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 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.

Location based services

Since office become more and more flexible and employees will not have their own desk anymore you as a company will run into some challenges like how do I find my peers in the building (are they in the building or not). Location based services in your building or on your campus can be a big help here. Obvious for privacy reasons the people will move around the floor plan without names (until you search for a specific person). This makes finding people easy and people moving around on a floor plan displayed in the reception area are a great way to entertain visitor waiting but there are some extra serious benefits as well.

Just think about:

Safety:
Despite some block out areas (like the toilet groups) it would be helpful if some people are not moving for a certain amount of time.
Security:
It is always very helpful if, in case of an emergency, you know exactly who is in the building and more important where they are in the building. Obviously this will be the case for regular employees and guests
Facility management:
It is a great management tool on the usage of the building. you know exactly how the building is used by various employee groups and can adjust the building layout according to this. Also this would help you planning office expansions
IT:
In case a helpdesk engineer has to come over to support you they can use this to find you but they can also use the data to provide the right IT facilities (perfect planning of amount of printers and their location)
Communication:
When using a digital signage solution to communicate with the employees you can use the data for better targeting the message within your building or campus

Depending on the building (how it is built, your already available IT facilities etc) there are several ways to do this. You can use your wireless access point to calculate where peoples computers are (when working wireless, wires can just use the location of the ethernet wall outlet). This is the most easy way but when somebody walls away for a break while leaving his/her computer on a desk the quality of the data will decrease.

Another option would be using RFID tags on the badges. This would enable you to create the desired grid (some areas might need a more dense and thus accurate grid than others). This solution gives you great insight in the way a facility is used while on the other hand facilitating the employees. The only point of attention is privacy so before implementing create awareness about the solution and impact and adjust the shown information to the needs so privacy van be respected

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 )