1. Rethinking AV/VC Conferencing Support
Through Managed Services
NLIT 2014
Jack Schmidt, Dana Stasiak
Argonne National Laboratory
Chad Karkos, Ron Ford
Kemtah Group

2. Who are we?
 Jack Schmidt
– IT Service Manager/Process Manager
– 1+ years at Argonne
– 32+ years at Fermi
– ITIL Zealot since 2007
 Dana Stasiak
– Service Owner
– 17+ years at Argonne
– User Experience Champion
 Chad Karkos
– AV/VTC Service Manager
– 2+ years at Kemtah

3. Argonne National Laboratory
25 miles southwest of Chicago, IL
1,500 wooded acres/315 buildings
3,350 Employees
15 research divisions/6 user facilities
Budget of $722 million

4. Overview
 About us
 What motivated us to change our service model
 A look back at where we started with AV/VC services and support
 Where we are today
 What we’re thinking about for the future
 Q&A

5. Multiple Service Providers
Past Present Future

6. Service drivers
Environment
• Budget, travel and
sustainability constraints
were driving an increase
in videoconferencing
• Multi-disciplinary
research pushing limits
on existing services
• Increase in remote
collaborators
• Sustainability efforts
allowed build-out of VTC
rooms
Technology
• 40+ rooms of various
sizes with a wide range of
audio, video (A/V) &
video conference
capabilities
• Multiple tools available
with overlapping features
• Recent changes in ESNet
Collaboration services
• Variances in funding for
ongoing room
maintenance
Support
• Largely unsupported due
to budget limitations
• Remote collaboration
requires some level of
support to drive adoption
across the lab
• Consistent support needs
for a variety of events
• On-site
• Off-site
• High profile
• No service delivery
measurements

7. Timeline
Nov 2012
• AV support
proof of
concept
Mar 2013
• Lab-wide AV
support
contract in
place
Apr 2013
• Lab-wide
VTC support
contract
• 4 room pilot
• KPIs to
justify need
June 2013
• Implement
initial VTC
scheduling
tool
Oct 2013
• Spike in VTC
usage
• Govt.
shutdown
looms

8. Initial video conference scheduling tool

9. A la carte charging model
 Pros
– Provided options to customers
depending on needs
 Cons
– Hard to know what services to
request
– Inconsistent billing

10. What did we learn?
Setting up a meeting …
1. Define meeting requirements
2. Ask admin staff for a room
3. If none available ask admin staff in
another building
4. Room found! Follow process from
local admin staff to request resource
5. Ask local IT support for help.
– Can they access equipment in room?
– Do they know how to use it?
6. Ask for room support
– Facilities? Local building managers?
Lessons Learned
 Customers were confused by:
– Which service provider can help me?
(when there are multiple)
– Al a carte pricing
– Charging for parts of a service and
not others
 Managing two contractors with
overlapping services is time-
consuming
 Requesting service via phone/email
resulted in personalized but
inconsistent service
 Lots of ways rooms are scheduled
 Need to track request -> billing

11. Single Service Provider
Past Present Future

12. Service improvements
 Feb 2014 - Consolidate to a single
vendor for both AV and VTC services
 Create better way to request service
 Track all service requests in Service
Now
 Measure our service delivery
– Customer satisfaction
– Utilization
Collaboration Services
VTC /
Managed
Service
Web / Self
Service
AV / Staff
Augmentation

13. Collaboration support services
Conference rooms
Special events
High profile event support
Auditorium events

14. Exchange integration
 Exchange invite -> email list ->
Service Now
 Pros
– Tickets created for every
calendar entry
– Calendar view of all events
 Cons
– Tickets created for canceled
events too!
– Overhead to manage tickets

15. How are we doing?
Weekly service meetings to review service dashboard

16. How are we doing?
Monthly review of KPIs – Support and engineering requests

17. How are we doing?
Monthly review of KPIs – Customer satisfaction
0.0%
7.4%
14.8%
44.4%
33.3%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
Very
Dissatisfied
Somewhat
Dissatisfied
Neutral Somewhat
Satified
Very Satisfied

18. How are we doing?
Monthly review of KPIs –VC travel avoidance costs since June 2013
$445,436
191,052kg
$0
$50,000
$100,000
$150,000
$200,000
$250,000
$300,000
$350,000
$400,000
$450,000
$500,000
Savings CO2 (kg)

19. What did we learn?
 Travel cost avoidance is significant
 Exchange/ServiceNow integration hard to manage
– Lots of overhead for the vendor
– Customers were confused by multiple emails from ServiceNow and Exchange
 Vendor able to sub-contract for
– Peak requests
– Special equipment needs
 Need to partner with Facilities and Office of Project Management
 Multiple overlapping service offerings drive support costs up and adoption down

20. Managed Service
Past Present Future

21. Service improvements
 Move to a managed service contract
 Continue to improve service request
process
 Create service bundles based on
room usage patterns
 Develop technology standards
 Look to consolidate offerings
– Driven by ESNet Collaboration
Service changes
Managed Service
AV/VTC
Engineering
Web Conf.
Support
AV/VTC
Support

22. Consolidation of technology for simpler user
experience
Today
 Adobe Connect
– 50 concurrent licenses
– 2 seminar rooms with 250 users
 ReadyTalk (ESNet)
– Mainly used by ANL HEP community
 PGI conferencing bridge
– Integrates with Adobe Connect
 Video endpoints
– Polycom room systems
– Mondo Pad
 Whatever Best Buy has on sale
Future???
 Single video conferencing and web
sharing solution???
 Still need large seminar capability
(250+ people)
 May still need separate audio bridge
 Standard supported configurations
for:
– Conference rooms
– Auditoriums
– Executive office suites
– Digital signage
– Video walls

23. Technology lifecycle management

24. Service request form

25. Service offering bundles

26. At a glance
Past
Multiple Service
Providers
• Local IT departments
• AV vendor
• VTC vendor
• Web conferencing is
self-service
• Limited scalability
Present
Single Service Provider
• Single vendor provides
AV and VTC support
• Web conferencing is
largely self-service
• Better scalability
Future
Managed Service
• Managed service will
provide all AV/VTC and
web conference
support
• Scalable service to
meet future demands

27. Questions?
Dana Stasiak
dstasiak@anl.gov
630-252-0912
Jack Schmidt
jschmidt@anl.gov
630-252-1533
Chad Karkos
ckarkos@kemtah.com
630-252-1976
Ron Ford
rford@kemtah.com
636-297-5206

28. Additional information

29. Service Design (AV)
 Description: Provides support to facilitate video, audio and web communication
for on-site or with off-site collaborators. Facilitate preparation for special
requests. Includes consulting and design for new installations.
 Entitlement:
– Audiovisual operations, maintenance and consulting and installation services on a cost-
recovery basis covering over 40 conference rooms across the site.
– Provide end-user training related to A/V systems.
 Support Costs: A la carte pricing model.
 Support Availability: 3 business days. Emergency support available (higher cost)
 Service Availability: Mon thru Fri 7:30am – 5pm, excluding Lab Holidays. Off Hours
and Weekend support is negotiable. (ANL Service Desk)

30. Service Design (VTC)
 Description: Provides support to facilitate video, audio and web communication
for on-site or with off-site collaborators. Facilitate preparation for special
requests. Includes consulting and design for new installations.
 Entitlement:
– Video conferencing resources and services are available in several dedicated conference
rooms around the Laboratory
– (Video conferences scheduled, connected, and supported via use of the ESnet bridge.
– Schedule and support external video conference connections through ESnet.
 Support Costs: No cost recovery structure in place
 Support Availability: 3 business days notification recommended
 Service Availability: Mon thru Fri 8:00am – 6pm, excluding Lab Holidays. Off Hours
and Weekend support is negotiable. (Kemtah VCS Help Desk)

31. Service Design (Web)
 Description: Provides support to facilitate web communication for on-site or with
off-site collaborators.
 Entitlement:
– ReadyTalk: integrated audio and web conferencing for small meetings via the web.
– Adobe Connect: web conferencing for small meetings via the web + PGI for audio
connections
– Users are expected to setup & run their own sessions
– Training assistance on request
 Support Costs: No cost recovery structure in place
 Support Availability: Local IT support
 Service Availability: Mon thru Fri 7:30am – 5pm, excluding Lab Holidays. Off Hours
and Weekend support is negotiable. (Argonne Service Desk)