Logitech Wainhouse User Manual

Finding the Right Video

Conferencing Partner in a

World of Technology Vendors

A practical framework for selecting a video conferencing solution for the next phase of the modern workplace

Whitepaper sponsored by:

WHAT DO YOUR END-

USERS EXPECT FROM VIDEO CONFERENCING?

In a 2019 Wainhouse survey, end-user’s highest expectation for video conferencing was that

it would help them work more efficiently.

Yesterday and Today:

Video Conferencing Proves its Value

Even before the pandemic arrived in 2020, video conferencing was becoming a vital tool for the modern workplace. At a business level,

video conferencing has shown it could help with organizational goals such as engaging employees, cutting costs, and enabling better communications. For individuals, video conferencing was recognized as driving productivity by adding a richness to meetings. In a Wainhouse Research survey of 1,400 respondents, the highest expectation for video conferencing was that it would help them work

more efficiently.1 They envisioned the face-to-face interaction to inspire more thoughtful collaboration, to drive clarity of communications, and

to create more realistic human connections. All of these reasons, in turn, were thought to improve the outcome of the meeting.

This expectation for better meetings applied to every workspace. From personal desktops to room-based solutions equipped with AV devices, video conferencing was helping teams increase the productivity of meetings, no matter where a colleague was located.

But, the real potential for video conferencing was put into the spotlight at the start of 2020. By April, only a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe’s work-from-home population went from about 5% of

the workforce to approximately 40%, an 8X increase.2 Likewise, in the United States more than two-thirds of US workers were now working from home.3 Employees were trying to stay in touch with colleagues, while executives were trying to keep their businesses moving forward. Unsurprisingly, the world turned to video conferencing to navigate these uncharted waters, and the adoption of video conferencing, which was already making headway in today’s enterprises, was accelerated by five to eight years.

Without a doubt, video conferencing is entering a new age of importance. For many enterprises, video is evolving from just automating the business to actually being integrated into the business, possibly even being the business.

How Did Your Video Conferencing Solution Fare During

This Timeframe?

Fueled by the dramatic increase in end-users and unexpected use cases, IT decision makers (ITDMs) were able to see how their chosen solutions for video conferencing adapted to the dynamic situation at hand. Some fared well, while others did not. What was revealed to many ITDMs is that some vendors were simply unable to deliver value in a fluid situation, where business needs were subject to change.

All is not lost. Wainhouse believes that this condensed window of transformation has allowed ITDMs to better define what they truly need from video conferencing technology. Ideally, vendors need to do more than just provide video. Instead, they need to support ITDMs as a trusted technology partner, one that can help businesses thrive in the “next normal” of our modern work experience.

What is a video conferencing technology partner versus a vendor? At the simplest definition, it is when a vendor meets more than just the basic specifications (e.g., video and audio and a certain price point) and contributes to more of your elevated goals.

Sounds good, but how can an ITDM act upon this lofty distinction? It’s not like you can add to your RFP “vendor must create value for the business” and expect to receive actionable responses. To this end, Wainhouse has created the following framework to help bring these grand ideas into a practical, achievable reality.

The Key Stakeholder Framework for Selecting a Video Conferencing Solution

Although every organization is different, in Wainhouse’s experience, the first step in vendor selection is to filter your options with an efficient first line of validation before focusing time and energy on a more in-depth analysis. To this end, Wainhouse has designed a key stakeholder framework to help ITDMs understand when a video conferencing vendor meets basic specifications on paper versus when they exceed those known requirements and perform more like a trusted partner.

To accomplish this, our framework helps you assess the capabilities of a video conferencing vendor as related to the needs of four key stakeholders. For each group, we identify a core theme and propose a series of questions to help you evaluate your business needs. As you look at the framework, we encourage you to dig below the surface of immediate responses and find examples of how the vendor can deliver additional value to your stakeholders.

Most importantly, we’ve built this framework with the future of work in mind and, where applicable, we call out how COVID-19 will impact these stakeholders.

The four stakeholders and their core attributes are as follows: the business and its need to adapt, the end-users and their desire to be engaged, the IT administrators and their requirements for support, and the IT buyer and their job to procure.

ENGAGE	SUPPORT
End-Users	IT Administrators
What will it take	What will it
to implement and	take to maintain
drive usage of	these solutions?
these solutions?

ADAPT

The Business

What capabilities do we need today, and how might they change in the future?

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

FRAMEWORK

PROCURE

IT Buyers

What will it take to procure the technology, especially if you are dealing with a distributed workforce?

Keep in mind that this framework is only intended to be an initial filter for video conferencing technology. But, if a candidate vendor can demonstrate how they exceed these requirements, they likely warrant further investigation.

The Business as a stakeholder – what capabilities does your business need today? How might they change in the future?

This question focuses on the capability of the partner’s portfolio to address the business

ADAPT	needs as it adapts to operational changes. It was not that long ago that all an ITDM would

	consider is if the vendor had solutions for small, medium, and large conference rooms. At
	that time, a standout vendor would also be able to address remote workspaces. But today,

you need to include the option for future hybrid workspaces, which will continue to evolve as employees return to the office.

Workspace is only one possible area for rapid change. You should also understand how the devices work with your other UC investments. And, if the vendor is locking you into one video conferencing service with restrictive options to change solutions in the future.

TOPICS FOR	VENDOR	PARTNER
CONVERSATION	(MEETS THE REQUIREMENT)	(EXCEEDS REQUIREMENT)

Does the vendor have a portfolio to support a wide variety of workspaces like group spaces, huddle rooms, home office, mobile?

Do the VC devices work within my current UC solution?

Are the VC devices tied to a single video conferencing service or

UC suite?

What is the process to change to another VC service or UC suite?

	• Vendor has common workspace	• Has purpose-built products
	coverage but lacks products	for home, office, hybrid, and
	for other areas. Retrofits	mobile.
	current products into the new
	workspaces.

	• Works with my UC suites but may	• Certified by the UC suite as a
	not be certified by the UC suite.	solution partner.

	• Hardware is limited to a single	• Partner’s hardware is
	video conferencing service.	out-of-the-box ready for
	• Vendor does not allow you to	one VC service but can be
	• Vendor does not allow you to	provisioned for other VC
	change VC services.	provisioned for other VC
	change VC services.	services if you choose.
		services if you choose.

Key Takeaway — Look for a portfolio of room and desktop solutions with a wide-ranging price-to-performance ratio to help deliver the right solutions for the right space. If you focus only on low-cost video solutions, they may not be scalable across your organization. The features in high-end solutions may not be needed everywhere, and if used for all workspaces, this could result in overspending.

ITDMs also need to be watchful for VC service “lock-in,” where devices are only capable of working with limited video conferencing services.

DO YOU NEED UC

FLEXIBILITY?

Wainhouse 2019 survey of IT decision makers, most large enterprises revealed they had three or more distinct meetingsolution vendors in their environment.

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