Investment firms expect to deal with risk – but not when it comes to something as critical as the meeting room technology in their offices. Unfortunately, that was just the challenge one storied investment and asset management firm faced. When their employees wanted to launch a simple meeting with videoconferencing technology, it was truly like playing roulette. The firm’s meeting rooms were equipped with older, unreliable collaboration tools that might or might not work, and the bills for repairing malfunctioning equipment were mounting.

Oftentimes, members of the firm’s IT team had to be present in a meeting to create workarounds when technology was on the fritz. As this resulted in lots of wasted time – when the IT team could be working on more pressing projects – the 3,000-plus-employee company started its search for a simpler, more reliable meeting room solution.

After choosing Cisco technology and Webex as its meeting platform, the firm sent out an invitation-only request for proposal for an IT firm that could roll out the technology in approximately 60 meeting rooms in various locations. IT solutions firm Presidio won the contract – and AV integration partner RoomReady was able to help Presidio achieve an installation every other competitor said couldn’t be done.

During the RFP process, the investment firm expressed interest in keeping all its meeting room technology within the Cisco family, including Cisco Touch10 control panels. Although third-party panels would be easier to install in more complex spaces such as divided meeting rooms, the third-party panels also meant a potentially inconsistent experience. Advanced users could easily modify the thirdparty panel interface for their own presentation needs, thus leaving behind a more complicated interface for casual users. The three firms Presidio competed against said because the Cisco panels were rigid by design, the technology wouldn’t work in such unique rooms.

Presidio, on the other hand, said the installation was possible – and it had proof. Presidio took a team from the investment firm on a field trip to one of its nearby offices to show the client meeting rooms designed by RoomReady. Once there, the customer was able to see a variety of rooms leveraging the Cisco Touch10 panel, setups made possible because of RoomReady’s deep understanding of the Cisco technology. The RoomReady team was able to customize the panels based on Presidio’s unique needs, while giving its employees the consistent meeting room experience they needed. The investment firm was sold.

RoomReady helped the investment firm select all-in-one Cisco endpoints for small, medium and large meeting rooms. If a room’s physical build or use case didn’t allow for an all-in-one endpoint, RoomReady helped the investment firm build a custom solution that acted and felt like all other rooms to the end user – reducing complexity as much as possible. RoomReady then built virtual control rooms for the investment firm’s AV team to have more hands-on involvement in training rooms and executive board rooms. The RoomReady team even helped the investment firm build room standards to roll out company-wide, designed to decrease installation time and substantially reduce the firm’s technology expenses.

Ultimately, RoomReady’s innovations helped Presidio bring simplicity and consistency to its customer’s most complex meeting rooms. All it took was a simple field trip.

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