Commercial Integrator January 2022 - 29

pher Jaynes of Mersive remarked. " I can
also reserve it from own home office so my
engineers know that [I'm] coming in today,
and [they can] find another space. "
Factoring in the Home Office
Although meeting spaces and conference
rooms are critical for in-office employees, it's
equally important to ensure that remote and
hybrid employees can connect and collaborate
with their in-office counterparts. So,
with remote and hybrid work here to stay,
the final panel discussion shifted to the
home-office setup. Led by Goldman, the
panel started the discussion by exploring
office tools and their cost.
Michael Duda of Google stressed the
need for effective and reliable videoconferencing
tools, including gear such as
microphones, headphones and webcams,
as well as decent lighting, bandwidth, etc.
Because most of that is expensive, it has
the potential to create an economic disparity
between employees. From Duda's
perspective, it should be the company's
responsibility to provide such equipment
for employees.
" It's interesting...the concept of investing
in a setup, " Duda said. " I'm fortunate to
work for a company that actually dedicated
a budget for each employee. [But] I think
it's largely up to the senior management
on what kind of money they should be
investing. Whether it's capital from your
own pocket or the company's pocket, it is a
fiscal decision. Ideally, it should come from
the company. "
John Bailey of AVI-SPL brought up
another factor - namely, the security of the
home setup. " In corporate facilities, that
was easier to accomplish, " he explained.
" We could put locks on doors and firewalls
and things like that. [Now,] when we think
about the distributed workforce and working
from home, security is no less important.
It's just more challenging to implement
from a corporate enterprise standpoint. "
According to Goldman, security will
be the top priority for enterprises as the
number of employees with remote/hybrid
setups continues to rise.
For Duda, going back to the office after
two years was a surreal experience. He
expanded that it was really important to
commercialintegrator.com
The security of the home-office setup is now a top priority for enterprises, as the number
of long-term remote employees continues to rise.
him that there were other people in the
office. " If there is a drive to be in the office
with other folks there, and you can make
an actual productive collaboration space,
then absolutely let's go back, " he said.
Bailey added that, in the end, these
decisions should be left to the employees
on a case-by-case basis. He further stated,
" We need to move forward with the idea
of people first, not technology first. So, [we
need to see] what's going to provide the
best employee experience [and] the best
user experience. "
'Video [and audio] is
an absolute necessity.
And it needs to be
seamless and simple,
and that connectivity
has to be there.'
- Sandi Stambaugh,
senior vice president,
product management,
TD SYNNEX
Participant Equity
Bailey ended the panel by highlighting
participant equity. " We never talked
about this kind of stuff before hybrid,
but it's always been a challenge, " he acknowledged.
" Even when we're all in the
same space, we're not positioned equally
in meetings, so it's super refreshing [to
discuss], and it's something we need to
continue to stay focused on in the future. "
Carol Zelkin, IMCCA's executive director,
effectively echoes the importance
of the webcast's messaging. According
to Zelkin, " Clearly, [the] global pandemic
has shown that remote and hybrid
working for knowledge workers...works.
Companies did not go out of business.
In fact, productivity increased, [and]
the environment improved. Disabled
and homebound employees found that
the increased use of collaboration tools
now gave them a level playing field with
everyone else. The onus is on the business
world to adapt and evolve as we together
create the new future of work. " CI
JANUARY 2022 Commercial Integrator 29
ESCAPEJAJA/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

http://www.commercialintegrator.com

Commercial Integrator January 2022

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