All businesses now incorporate an AV backbone to support their day to day functioning. Whether it be collaboration, network, hardware, or even security; AV integrations have permeated every level of our infrastructure.

When considering Business Communications especially, the role of AV integrations becomes paramount. It can easily be said that, behind every successful business, lies an effective communications infrastructure. Communications can be between the organisation and their employees, customers, vendors etc. Ensuring the quality of such communication is key to good business health. So now that we understand how important AV is to communication, we can then ask is there any room for improvement?

Let us consider the following on the journey to improve our Business Communication Systems:

1) Evaluate and Identify any gaps in the current infrastructure

Before we can even address any improvements, it is of absolute importance to analyse the current communications framework of your organisation. We need to identify how each employee fits in the scheme of things, what functions does he need to fulfil? What tools does he have at his disposal? Is there a gap that needs to be addressed? The needs of e.g. a technical engineer may be different to a that of a customer care specialist. The former may require remote network access and collaboration for project planning and the latter a telephony platform to communicate with the customer. Identifying gaps in needs/access can yield powerful insights and guide the organisation in leveraging the correct tools to the employees and give direction as to what needs to be addressed in future. A one size fits all solution would not be optimal and would create a waste in resources.

2) Employee Experience

Let us assume that following on from the previous point, we have identified and provisioned the tools required by an employee. Now we need to ask, is the employee in question using the said tools to maximum benefit? Are the employees adopting the tools or sticking to a legacy product?Is there any training required? Continuous and/or periodic feedback from employees is animportant aspect of maintain employee satisfaction. A positive employee experience will in turn, improve productivity and ultimately generate profit for your organisation.

3) Keeping up with the latest

It is imperative to keep updated with regards to new technology that is available. Can this new technology address any pain points? Make communication easier? With the evolving workforce now adopting a hybrid approach, we are presented with a unique challenge which requires utmost flexibility without compromising on quality. For e.g. one of the emerging trends for business communications is the introduction of Communications as a Platform (CPaaS), where all communications (telephony, messaging, conferencing, collaboration etc.) would be incorporated in a single platform. This would make the entirety of the organisation communications easier to manage and secure.

4) Workplace transformation

As the workforce nowadays is evolving to a hybrid environ, we have to reconsider the existing workspace configuration. Perhaps there are areas that need to be better adapted to support fluid communications. For example as we have more and more remote participants as part of our meetings, we can perhaps upgrade our collaboration devices to ensure smoother ideation and inclusivity

5) Organization Intranet

All organisations, whether small or large, have information or data that they wish to share across all employees e.g. Code of Conduct, Processes for Filing a complaint to HR, etc., It used to be that companies would share individual documents to employees, however these could be easily lost and cumbersome to go through. The communication of such information is vital and should be easily accessible. Intranet Systems are an tool to achieve this. Now, by placing one copy on an intranet page and setting permissions to control who can see it, a company can share allrelevant information instantly. Not to mention, how easy it to amend any changes in policy and convey the same across the organisation. An organization can also control access to this information by customizing the central portal to their individual needs. They can also share it with both internal and external workers.Some of the common examples of intranet platforms are SharePoint, Workplace by Facebook and Slack.

6) Security

With an increase in remote workers and therefore network complexity and the ever evolving malware/attacks, we can expect an increase in the vulnerability of the organisation networks. In order to overcome this difficulty we must amp up the security infrastructure. This will ensure that any and all communications are protected and secure.
Now that we have discussed how to improve Business Communications, let us further expand this andconsider the AV infrastructure. We must absolutely update the supporting AV infrastructure. We need to consider improving the same so that, should we deploy any new technologies, our existing infrastructure should not be under distress. For example, in order to fully support any such deployment we may need to consider laying advanced cabling systems.
In order to facilitate a better a meeting experience we should use advanced / latest cameras, screens, mics, and speakers. We can promote ideation through the introduction and integration of interactive displays. We can further analyse meeting rooms and treat them so as to reduce echo, background noise, reflective surfaces, etc., in order to further enhance the conference experience. Whether supporting interop between video conferencing platforms, Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc. or theintegration across the audio and video vendors such as Shure, Biamp, Samsung, Sony, etc. Supporting either single vendor or multivendor setups must also be considered.
We can introduce smart features such as intelligent lighting, to automate the lighting for any given space. We can also program the same to disengage should no one be in the room, thus saving our organisation on electricity bills and better enforcing green practices.
We can also introduce the latest displays in order to share notifications and information. We can sync these displays and would then be able to communicate, both visually and audibly, with a large number of people more effectively.
All these measures when employed can result in the overall improvement of Business Communications thus benefitting the organisation greatly. The process however does not end here. As shown before, when considering AV integration for Business Communication, this is a multi-faceted and complex challenge. It is ever changing as newer technologies are introduced. Business is never static and newer challenges are always on the horizon, but so too are the tools to overcome them.

Why us?

Ever since its establishment in 2002, our company, Telecraft eSolutions Pvt. Ltd. has been transforming the industry of AV system integration and networking with innovative solutions. Partnering and working closely with some of the biggest names in the IT industry, we have proven ourselves in diverse verticals including FMCG, hospitality, entertainment, and infrastructure. With Cisco’s partnership, Webex offers integrated plans on a single bill. Now available in the US and rolling out globally, these plans offer several benefits for the best virtual collaboration experiences.

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