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•AVI-SPL Digital Workplace Services Provider•Season 3•Episode 10
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Earlier this year, Microsoft reported that Microsoft Teams usage has exploded to over 270 million active users. That means more rooms and more devices to keep up and running, and more users to support that must have a positive experience.
At the same time, change is constant in the new workplace, and Microsoft is changing to keep up. We see organizations needing to enable more workspaces to support anywhere work. This can leave IT teams overburdened. Do you have the capacity to keep up?
In this episode of The Collaboration Space, AVI-SPL’s Karen Klosinski joins Nancy Lussier to chat about how we help you plan for a successful Microsoft Teams launch or upgrade. Topics include ways to address current Microsoft changes, keep end users happy, and be ready for what’s next in 2023 and beyond.
Karen notes that changes come with complexity. Customers must consider the systems and rooms they have in place and how Microsoft Teams or the latest Teams services fit into their environment. Our service team can help you manage the Teams lifecycle (plan, deploy and optimize Teams integration) in the ever-changing landscape.
We also discuss our new Microsoft Teams Consulting Workshop, its goals, and how it can help make projects successful no matter where you are in the lifecycle. The workshop helps you plan for:
· How to monitor and manage assets, equipment, and user experience
AVI-SPL is always looking ahead, so we’re ready to pivot when needed to help our customers. A recent example is the changes in MTR Premium license changes. AVI-SPL worked with Microsoft to develop our new MTR Pro Tier II Support service add-on to build a bridge to successful collaboration via Teams.
Hello everyone, I'm Nancy Lucier and welcome back to the collaboration space. I am here with Karen Klasinski, who is the VP of Products and Solutions at AVI SPL. Good morning, Karen. How are you?
SPEAKER_00
Hi, Nancy. I'm great. Thanks. How are you?
SPEAKER_01
I'm good. Thanks for joining me today.
SPEAKER_00
You're very welcome.
SPEAKER_01
And Karen, you know, we we talk about this big number that's been thrown about for Microsoft Teams. Microsoft reported that there are over 270 million active users for Microsoft Teams, which means more rooms and more devices that people have to manage. So I've asked you here today to talk a little bit about how can people make sure that they have a successful launch or upgrade of Teams in their Teams rooms. So we know that, you know, change is constant in the workplace and Microsoft is changing to keep up, and we need to help people keep up with that. So can you talk a little bit about how we help customers plan for a Microsoft Teams launch or upgrade?
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, and the way that we've looked at this from a services product portfolio is we have to support our customers through their entire life cycle, right? So whether they're planning deployment, they're in the middle of deployment, or they're operating their existing platform. We've got to have products and services that help customers deal with change because there's change in technology, change in the way people work, change in organizations and their real estate plans, right? So we've intentionally built our service portfolio around that life cycle. And the reality is what we're seeing with customers is they are in all three of those phases all the time. Everything's always changing, right? Yes. So we we try to make it easy in a modular way, right? That they can apply support through our services portfolio in the targeted areas where they need help.
SPEAKER_01
Sounds great. And, you know, um like we mentioned earlier, Microsoft has been changing pretty quickly to keep up with all the changes in the workplace. Can you share some of the latest Microsoft changes that have been coming up that we've been helping people, you know, work through?
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely. And, you know, in recent news, right, Microsoft is really changing the way that Teams is licensed, right? So there's a significant change for the customers who were buying the Microsoft Manage Room service, MTR Premium license, which has now been changed to Pro. And what has happened is Microsoft has kind of um, or at least is winding down the human support services that they provided in the SOC. So in a matter of about three weeks period of time, customers are faced with a support challenge that says, hey, you know, I had technical assistance once the AI if the AI remediation didn't resolve the issue. And in the very short term, I will not. So in partnership with Microsoft, um, we were actually approached by them to come up with what we call a gap service, right? For customers who still want that technical live engineer support to resolve issues. So we've recently released our tier two support program that works hand in hand with the new MTR Pro. And the concept being that Microsoft Pro will continue to provide that AI remediation. But when that AI remediation doesn't resolve the problem, customers have the ability to contact us for tier two support and engineering support to help them resolve that. Um, the thing that we were very cognizant of is there was a cost impact to customers. So we worked to make this tier two support, you know, a you know, cost neutral option for customers so that they could easily migrate to that. So that is one thing. Um the other thing that we've been working on is really, you know, to your point about change, um, change, we all went through significant change, what, you know, I guess it's almost two and a half years ago, which caused it's never really stopped, right? Right, and it's never really stopped. And, you know, that change happens so rapidly, and so have all the changes that have followed, that when you think about kind of core IT deployment planning discipline, we did not have that luxury, right? But it's not too late, right? So, what we've done is we've built a three-day workshop for customers that we spend time um really uh again planning the entire life cycle. What is your deployment plan? What is your support and maintenance plan? What is your management plan? Have you addressed security? Have, you know, do you understand, you know, from a standard standpoint, what your standard room designs are, who your users are, right? Um, what your use cases are for the applications. And we go through the entire life cycle to make sure that the customer has a baseline, right, of how they're gonna continue to deploy, support, and manage these environments in an ever-changing world, right? So our viewpoint is it's not too late to plan because we have more changes ahead. Um, we feel custom this is gonna give customers a roadmap, a sense of security, but also an outline, right, of where they need to focus to help move from a more reactive state to a more disciplined and proactive state, which is our goal.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I I like that you said it was future-proofing it, you know, really being ready for the next change so that it's not gonna be, you know, a tragedy when things change. Like we're not gonna be hit by surprise, right? Like many of us were a few years ago. We'll always be ready and uh we'll always be there to help as well, which is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00
Exactly. Exactly. So again, back to the full life cycle, you know, wherever the customer is in the environment, and you know, as I said, we've got, you know, the professional services, which is keyed at um really planning and design, but also some consulting layers, all the way up to the point of even optimization, right? Customers have deployed it, but now is it time to come back and like and look and see if your collaboration environments are optimized for how you work. So we really kind of take a look at where customers are in the lifecycle. Obviously, our managed services programs are around are around managing the assets, uh, proactive monitoring and support, right? Um, uh maintenance services around field repair and working with the OEM components so that we we keep the the investment available and adding value to the business.
SPEAKER_01
And and that's helpful because we talked about all the users we have, but now people are back in the office at least part-time. So we probably have more rooms that either need to be created or upgraded, right? So there that's a lot to manage that people may need some assistance with.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and I'll tell you what, from you know what I'm reading, you know, those rooms are going to be different spaces, right? Um, hot desking and hoteling is a concept that people are really embracing. That's different than setting up a conference room, right? So, you know, back to the application and the user personas and how people are going to use the technology. These are the kinds of things we're trying to help customers plan for so that their room designs meet the end user expectation, right? Um, another area of focus for us is, you know, user experience management, right? So, you know, historically people have looked at devices and infrastructure, but we also need to look at the cloud, right? How is the cloud performing? And how's the remote worker? What is their experience? And we talk about the concept of meeting equity, um, especially when a person is moving from part-time at home, part-time in the office, their expectation is that they're gonna have the same experience, that it's gonna be as effective a communications platform, no matter where they are. So it's really a new dynamic.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and we have that expectation as consumers, right? We have so much technology in the home. We've been working from home. Now, if I'm going back to the office, well, I better deliver that same experience that they've been having. Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00
So we're we're very, very focused on those key components. And in our minds, we need to look at the devices, we need to look at the infrastructure, we need to look at the cloud, and we need to understand the user, right? And have insights into the user experience.
SPEAKER_01
Wonderful. Well, it sounds like you said, Karen, the full life cycle will be covered for our customers.
SPEAKER_00
Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01
Karen, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for joining me in the collaboration space. Thanks, Nancy. Appreciate it. All right. And for all of our listeners out there, thank you for spending time with us once again. You can never miss a video podcast if you follow us on YouTube at AVISPL Info. And if you like to listen on the go, please subscribe to the audio version. Just search for the collaboration space on your favorite listening app. Have a great day, and we'll see you next time in the collaboration space. For more information, visit avispl.com slash Microsoft.
