of any of its employees.   Crestron Electronics is not responsible for, and does not verify the accuracy of, any of the information contained in this article. 

Author: Jimmy Vaughn
https://medium.com/@vaughanjamesr/what-is-in-your-conference-room-why-isnt-it-a-microsoft-teams-room-yet-c0242efd5a32