Bijles voor de CIO: Integreer AV en IT

Voortschrijdende technologie en werkconcepten eisen een nieuwe strategische aanpak van de CIO

Als organisaties op dezelfde wijze kijken naar innovatie in de Audio en Video omgeving (AV) en het net zo gestructureerd beheren als ze het binnen het veld van de IT doen, dan kan communicatie omgezet worden in effectieve communicatie. En dat tegen lagere kosten en hogere beschikbaarheid. Als de AV omgeving nu ook nog geïntegreerd wordt met IT omgeving kan de gehele informatie- en communicatie cyclus strategisch ingezet worden. De CIO zal hier een cruciale rol moeten gaan spelen en is de katalysator in het integratieproces.

Voortschrijdende technologie
Nog geen 15 jaar geleden waren printers en scanners het domein van de IT afdeling. Faxen en kopieerapparaten behoorden echter tot het domein van de afdeling facilitaire zaken. Elke afdeling was verantwoordelijk voor de aanschaf en beheer van hun eigen apparatuur. Met de komst van een Multi Function, een apparaat dat zowel kan printen, scannen, kopiëren als faxen, rezen nieuwe vraagstukken rond de aanschaf en beheer van deze apparaten. Wie bepaalt nu welk apparaat onder welke voorwaarden aangeschaft wordt, wie is verantwoordelijk voor het beheer?

Inmiddels is het 2008 en gaat de integratie steeds verder. De grenzen vervagen tussen de traditionele IT en AV hulpmiddelen. Dit illustreren we graag nog even aan de hand van onderstaande voorbeelden.

• Projectoren hebben tegenwoordig een netwerk aansluiting en men kan direct via de projector de data benaderen in plaats van het koppelen van een laptop aan de projector,
• Systemen om vergaderzalen te reserveren zijn gekoppeld aan een centraal agenda systeem (bijvoorbeeld Microsoft Exchange),
• Datanetwerken worden ook gebruikt voor video en spraak, videoconferencing kan nu ook op basis van IT technologie (bijvoorbeeld live communication server) of in ieder geval geïntegreerd worden met de IT gebaseerde oplossingen,
• Multitouch schermen; op dit moment staat deze technologie nog wat in de kinderschoenen maar het is sterk in ontwikkeling en opkomst. Deze technologie zal het interacteren met informatie een nieuwe wending geven (van statisch naar dynamisch en interactief). Dit gaat voor bedrijven ongekende mogelijkheden bieden om met informatie om te gaan

Deze steeds verdergaande integratie roept vragen op zoals:

• Wie gaat dit beheren en hoe kan dit het beste beheerd worden
• Hoe zit het met security en wie is daar verantwoordelijk voor
• Welke technologie moet waar ingezet worden
• Hoe past de gekozen technologie in de technologische architectuur
• Hoe willen we binnen de organisatie met deze technologie werken
  

Werkconcepten
Buiten deze technologische integratie tussen AV en IT componenten zijn ook werkconcepten binnen organisaties aan het veranderen waardoor andere eisen aan het gebruik van zowel IT als AV gesteld worden. De fysieke wereld is aan het virtualiseren, zowel klanten, leveranciers als medewerkers beschikken over meer informatie en werken steeds vaker op andere manieren samen en niet meer volgens de traditionele concepten. De nieuwe manier van werken waarbij het kantoor meer als ontmoetingsplek wordt ingericht terwijl een groot deel van het inhoudelijke werk overal plaats kan vinden (onderweg, thuis of bij klanten) vereist een moderne wijze van informatiedistributie.

Digital signage, de traditionele wijze van informatie verstrekken, wordt minder zinvol als een groot deel van de medewerkers zich op een andere locatie bevindt. Zij krijgen deze informatie dan immers niet. Door het toegenomen aanbod aan informatie en de snelheid waarmee deze verandert, wordt het dus steeds belangrijker de juiste informatie op de juiste wijze aan te bieden, zowel ten aanzien van de vorm van de informatie alsook de tijd en het medium. Dit aanbieden van informatie gaat veel verder dan een website of de eerder genoemde traditionele digital signage oplossingen. Het behelst ook zaken als vidcasts, podcasts, blogs, streaming media, besteltools, vooraard info etc

Visie: een gecoördineerde IT/AV strategie
Om als organisatie op de huidige veranderingen in te spelen, is een gecoördineerde IT en AV strategie gewenst. Geredeneerd vanuit de totale behoefte en op basis daarvan worden de juiste IT en AV componenten gekozen. Technologie is hierbij een katalysator. Deze worden vervolgens aan elkaar geknoopt in een geïntegreerd netwerk welke ook als zodanig beheerd wordt, dus conform methodieken als ITIL en de daarbij behorende tools.

Tevens zorgt dit voor nieuwe mogelijkheden die beter aansluiten bij de behoefte zoals:

• Digital signage waarbij content niet slechts naar schermen in het bedrijfspand gestuurd wordt maar ook naar screensavers/tickertapes/gadgets (widgets) of mobiele telefoons van medewerkers op een andere locatie zodat iedereen de informatie krijgt,
• Interactieve verwerking en vertoning van live data uit IT systemen,
• Het ondersteunen van alle apparatuur in een ruimte door 1 afdeling, dus niet slechts IT of AV apparatuur. Hierbij kan de helpdesk ondersteuning geven op de totale omgeving in plaats van op losse onderdelen,
• Werken in virtuele omgevingen gekoppeld aan de fysieke omgeving waarbij content uit de fysieke omgeving via internet gedeeld wordt met de virtuele omgeving,
• Leeromgevingen gebaseerd op games en simulaties waarbij het IT platform gekoppeld wordt aan AV technologieën voor de weergave en beleving.
  

De rol van de CIO
Vanuit het bovenstaande wordt het duidelijk dat door de convergentie tussen IT en AV de afdeling facilities veel nadrukkelijker moet samenwerken met de afdeling IT. De CIO zal niet alleen meer kijken naar de IT omgeving maar zal ook een prominente rol gaan spelen in de audiovisuele planning en de aanschaf van de AV hulpmiddelen. Een goede CIO zal dit niet doen vanuit 2 verschillende rollen maar vanuit een geïntegreerde strategie waarin AV en IT elkaar versterken in het ondersteunen van de behoefte in de organisatie. Centraal beheer van de geïntegreerde omgeving zal in deze strategie een prominente plaats gaan innemen naast het leveren van de gewenste functionaliteit.

Economies of scope
De voordelen hiervan zijn helder. Door op een andere wijze te kijken naar IT en AV en deze te integreren vanuit innovatie in plaats van te kiezen op basis van traditionele oplossingen komen er totaal nieuwe mogelijkheden beschikbaar voor een organisatie. De organisatie krijgt meer mogelijkheden om informatie efficiënt en effectief te distribueren tegen veelal lagere beheerkosten. Ook maakt dit totaal nieuwe manieren van samenwerken mogelijk die beter passen bij de trends in de huidige organisatiestructuren en werkstijlen. De medewerkers binnen een organisatie krijgen toegang tot nieuwe mogelijkheden om te werken en hun werkstijl beter te integreren in hun leven (door de nieuwe mogelijkheden op het gebied van samenwerking wordt het eenvoudiger te werken buiten kantoor en dus ruimte te maken om bijvoorbeeld kinderen naar school te brengen en pas na de files de weg op te gaan). Tevens is er voor de medewerker een duidelijkere supportstructuur. Dit is 1 loket voor alle IT en AV vragen zodat je als medewerker niet meer hoeft te denken waar het incident onder valt. In een geïntegreerde omgeving zal dit steeds belangrijker worden. Deze support zal tevens gebaseerd zijn op Service Level Agreements (men weet dus waar men aan toe is). Tenslotte zal de beheer organisatie zal bij een geïntegreerde omgeving een eenvoudigere en makkelijker te beheren omgeving hebben. Zij kunnen immers vanuit dezelfde tools en processen zowel de IT als de AV componenten monitoren en managen (niet slechts reactief maar ook proactief). Dit zal met name voor het AV deel van de infrastructuur leiden tot een verhoogde beschikbaarheid .

The Facility Technologist: A Call For Change

I was just reading a nice blog post/article from Tom Condon, RPA, FMA which has been published in the March 2009 issue of Today's Facility Manager. In a minute I will just lazy copy and paste the article (original can be found here) but before I do I like to point out that this is a great example why some technical parts (AV, security cameras etc) should be managed by IT. Tom sais Facility managers in general are not part of the building process early enough and this might be a fair comment but even if they are, are they capable of making the right decisions about stuff that needs to be on the IP network and that should talk to other components (eg the room reservation system that talks with the mail application (mostly MS Exchange), Camera's that should broadcast and be web viewable over the IP network (do they get the proper bandwidth to generate useable images/video streams) etc). So this might be a great call to involve the facility manager early in the process but to me it is even a bigger call to hand over stuff to IT (and have them early in the process as well). Then you have one single IP network with everything not just connected but also remote manageable and having the appropriate amount of bandwidth

Ok, here is the article (with is links at the end) with some highlights I put in there

All facility managers (fms) want technology in their buildings. Whether it’s in a small office buildout or a large skyscraper, technology is an increasingly critical tool for achieving the levels of performance that occupants now demand.

There are so many great technologies out there to help fms achieve their visions for the 21st century. And yet, the same fms who are technology enthusiasts are so often stymied by limitations that they inherited from the design and construction of their facilities. They would like to employ the most advanced technology, but find they are limited by what they have inherited. Consider the following examples:

One fm had a brand new facility and wanted to get Web access to her video surveillance cameras so she could view cameras from home at night and weekends—a great way to stay on top of what is happening. But she found that the video system in her brand new facility was analog only, and she’d have to replace the DVRs to get Web access, which was too costly to justify. The sad part? Web enabled DVRs would have cost only slightly more than the equipment that was installed. Unfortunately, the designer saw only the cost, not the extra functionality, and opted for the lowest cost option.

Another fm wanted to incorporate additional IP cameras to a digital video system, only to find there was not enough capacity on the security IP network. Ironically, a completely separate IP network was installed for the building automation system, but neither the security nor HVAC designers knew it. The combined capacity of the two networks was more than sufficient for what the fm wanted to do, but individually, they were too small. The end result was a costly replacement of switches on the security network, and the overall cost of the two networks was far more than what a single, efficient system would have been.

This scenario replays itself over and over again. But why are there so many disconnects between the technology needs of fms and the design of their facilities? One problem is that the fm is often not involved in the design until it is finished, and the building or buildout is already underway.

Sometimes the fm is not even involved until move in. This is a big mistake, as it assumes there is only one way to manage a facility. This approach fails to consider the fact that organizations are all different, and each one has special needs and uses for technology.In 21st century facility design, the fm should be involved as early as possible in the design of systems and the selection of products. No one will know which functionalities and attributes systems should have better than the fm.

Another big impediment to the implementation of facility technology is that the structure and process of traditional building design and construction has not kept pace with the evolution of technologies. In the traditional development process, an owner employs a team with an architect, engineers, and other designers, and the project is divided up among them. Each has a task that is viewed as distinct, with no need for each to work closely with the other designers. There is coordination at a macro level, where each individual design is incorporated in the overall design, but the individual designs are considered separate and distinct, and there is usually little collaboration.

This process has evolved over the last 100 years and reflects the 20th century paradigm in which each facility technology used its own individual hardware, cabling, and power. These systems never interacted in any way, and they operated on incompatible platforms, so there was no need for designers to work together. This is now an obsolete approach to designing a modern facility and the technologies that serve it.Today, facility technologies often use common hardware and cabling.

For example, access control, digital video, HVAC controls, and visitor management can all operate on the same IP network and can all share the same hardware using a virtualized server design. (Right now, I am sitting in a facility where VoIP, HVAC controls, access control, and digital video all reside on a single IP network that cost less than if these systems used their own individual infrastructures.) Not only can this approach cost significantly less than if each of these systems used its own cabling and individual servers, it is also easier to manage and secure a single system.

But it is impossible to create a comprehensive facility technology design with the fractured and disjointed approach that is now considered the standard. In a facility that seeks to employ cutting-edge technologies, there needs to be a single point of contact for the overall design. The technology designer (TD) advises consultants on which systems to select, the design of the building network and data center, and the ways that building systems will interact with each other in the completed building.

This person must be knowledgeable in all of the different technologies—and their latest advances—used in modern facilities. Just as important, the TD must also be able to understand the different perspectives of the traditional groups that are involved in design, construction, and management: operations (including facility and property management), security, IT, and A/E/C. This ability is referred to as being “quad lingual” in and around tech circles, and it is one of the key factors in the success or failure of complex facility technology projects.Here is an example of how this works. Right now, my firm is working on a one million square foot building. The owners wanted to ensure they would have the most advanced facility technologies, so they tapped us to make their wish list a reality. This is an insurance policy against the fate that so many facilities suffer, finding that they are constrained by technology limitations based solely on the use of an outdated design paradigm.

Changing the design process is not easy, and adding a TD to the team may be a stretch for more traditional professionals accustomed to doing things the 20th century way. But they will need to adapt to this new approach eventually; better to do it now and become an early adopter, rather than doing it later and becoming a casualty of advancing technology.

Condon, a Facility Technologist and former facility manager, is a contributing author for BOMI Institute’s revised Technologies in Facility Management textbook. He works for System Development Integration, a Chicago, IL-based firm committed to improving the performance, quality, and reliability of client business through technology.

Past Facility Technologist columns can be found here. To chat about this topic and others in real time, visit FacilityBlog.

A great new development in standardizing interconnection between AV devices

Hooking up

If there’s one safe bet in AV, it’s that the number of connection technologies will continue to increase.

One newcomer is Digital Interactive Interface for AV (DiiVA), which uses standard Cat6 cabling to link displays with sources such as DVD players, set-top boxes and the Internet.DiiVA (www.diiva.org) features four differential pairs. The first three can handle up to 4.5 Gbit/s each, enough to support uncompressed 1080p at 60 frames per second or Quad HD. The fourth pair can send more than 2 Gbit/s in one direction at the same time it’s receiving at the same rate.

That data channel can be used for tasks such as carrying Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and command/control information.DiiVA also enables systems where iPhone-like icons appear on a display. Instead of fumbling for remotes to control different sources, such as DVD players, satellite set-top boxes and PCs, users would select the icon – such as the BBC or YouTube – representing the source they want to switch to.

That set-up also would allow users to watch all video on their TV, instead of going to a PC or the room where the DVD player is.“We want to develop a new, multimedia networking standard make TVs the centre of home network environment,” says Steve Yum, senior director of product planning at Synerchip, one of the companies backing DiiVA.

DiiVA initially will be aimed at the consumer market, including home AV networks. But if it builds a following there, it’s likely to expand into the pro market, just as predecessors such as HDMI did.In the pro space, DiiVA could be used for applications such as bars. For example, a bartender could use DiiVA’s GUI to switch a display from a football game, delivered via the satellite set-top box, to YouTube videos, delivered via a PC.

Let's now hope they add native snmp support and standards to this and they are not just easy to connect and control but also easy to manage, specially when it comes to the pro market. Then big savings can be made using a standard CAT6 nework with a standard management environment while reducing installation complexity (I hope)

I guess the home AV network here will look totally different in 5 to 10 years from now

The crucial role of ICT and AV within organizations

The role of ICT and AV within organizations


Communicating is a crucial element in the process of working and learning. This implies in a clear way that all facilities enabling communication need to function extremely well. Communication is already pretty difficult so anything to avoid miscommunication can make a big difference. ICT and AV (Audiovisual) systems support the communication process and enable groups of individuals working together to make better and/or faster decisions. This can generate a competitive advantage which again shows the value of ICT and AV systems in this era


When looking at the current global economic situation it is important to get most out of your ICT and AV environment against the lowest possible costs for that level of quality required. Lowering the costs too much might undermine a smooth operation and can compromise the minimum level of quality needed.

Although ICT budgets are under pressure as well there is no doubt about the importance of the CIO within an enterprise environment. According to Forrester Research the CIO’s key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. The five metrics that meet the criteria for relevance and impact are

• Investment alignment to business strategy,
• Business value of IT investments,
• IT budget balance,
• Service level excellence,
• Operational excellence.
  

These five metrics should form the core of an ICT performance scorecard and in order to perform well on all items on the scorecard the CIO should understand the business needs and deliver on this with well managed services (and costs).

However, when looking at the AV environment within an organization it appears that this is perceived and valued totally different. Often there is no strong alignment with the business strategies nor an AV performance scorecard and the responsibilities for managing the operational and service level excellence is much lower on the ladder. Pretty often this is just a contract management role where knowledge of the AV concepts doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite. This in general leads to an ad-hoc approach instead of a well structured AV performance scorecard approach

Structures to support

When looking at AV as stated earlier support is often done by the AV supplier and is reactive in nature while IT support is often organized according to the best practices as described within the ITIL framework where we can use the ITIL v3 core volumes

• Service Strategy focuses on the identification of market opportunities for which services could be developed in order to meet a requirement on the part of internal or external customers. The output is a strategy for the design, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of the service as an organizational capability and a strategic asset. Key areas of this volume are Service Portfolio Management and Financial Management.


• Service Design focuses on the activities that take place in order to develop the strategy into a design document which addresses all aspects of the proposed service, as well as the processes intended to support it. Key areas of this volume are Availability Management, Capacity Management, Continuity Management and Security Management.


• Service Transition focuses on the implementation of the output of the service design activities and the creation of a production service or modification of an existing service. There is an area of overlap between Service Transition and Service Operation. Key areas of this volume are Change Management, Release Management, Configuration Management and Service Knowledge Management.


• Service Operation focuses on the activities required to operate the services and maintain their functionality as defined in the Service Level Agreements with the customers. Key areas of this volume are Incident Management, Problem Management and Request Fulfillment. A new process added to this area is Event Management, which is concerned with normal and exception condition events. Events have been defined into three categories:
  o Informational events, which are logged
  o Warning events, also called alerts, where an event exceeds a specified threshold
  o Critical events, which typically will lead to the generation of Incidents


• Continual Service Improvement focuses on the ability to deliver continual improvement to the quality of the services that the ICT organization delivers to the business. Key areas of this volume are Service Reporting, Service Measurement and Service Level Management
  

In general these core volumes can be applied to the management of an AV infrastructure as well and this would lead to lower support costs while having an AV infrastructure that fits the needs better and operates more stable due to the pro-active nature of the ITIL processes. Within AV support some of these processes are there already (but not always as mature as within the ICT domain) but other in general are absent like incident management or life cycle management. This would strongly plead for using the ITIL best practices in AV management as well (and possibly even using the same set of management tools where possible since the IT department may already have e.g. an incident management registration tool).

Blending both worlds even further.

When looking at the services both parties provide we used to have some clear distinction. For example the IT department delivered services like messaging and collaboration or network connectivity (wired, wireless and mobile) while from an AV point of view services like (video)conferencing or presentation/meeting rooms were offered.

When looking at the convergence that is taking place right now we see transitions where projectors get network connected, traditional (video)conferencing/telepresence systems integrating with webcams and meeting room reservation systems being available from the IT messaging system.

As a result the boundaries between the services delivered by the IT department and AV management are getting fuzzy. When looking at the ICT messaging and collaboration service this in general includes platforms like exchange, Office Communication Server and Sharepoint.
Traditionally meeting room reservation systems are managed by the AV team, as well as (video)conferencing or digital signage/narrow casting.

With all convergence going on we see digital signage products based on sharepoint, meeting room reservation systems integrating with outlook/exchange and (video)conferencing solutions working nicely together with office communication server.

This fundamentally reshapes the traditional services landscape and it would make sense to have the AV components managed by the same team that already manages the ICT infrastructure. There are some good reasons to do it this way around and not the other:

• The ICT department most likely already has the support tools and processes in place
• Since AV components will be more and more ICT components (projectors on the network, video over IP, etc.) ICT needs to integrate this in their network anyhow and thus will have a strong say in the choices made
• AV components and their networked interactivity are becoming more and more complex so it would make sense to have the most technical group taking care of them
  

Next steps

The AV industry should ensure the devices they design and built will support standards like SNMP so they will be easier to manage without the need for a layer in between as is needed today.

On the other hand enterprises should think about a clear strategy on their AV environment and how to integrate this with the ICT environment. This obviously can be a long term strategy to avoid disinvestments by replacing components that are still in the middle or beginning of their economic lifecycle (unless replacement would deliver a cost benefit that is bigger than the disinvestment). This can be done according to the IT’s AVision model as defined by MII that will lead you through the steps necessary for your organization (steps in maturity are outlined below, note this is not the complete model)

Last but not least, the CIO should prepare for taking control of the AV components as well. This means he needs to make sure that the AV specific technology is understood so he can keep delivering on the expectations

Conclusion

By integrating your AV support and ICT support in 1 support model (preferably ITIL) and using 1 set of tools the costs of managing the integrated environment will go down while the support moves from reactive to proactive. This obvious will result in a situation where communication can migrate to more effective communication

think different, design different, get an extraordinary office building

I've been thinking why technological possibilities are never part of the architecture of office buildings and probably this is because architects have a brand and need to stick to this. This limits the possibilities when using an architect that is well known (I remember that for some buildings there are even contracts that the architect can come in and check if all the furniture used is still the original. if not she/he gets a compensation and you are not allowed to use the architecs name anymore)

When looking at all technical possibilities and how this possibly can be used in a building it would be cool if you can bring in some creative minds who are pretty smart in thinking and designing and let them sit together and design the office breaking traditional rules and without the limitations the big names (and thus brands) in architecture have.

When you look for example at the website of intactlab (www.intactlab.nl) and imagine all tables in meeting rooms and the community area are multitouch (and linked to each other) with some cool new ways of using them

And what about bringing in people like Felix Schmidberger (http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?sort_by=1&portfolio_id=532845&individual_id=156757) who thinks about technology and the looks

And for the general design of furniture I personally like Frank Weil (http://www.frankweil.com/) who designs modern furniture in high quality which perfectly fits with an office like this to ensure there will be a balance between technology and design.

Obviously there are many more design artists and creative technologists who can play a key role here but I think the point is clear. We still build traditional offices and then fill them with technology. It would just be great to start incorporating technology in the design phase already and give it a key role (especially in the communication era we are in now). So start with a concept on how you like to work, fill this in with technology available to facilitate this working style and then build the office around it in such a way technology is creatively used in innovative design for the building including the furniture

Maybe there are some great examples already. If so please mail me some info on this or put it in the comments on the post. Really looking forward to this

the new Lego

Ok, the Danish have invented the lego as we all know and played with however the Finnish invented the next cool set of building blocks. The people at http://www.multitouch.fi did an amazing job. Don't know yet what is cost (probably even don't want to however MII can use this in the concepts we design so I might drop them a mail to ask about the pricing)



These building blocks can be stacked in any way so think multitouch walls, floors and furniture (maybe not at the same time since that might be a bit overkill). Just look at this

And before you start thinking this is just an artist impression of something that only exists on the drawing board just look further to

There is also a nice youtube video on the web showing a bit more of the possibilities. Some kind of 3D and multitouch stackable like lego. This is toys for boys:)

touch interfaces available now

I was looking at the new HP Touchsmart computer since I really like the interface. It's a complete touch enabled interface (hope the next version will be multitouch so you can do even cooler stuff with it). This computer would be a great communication device to communicate with the family in house or use it in any place where a wall mounted touch computer would be a benefit. For a nice demo of the interface look at this youtube video

Looking at the HP touchsmart triggered me to look at different ways of searching information on the internet. I looked at a way that would fit into the touch interface of the HP touchsmart and this search brought me to http://corp.viewzi.com/ as a nice way to search info. You still use your favorit browser however the search is done in a different way (but still using google and yahoo). It presents information in different views depending on your needs. There is a great way to search for pictures (using Flickr) or have your information stored on a timeline (based upon google timeline) to make it visible in time





You can easily switch view by just slecting a different view from the ribbon on top


It makes the search a bit slower but that's worth the convenience and nice way to crawl through it. Obviously the still is room for improvement but I'm sure the will do improve over time and combined with a touch computer like the surface (as I talked about in an earlier blog) of the new HP Touchsmart it's a powerfull utility

It took some time but it's great to see how (multi)touch will become a serious way of interacting next to the good ols mouse and keyboard and it give great new opportunities to handling information and in the era of information overflow this is a great thing

ITIL beyond IT

It's great to see most companies manage their IT infrastructure in a well structured way using a methodology like ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). According to the ITIL website ITIL® is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally.

When looking at ITIL it will bring you some great benefits

• reduced costs
• improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
• improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
  standards and guidance
• improved productivity
• improved use of skills and experience
• improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO 20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.

In order to be able to use ITIL and get the full set of benefits there are a lot of great tools available on the market helping you in managing these processes.

When looking at the structure of the processes and the tools available it would make sense to use ITIL outside the IT as well. There are some examples of this but one of the most common is missing here. It is a great way to manage your Audio/Visual infrastructure.

Although most AV infrastructures are not that mature yet (although this will change rapidly in the near future since the AV equipment makes this more and more easy to do) it would still be wise to use ITIL to manage your AV infrastructure. This would help any team managing an enterprise AV infrastructure to manage this more pro-actively, improve availability, manage costs in a better way and supports the process of thinking in a strategic way about the future of your AV infrastructure.

ITIL can facilitate the process of getting more mature without huge investments since most enterprises already have the tools in place to manage the IT infrastructure (let's be honest, there is not a big difference between and IT and AV incident, nor much difference in managing IT or AV configuration items and both should have a Service Level Agreement with their internal customers on the support and services they can expect). When using these tools you automatically create an integrated approach to managing your IT and AV infrastructure.

The big challenge here however might be that in general IT and AV report into different groups in an enterprise (IT versus Facilities). If we can get passed this barrier we see many opportunities to save costs and at the same time improve quality of the infrastructure and services.

IT’s AVision™

In a few steps to an integrated IT and AV environment

In general an IT environment is well structured and processes and tools are usually based upon the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) concepts. It would make sense to use the same approach to manage your AV environment to increase availability and save costs. MII can help you in a few steps to an integrated vision on managing your integrated IT and AV infrastructure and helps to define a path to the integrated environment using MII's unique IT’s AVision™ methodology. In a diagram it looks like the 4 steps as outlined below. It provides the vision with a growth path attached to it to avoid a disinvestment of the current environment(s)


No matter of the current stage of maturity of your AV environment the methodology can be applied to help you migrate from level 1 (completely stand alone) to level 4 (fully managed integrated environment) for all items and not just the obvious like projectors. These 4 levels are shown here.
If you like to know more about how MIIcan help you save money while increasing quality without desinvestments please contact MII (http://www.mii.nu/ or info@mii.nu )

Using digital signage in an enterprise environment, should you choose an AV or IT solution?

When looking at digital signage wiki tells us:
Digital signage are electronic displays that are installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to entertain, inform or advertise (together known as "adfotainment"). Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be exchanged without effort, animations can be shown, the signs can adapt to the context and audience, and even be interactive. Digital signage advertising is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times.

Key points here are that we use them to entertain, inform or advertise and that they can easily adapt to context and audience. This makes it a great tool for marketing/sales but also for use in a corporate environment. When looking at implementations in a corporate environment there are some obvious benefits compared to traditional systems like e.g. paper based posters to go for a digital signage solution:

• Greater speed to communicate and (re)act,
• Cost saving compared to print and distribute paper based posters,
• Less waste and impact on environment compared to e.g. paper based posters,
• Much more possibilities in terms of media to use (text, audio, video)
• Possibilities for interactivity
• Image (a wall with 1 big screen looks different than a lot of posters on the same wall)

However there are some challenges as well that organizations will face when implementing a digital signage solution to communicate to their staff (and customers at the location of the office):

• In general the available systems are proprietary which makes it hard to expand them (in size) or to add new functionality to the implementation, especially when this is not standard functionality of the product as is. This means that whenever selecting the product and the partner you do not only need to look at the current needs and demands but also at the future to avoid a disinvestment
• How to use the screens and fit them into the corporate managed infrastructure. Are you using the screens only for showing content or are the part of a larger vision where you for example use them for displaying corporate information when idle. Are you considering using existing screens to be part of the system (and do not think about the obvious screens only, what about the room reservation system screens)
  
  One of the biggest strengths of digital signage is the ability to update content across all screens from a central location — it represents the end of counting on employees to travel from location to location, changing POP materials turning the devices on or off. But surprisingly, most of the people digital signage today surveyed aren’t taking advantage of this — more than half of the respondents who use digital signage have their screens centrally networked. Instead, they are relying on “sneakernet” update methods, such as manually inserting DVDs or flash cards at the screen level.
  
• Who is allowed to generate content, is there a workflow required between creation and publication. Will all employees be able to generate content but before publication it needs to be signed of by the editor (to check the content against the guidelines, guard the corporate style and make sure the content is appropriate). Is the content already available on the corporate network or will this be delivered by e.g. a 3rd party
• What type of content (audio, video (standard definition, high definition and live streams), text and which formats are needed)
• What type of employees do you have and what is your companies working style. Is everybody always in the office or is everybody working flexible, not just flexible seating but also flexible locations (working from home, hotel, airport, customer location) and how do you like to fit this in the communication plan
• What about different content for different target audiences (customers vs employees, office bound employees versus home working/traveling employees, different physical office locations)
  

From this point of view it would be wise when looking for a digital signage system not to focus on the traditional solutions only but also look in the ICT domain and explore the options a SharePoint based digital signage system can do for you (great examples are

netpresenter and advantive) . These systems in general are:

• Less rigid since it’s a platform on which you can easily create extensions
• Far more easy to integrate in your existing infrastructure and for a lot of companies it already is integrated to a certain extend before starting off building a digital signage solution on top of the platform.
• Give more possibilities to reach out to your employees that are working from a location that is not your office. You can for example also publish to a screensaver or tickertape on any employees pc
• Easy to integrate with your existing intranet and extranet
• Completely integrated with all office products you probably already use so information publishing can be done directly from the applications used to create the info (while you can still use workflow management for approval before publishing)
• Cheaper (especially if you already have the licenses for SharePoint)
• Managing the digital signage environment can be done with the existing management tools you also use for managing the rest of your infrastructure. Also managing a sharepoint based environment is managing something familiar instead of a total new concept

Again this is a great example of IT and AV blending together and creating new opportunities for cost savings while increasing flexibility, agility and availability

IT/AV integration curve

The Evolution of AV Systems according to InfoComm International

The basic fact of technology convergence is the digitization of analog AV products and solutions. It is the least transforming aspect of the technology convergence process, and most manufacturers have adapted rather swiftly.

The deepest changes have come from the dissolution of the walls that compartmentalized technology silos, such as security, audiovisual, low-voltage applications (structured wiring), telephone systems, and IP telephony. These critical applications converge over the IT network for easier implementation and management.


Traditionally self-contained AV rooms are turned into nodes on organization-wide IT infrastructures.

Consequently, the systems they are outfitted with are required to be designed and configured to operate and be managed from the central IT backbone in order to integrate seamlessly with the overall communications infrastructure.

When reading this and turning this convergence into reality you can look at the integration curve as designed by MII (see picture)

By moving your AV infrastructure from stand alone components into a completely managed integrated environment you can increase availability of the total infrastructure against lower costs. It also give an organization new ways to communicate (content can be shared more easy since everything is integrated into 1 managed environment)


Doing so however requires some knowledge when designing. Not all equipment can be attached to a networked environment (your stand alone projector would not fit in). Also when managing this using your IT management environment some custom made adjustments might be needed. This asks for a strong collaboration between the group managing the IT environment and the group managing the AV environment. However it is worth makingthe investment and create a platform that gives you not just somenew opportunities or cost savings but a fundament for the near future as well