Commercial Integrator sat down with Brian Cockrell, Intel Unite product owner and cofounder, to discuss collaboration, Intel Unite, and more.
CI: What has collaboration looked like during COVID, and what will it look like in the post-COVID era?
BC: The pandemic forced organizations — in business, education, or healthcare— to adapt quickly to social distancing mandates and they largely turned to technology for solutions, setting off a scramble to incorporate popular video conferencing apps into day-to-day operations. Collaboration modernization plans — non-existent, dormant, or on the slow track — were suddenly pushed to the forefront. The results were environments in which there were varying levels of technological savvy among participants, a broad variety of devices in the environment, competing UC platforms, and a matrix of remote and on-prem collaboration scenarios.
The rush to familiar UC platforms has given way to a more deliberate search for the right solution, with organizations asking, “what do I deploy now?”. Collaboration doesn’t look like it did before the pandemic. It isn’t identical conference rooms that seat eight people. Experiences will vary from two people sitting down at a touchdown space to a café. Users want whiteboarding, scrum applications, and other functionality that may not be offered on their current solution. They also need to collaborate across a plethora of UC platforms.
IT faces an array of challenges that include selecting, deploying, and managing new technology; user training and other support; and security, from endpoint security to integration with third party systems.
CI: What qualities should a collaboration solution have to meet the challenges of corporate, education and healthcare environments as they continue to evolve?
BC: The right solution should allow for wireless sharing of high-resolution content. The elimination of dongles and adapters not only helps meetings start faster and run more smoothly, it also enables social distancing and reduces shared surfaces that can be vectors for the transmission of infectious diseases.
A solution should be device agnostic. Although devices may be standardized in schools, meeting participants in other scenarios may be using laptops, tablets, or phones running Windows, Mac and even Linux operating systems.
An effective collaboration solution must be easy to learn and use, with the same use instructions across devices and OSs. In many environments, users may have different aptitudes for technology, frustration with having to learn yet another program, and limited time for training. A simple-to-use solution results in less disruption, aggravation, and potentially fewer IT tickets.
A collaboration solution should be able to be easily adapted as needs develop and organizations experiment with new approaches to collaboration and instruction. Extensibility and an open platform are key, allowing users to add off-the-shelf integrations or develop their own new features.
Frictionless deployability and manageability are essential. Centralized management and configuration deployment should be available in the cloud, but there should also be an on-premise option to accommodate security profiles.
Finally, the right solution must be secure, offering not only data encryption, but features like a rotating PIN and protected guest access. Shared content and personal information shouldn’t leave the organization’s network and shouldn’t be stored.
CI: What can the Intel Unite solution provide to customers that makes it a unique solution for their needs?
BC: Proven across verticals and organizations of all types and sizes, the Intel Unite® solution is a flexible, easy-to-use wireless collaboration platform that, out of the box, excels across use cases but can be quickly adapted to address changing needs and approaches to collaboration and educational instruction. It is compatible with a wide variety of devices, operating systems, and computer form factors. Its open architecture seamlessly integrates with a growing ecosystem of apps, including UC platforms that let in-room users start conferencing with a click while remote participants enjoy the same rich viewing experience as in-room participants.
The Intel Unite solution features centralized management and flexible deployment options. A cost-effective and open-platform solution, it is designed to deliver easier deployability and more security, manageability, and adaptability.
Organizations are still trying to figure out what collaboration and educational instruction looks like post-Covid. The Intel Unite solution is designed with features that make experimentation easier while reducing its risk.
