The business sector has seen tremendous change over the past two years. Where some industries are downsizing their overhead costs with more remote employment, others are expanding to newer locations. No matter your company’s strategic goals, a corporate relocation entails careful planning and execution.

One of the biggest aspects of a corporate relocation is how to address your current AV technology needs given your new space. Moving to a new office is the perfect time to reinvigorate your space while offering employees necessary upgrades to enhance productivity. If a corporate relocation is in your company’s future, here are a few things you can do to prepare your AV tech to run as smoothly as possible.

• 1. Survey Your Staff
  • Before choosing new systems, always ask your staff their opinions on the current AV technology and solutions your company uses. Are there any “must-haves” that should follow to the new location? How about any weaknesses that could be filled with new and improved equipment? Asking your staff will ensure your organization is prepared while also building trust among your team that their input is valid and heard. Once you have an understanding of the needs of your staff, you can begin to create a strategy that benefits collaboration.
• 2. Understand the New Space
  • New offices require new AV design and equipment. While balancing the needs of your employees and your company, it’s important to have a full understanding of the new space. Consider things like window placement, office circulation, and the size of the team that will occupy the space. All of these considerations will have implications on the types and designs of AV technology you will need. For example, where will be the best place for a remote-meeting room? Or how much space will you delegate to a virtual training room? Assessing your needs against the space you have to work with will aid in your strategic planning, resulting in more efficient uses of your time and monetary resources.
• 3. Plan for the Future
  • While it may be easy to get caught up in the “here-and-now” of your corporate relocation, it’s equally important to keep an eye on what’s soon to come. For example, are there any big initiatives you can see launching in the next few years? Investing in upgraded AV technology now could save you the time and hassle of future renovations.

Corporate relocation is an exciting time for any business. It’s an opportunity to assess the old and the new while breathing new life into your organization. Between balancing in-person and remote teams, you have enough on your plate! Let an innovative partner like IVCi spearhead your new location’s AV technology.

From digital signage and wayfinding systems to electronic room scheduling displays, IVCi offers advanced collaboration tools that ensure sustainable and truly connected, remote teams. To learn more about our products and solutions, contact us today!

One positive we have all discovered over the last few years is that we have digital capabilities at our disposal that can allow us to collaborate more than ever before. But with these enhanced collaboration tools comes more risk of technology failure, haphazard strategy, and potential cyberattacks.

As universities incorporate more hybrid or fully-remote positions, administrators must assess their collaboration tools and long-term procedures to ensure their remote employees are safe. Not sure where to begin? Here are a few simple steps to help get your college or university on a successful path to safe and secure remote work.

Step 1: Develop a Strategy

When universities suddenly went remote at the beginning of the pandemic, many schools did not have proper plans in place to address such a crisis. While we have learned a great deal in these two years, one certain lesson is that you can never be too prepared. If not already created, universities should develop a crisis management plan to detail each department’s role in the event of an emergency that causes extended periods of remote work. The plan should address certain expectations, guidelines, and procedures to ensure that if/when the time comes, everyone is ready to take action. The time you invest in developing a strategic plan will make for a smooth deployment and ease stress for faculty and students. A crisis should not compromise learning and growth. With a proper strategy in place, universities can minimize interruptions in the classroom.

Step 2: Improve Security Measures

After a deployment strategy is in place, universities should also consider improving security measures across the remote platforms they use. With more and more staff and faculty members working from home, that means more internet connections logging into university systems. This increase can mean the risk of potential hackers gaining access to sensitive files also increases. Assessing your university’s cybersecurity will help keep faculty, staff, and students safe. Not to mention, enhanced security measures will protect the university’s brand image from any public relations nightmares involved in cyberattacks.

Step 3: Modernize Remote Technology

As the demand for remote work continues to climb, universities will need to utilize systems with larger bandwidth and more advanced equipment. Universities must incorporate technology into their long-term security plans, from internet servers to file management software. Technology must withstand large numbers of students and faculty working from home. Modernized video conferencing allows instructors to provide students with more in-depth, interactive learning in a safe environment.

Planning for remote work takes careful considerations into strategy, security, and technology within higher education. But it’s vital to ensure that staff members feel safe and university systems are running smoothly.

Let IVCi know how we can help your university plan for the unexpected. We offer modern collaboration tools and strategic solutions for the next generation of inspired learning.

Spring is starting to bloom! And with the new season comes everyone’s favorite (or least favorite) chore: Spring Cleaning. So, as we dust off our homes and workspaces to invite a breath of fresh air, let’s also consider bringing new life into our business’s AV technology.

Here are a few simple steps we can all take to clean, declutter, organize, and upgrade our workspaces to ensure our technology is running with optimum efficiency.

Put in Some Elbow Grease

Whether you’re working in the office or remotely, it can be easy to let our computers, laptops, and other work equipment get a little on the dusty side. But, when dust collects in our technology, it can affect everything from keyboards to laptop fans and even microphone quality. Not to mention, if not properly sanitized, frequently used surfaces can harbor harmful bacteria that can make you and your coworkers sick.

Make the most of the time and money you invested into your business’s AV technology by scheduling regular cleaning, sanitizing, and maintenance of your work equipment. Also, be sure to read your device’s cleaning manuals for proper instruction. Don’t have the manuals handy? No problem! Reach out to us and we can help give you tips on the best (and safest) ways to clean your AV equipment, so it’s always running smoothly.

Declutter Your Workstation

Is your desk starting to look like a scene from a horror film? Or maybe the wires behind/underneath your desk looks more like an animal’s nest? Unfortunately, it’s common to set up your workspace and get into a routine where those organizational issues aren’t as big of a priority as the work itself and thus get placed on the backburner. But when desks are disorganized, or cables are tangled, the chaos can be more of a distraction, leading to lower productivity, distorted images on screens, unexpected dimness or static, and unbalanced volume controls.

Taking time to declutter your work and tech spaces can give you a fresh slate each day so you can jump right into the work without having to worry if your stack of papers is going to tumble off your desk. Additionally, by untangling and grouping the wires that power your devices, you are eliminating stress on the cables that impact the quality of your audio and visual components. The result is a more seamless, collaborative space for your teammates and clients to thrive.

Organize Your Files

Sometimes spring cleaning is more than just sanitizing equipment and decluttering your workspace. It’s also an assessment of systems and programs. It’s best practice to regularly review files and programs that power your systems and operations. We’ve all experienced the chaos of trying to find the correct folder to save a document or searching endlessly to find a folder you know was just there.

Save you and your team from the added stress of searching by scheduling time each month to review your files. If your organization manages files by department, give each department lead the opportunity to scan through their folders, delete unnecessary files, and regroup essential documents. Then, come together as a team to strategize the best way to work together to ensure proper folder maintenance.

Upgrade Your Technology

Tech companies engineer newer and more updated equipment every year. With each upgrade comes new systems and better ways to serve your clients and customers. Touchless meeting controls, wireless screen sharing, digital signage for guidance and alerts, and digital office navigation can all be used to give your office space a much-needed digital makeover. Your employees and clients will thank you!

Choose the Right AV Partner

Maintaining your AV technology can be an effortless task, especially with a partner like us. IVCi can provide custom equipment that is easy to install, use, and manage. Plus, with our expert assistance every step of the way, spring cleaning can go from being a chore to being something to look forward to every year! Contact us today to see how your AV technology can be ready for the new season ahead.

Between informational messages, public service announcements, and general communications, healthcare practitioners and consumers are often bombarded with an information overload. For example, an individual could walk into nearly any healthcare facility and be met immediately with various posters, directional signs, or other media pulling their attention in multiple ways.

But how do we navigate various attention-competing elements clearly and crisply in a way that guides the user experience? Video walls can be a practical and cost-effective solution.

Using video walls in healthcare facilities allows:

• Visitors to more directly engage with necessary information
• Practitioners to demonstrate complex material in a more straightforward way
• Administrators to update facility information in a more convenient and pleasing manner
• Facilities to reduce the amount of paper/print costs

Whether you’re a patient or a visitor, a trip to a healthcare facility can be met with much unease and anxiety. Navigating the facility, finding the right contacts, and searching for important information can be overwhelming. A new or upgraded video wall in entryways, visitor centers, or information kiosks can help direct visitors more quickly to where they need to go. The walls can also educate visitors and patients about important medical reminders or promotions regarding new technology or services offered by the healthcare facility.

Not only can video walls assist guests, but medical practitioners can use video walls to enhance the overall patient experience. Video walls can allow practitioners to communicate more effectively with a broad audience. Improved AV technology is also an incredible way to market to young adults of the digital age, a growing population of young people entering the world of occupations and healthcare choices. Video walls can also help clinicians demonstrate complex medical phenomena to patients tangibly and more engagingly than traditional paper.

For healthcare administration, video walls can vastly improve traffic flow within a medical facility. Incorporating video walls can create more time for administrators and managers of facilities to focus on their organizational missions. Additionally, video walls offer enhanced platforms for emphasizing donor news, highlighting the facility’s history, or shining a light on community initiatives.

Finally, while video walls provide more flexibility, time, and freedom, they also offer an incredible investment value. Video halls hold the potential to broadcast multiple forms of media in a rapidly changing environment. The ability to quickly shift the messages displayed on the video walls allows healthcare facilities to save more on the bottom line as marketing and promotional materials will reduce or eliminate the paper and printing costs associated with updating physical signage. In addition, facilities can display images and videos quickly and efficiently to remain up-to-date, relevant, and visually appealing.

Video walls are quickly becoming a practical and cost-effective audio and visual solution for healthcare facilities of all sizes. Large-scale adoption is not a question of if, but when. If you’d like to explore product options, installation, and strategy, set up a meeting with IVCi to discuss your needs!

Whether you are in healthcare, higher education, government, or finance, you and your teammates deserve a hassle-free way to meet regardless of your industry. When the stress of AV technology is taken care of, your team has more time to create and discuss what matters most: driving your mission and purpose.

Effective AV utilization starts with thoughtful, strategic planning. Assessing your organization’s needs is critical, especially amid rapid change. So, how exactly can you plan for the unexpected?

Step One: Don’t Panic

Developing AV Strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Starting the process can be as easy as making a one-sentence goal listing what you hope to achieve. Then, go from there! Develop a realistic plan to help give you and your team a clear vision of where you are and where you want to go.

Step Two: Evaluate the Basics

Once you’ve established your ideal vision and goal, assess where you currently are. It can be as easy as making a quick 5-minute list of the essentials: what basics do you need to complete your work efficiently and effectively? Establishing your needs against your organization’s capacity will help provide incredible insights into the type of tools and equipment that will best serve your collaborative space.

Step Three: Get Creative

Now that you’ve created a list of the basics you need, make a shortlist of what you wish you had. This wish list could be material: specific AV equipment you wish to integrate into your organization. Or it could be operational or strategic: what kinds of organizational practices would you like to implement? This step might take some additional thought and time, but putting effort into creating your “ideal” workflow will help you and your teammates address any current issues and will lay the framework for solid team expectations.

Step Four: Gather Feedback

While working in a team of many parts, gathering feedback regarding user operations is critical. Each team member experiences a unique user journey, possessing intimate knowledge about which practices and procedures work best for them and their teammates. Asking for their advice and opinion not only helps you assess your overall organizational needs, but also gives your team a sense of ownership. When they are involved in reinvigorating their own audio and visual experience, they become more invested in the company journey. Their voices are critical to a holistic strategic plan.

It cannot be stated enough—strategy does not have to be complicated. It can be as big or small as you need and customized to fit your specific goals. A few simple steps can put you and your organization on a path toward success.

But, if this still seems like a lot to digest, see Step One: Don’t Panic. Or… reach out to IVCi. We are an industry-leading AV company providing innovative solutions that help you see your ideal vision come to life. To set up a strategy session, contact us today!