Among its longtime clients is Independence Blue Cross (IBC) in Philadelphia, which has worked with IMS for more than a decade.
“They’ve helped us manage some complex communication challenges,” says JohnMcClung, VP of advertising and creative services. Most recently, IMS helped them update two in-house editing suites at its headquarters location, which opened in 1989 and hadn’t been updated since.
“Use of video is a key component for us in delivering messages to customers and employees,”saysMcClung. IMS helped IBC modernize its lighting system, video production, audio sound booth and photo studio. IMS also set up and helped them manage content for the video walls in the redesigned lobby, and helped them look at each of the conference rooms in the building’s 45 floors.
The building came away with high-performance AV capability in the spaces typically used by sales and marketing staffs and upgraded systems in the other rooms, says McClung.
“They were able to get up to speed very quickly and help us create a room that’s now very functional and very busy,” he says. Because the building has no auditorium but often hosts large groups for meetings, IMS was able to find a way to project content for meetings that include somewhere between 200 and 400 people, says McClung.
“It comes down to knowledge of the business as well as responsiveness,” he says. “They’re not recommending things that aren’t going to fly. I like that I’m working with someone who’s very understanding of what our needs are. They also understand what’s around the corner and help us take things to the next level.”
That includes discussions about how the building might fit into the proposed digital district in the Center City section of Philadelphia, although that is far from a sure thing at this point.
All About Accountability
John and Jill Renninger are proud of the entrepreneurial spirit they’ve developed among their workforce since opening the company, noting project managers and sales teams are evaluated in relation to the success of the overall company.
“The more they put in, the more they and their team will get out of it,” says John. “We’ve focused on being a high-quality design-build firm that provides end-to-end accountability with the absolute best team in AV.”
IMS “strives to own all responsibility for our clients’ business communication technology needs in order to be a reliable partner and resource for them,” says John. “We strive to provide the best professional services in our marketplace and have recruited the top talent in order to do so.
“We also are unique in that we are near equal in size for event staging and systems integration, which means we can provide all of our clients’ AV needs. This also allows us to augment installed systems with event staging solutions for one-off meetings much more easily and thoroughly,” he says.
Another area that will remain a focus for IMS is employee training and certification.
“Training is of the utmost importance at IMS and is a strong differentiator for us in the marketplace,” says John. “We require all of our employees, whether they are in management, engineering, operations, administration, sales, etc. to complete professional development throughout the year. All training is managed and developed for each individual’s unique skill sets and career goals.”
IMS’ training partners include InfoComm International, NSCA, BICSI, Syn-Aud-Con, their manufacturer partners, a sales training consultant, Fred Pryor business training, networking training partners and more.
“Our training is highly emphasized in our proposal documentation and is used as a point of differentiation with our competition,” says John.
