Designing the most ideal office setup has never been a more open-ended process since hybrid work has become the norm. Enterprise technology tools have become essential for large businesses trying to stay connected across multiple offices. In fact, 83% of businesses with over 250 employees use video collaboration solutions. Balancing price, compatibility, and adaptability when deciding on your business technology can be hard, especially with multiple offices, but there doesn’t have to be a tradeoff when you choose a technology franchise that works seamlessly across locations. Video conferencing can make your workplace more efficient, but it’s dependent on which enterprise communication tools you choose.
Ultimately, a productive office is one where employees feel empowered to come in and supported to do great work by the setup they find, and in an era of hybrid, flexible workspaces, good tech becomes key. Here are our tips for office setup best practices, using technology that is effective and adaptable but also affordable at scale for your organization.
Choose adaptable meeting room tools
No office is identical, and choosing tech that makes business conferencing simple and can be easily adapted to different meeting rooms should be a priority for the most immersive experience. Adaptable tools can be used in different configurations and in different places. Think of devices that can wirelessly pair up and sync with each other, a microphone extension for a smart conferencing camera, or devices that are easy to move around and set up in new rooms or offices.
Consistency in the user experience is vital with adaptable tech so that conferencing tech is easy enough to use every time to actually make meetings more efficient and less stressful even when set up is last-minute.
Meeting room technology at its most basic should include monitors, video and audio conferencing capabilities, a microphone, and a central meeting scheduler and/or reservation system for different meeting rooms.
Device ecosystems like the Meeting Owl suite are geared toward portable options that are simple to set up, so your organization may choose to share hardware across several conference rooms or huddle spaces within an office to lower their business video conferencing equipment costs. Alternatively, you might designate certain devices to each meeting room that deliver a consistent UX.
The Meeting Owl 4+ is a center-of-the-room device with a 360º camera capable of providing 4k UHD video resolution. Having a tabletop device with a smart camera in the center is a perfect format for smaller hybrid meetings, but because not every meeting follows that same format, it’s important to know that the Meeting Owl 4+ can be paired with other Meeting Owls, an Owl Bar, and the Whiteboard Owl. This creates video conferencing systems for business that can be customized depending on the size and shape of your space and the meeting format – for internal needs like standups or trainings to client-facing meetings and presentations alike.
That flexibility can extend to other furniture in the office, too. Choosing wheeled tables that can be separated and rearranged for different configurations can make the in-person experience more immersive for colleagues in the room and adapted for hybrid meetings. You may even choose room dividers, accordion partitions, or office phone booths to create flexible workspaces.
Define your needs and price point
Enterprise video conferencing setup often can carry a hefty price tag. However, some of the best enterprise video conferencing solutions meet all the tech specifications for quality video without costing thousands, which is critical when your tech budget needs to stretch across multiple offices.
Find hardware compatible with all video conferencing platforms so your organization can continue using familiar enterprise collaboration tools without shifting software.
Determine how much your organization can spend per office and even per room. How will different device decisions and spending impact your offices in the long run?
Implementing interoffice video conferencing can offer a substantial amount of savings on employee travel, so effective hardware that makes the hybrid format as productive as an in-person meeting can have a solid return on investment.
It’s essential to have high-resolution video and microphone pickup. All-in-one devices that can pair with accessories to perfectly adapt to your space can save the pain that might come with installing fixed hardware that has to stay in one room and can't be adjusted on a case-by-case basis. Shopping for device bundles can also offer a more competitive price point.
Finally, ask for employee input on new tech decisions. Ensuring all offices have appropriate collaboration spaces and the devices most helpful to different teams within the organization will make for the best investment in a new or upgraded office setup.
Make management simple
Even as organizations scale, the difficulty of managing tech effectively doesn’t have to. An ecosystem of compatible devices that can be managed at scale, like fleet management in the Nest, makes it easy for individual contributors to start and run their meetings effectively and for IT professionals behind the scenes to ensure meetings and devices stay secure, updated and well-organized
When fleet management is not tied to one physical office, IT professionals can save a lot of time and boost their efficiency. Tech can also migrate between offices as needed.
Managing online safety and security is key. Does your organization require internal security? If so, make sure employees can connect to meetings via enterprise Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable allows organizations that need internal, and consider adding K-locks to devices to boost their physical security, too
Choosing new business and office technology as your company grows means choosing physical tools that can support your virtual meetings. When you choose adaptable and effective hardware, your organization can unlock the benefits of video conferencing for all employees and make the in-office experience a great one.
