Volume 10, Issue 14 — July 23, 2019

UCC — Volume 10, Issue 14 — July 23, 2019

July 23, 2019 | Volume: 10 | Issue: 14

Would you define cost as a hard value that is associated with a currency? Maybe in resource allocation?

Chris Gillespie analyzes the idea of cost in his most recent column — find it below! He challenges the working relationship between an end user and an integrator and I think he is spot on. Do end users adequately share their need to an integrator? Do integrators take a step further and help end users find their need? No, they don’t.

I appreciate Chris’ perspective as he doesn’t solely blame the failure of technology on why meetings start late. In a perfect world, end users and integrators alike would be installing the “perfect” UC space with wireless collaboration solutions. But we don’t live in a perfect world — the first proof of this being that we don’t have the ability to spend whatever we want whenever we want.

We can’t buy a wireless collaboration solution at a price point of four figures when the “cables are doing just fine.” Unless the cables don’t work and then the loss of value of your meeting costs you more than the technology.

Read Chris’ column here.

Also, I recently spent the day in the NY Metro area at a grand office opening event for an AVI-SPL office. You can see my story on that here.

-Jacob Blount

COLUMNS

+ Cybersecurity Lessons Learned from Zoom, Logitech and Draper [Paul Konikowski, CTS-D]

I hope that this week will mark the “watershed” moment in audiovisual industry cybersecurity. Over the last few years, there have been a handful of security vulnerabilities discovered in touch panels, wireless presentation systems, video conferencing codecs, digital billboard signage players and other devices. But this week is different. Unlike security vulnerabilities in devices and software that can be downplayed, patched and/or swept under the rug by manufacturers, data breaches are governed by laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The mere chance of a data breach this large should make AV companies realize how bad it could be.

+ The Cost of a Meeting [Christopher Gillespie]

One of the things that really took quite a bit of effort to shift my thinking was the realization that EVERYTHING has a cost. And in order to spend money, you need to justify that cost. Not the cost of the widget (the CIO couldn’t care less about that); you need to show the overall opportunity cost.

+ Five Questions Every Integrator Should Be Asking [Mark Coxon]

Here’s a secret. No one buys technology. They buy the benefit of what technology can do for them. Given that, here are five major questions I think every Integrator should be asking early on in the discovery phase, as well as a quick reason that each one is important.