Succeeding at hybrid work through managed services in collaboration - Part 2

In Part 1 , I listed some trends, one of which was companies adopting hybrid work. In this part, I shall focus on managed solutions for enabling video in rooms and spaces in and around the office with an operating expenditure approach.

Organizations are increasingly asking people to come back to work. Some are nudging, some are making it mandatory officially with minimum days or hours in the office, some are making it mandatory via other measures (such as differentiated benefits). Multiple challenges exist but let’s examine a handful of important factors:

First, in any collaboration technology discussion there are four main stakeholders.

1. Cloud-service providers who provide a platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, etc).
2. Hardware vendors who work with these platforms providing room hardware, software and services.
3. Channel Partners/Systems Integrators/Audio-Video (AV) consultants who put together the overall solution for customers.
4. The customer

a. Technical (IT) or business decision makers (CIO, Facilities, Finance/Procurement, HR)

b. End-users (employees who use video technology to collaborate in meetings)

Technology adoption via Cloud and commoditization of hardware at the customer edge is forcing OEMs to look at new ways of differentiating themselves.

Second, the IT & Facilities decision-makers face an interesting set of challenges.

1. Existing collaboration hardware could be outdated based on changes that happened through the pandemic.
2. As hybrid work and return to work are still crystallizing for many companies, they do not exactly know what their real estate and IT investments are going to look like.
3. Even if there is a plan in place, return on investment (traditionally capital expenditure) is not assured since the expected utilization may not happen or change.
4. With increased pace of technological change, refresh cycles have come down. Today, most collaboration technology has a lifetime of 3-5 years.
5. With IT increasingly becoming part of business imperatives, understanding the changing employee workstyle landscape is a CIO’s dilemma. Technology management and operations in a changing workplace and workstyle landscape is becoming a challenge.
6. With so many new solution providers in the market, how do they select the correct one?

Third, related to the last point above, if an experienced industry veteran and a new entrant offer the same things to a customer, why should the customer choose the former? Services offer a very important value-add.

Services are very broad and can cover various things:

1. Design
2. Implementation
3. Post-sales maintenance & support
4. Managed Services
5. Other Professional Services

Fourth, expenditure models. Operating expenditure (opex) models are getting a lot of notice as customers look to budget on the go with a changing employee and workplace index around collaboration. Opex or subscription-based technology solutions are not new even in the technology or even in the collaboration market.

1. Printing solutions moved to subscriptions model some years ago (ink + paper supply being the consumables).
2. Many hardware technologies (datacenter servers, networking equipment, etc.) have been purchased under operating leases. This has been attempted even in the collaboration space.
3. Cloud-based solutions such as XaaS are inherently opex-based charging customers monthly/quarterly/yearly based on consumption with metered guidelines.
4. The telecom industry's solutions are wholly(?) opex-based.

What is new, is being able to get a mix of hardware, software, services (design, install, implement, monitor and optimize), reporting and financing, of not just one vendor’s products but multiple vendors’ products into what meets the customers’ business objective of video-enabling a meeting room or collaboration space. This offers a powerful new option for providers to differentiate themselves and for customers to make better choices. This ultimately refers to Managed Services in Collaboration, enabling a total meeting room solution irrespective of vendor or Cloud provider.

But what about the traditional third stakeholder – Channel Partner/System Integrator/AV Consultant? Let me set their minds at ease.

1. The managed solution being discussed is not a transactional one meant to eliminate the third stakeholder.
2. AV/Systems integrators play a vital role in the Collaboration ecosystem since several aspects of the solution need their expertise (e.g. room remediation, installation, break/fix, hands and feet for maintenance coverage, etc.)
3. A hardware provider may not be able to directly buy from another manufacturer. Systems integrator of various vendors/manufacturers are needed to render a complete end-to-end solution.
4. There are projects and requirements which are too big or diverse for even existing integrators to work on. These are typically good cases for OEMs to take the lead in.

To reiterate, this concept of Managed Services in Collaboration offers an exciting win-win scenario for:

1.?????? Customers:

·?????? Unifies multiple points of contact for solution and technology management.

·?????? Offers a competent technology partner as an end-to-end provider.

·?????? Simplifies the transactional process of purchases and contract renewals.

·?????? Eliminates multiple headaches around IT operations and managing technology refresh cycles.

·?????? Frees IT and business teams to focus more on transformational business.

·?????? Maintain and improve employee productivity by adopting best-in-class Collaboration solutions that are easy to use and trouble-free.

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2.?????? Providers:

·?????? Increases wallet share from a customer.

·?????? Elevates a potentially transactional relationship to a loyal partnership with a repeatable business gain.

·?????? Provides a platform to offer true differentiation in a crowded marketplace.

Truly, a win-win solution! Do reach out to understand how we at HP can help you in this transformational journey!