Audio Video Departments often struggle because of shrinking budgets. This presentation was given in February 2016 in Amsterdam during the ISE, the worlds biggest Audio Video Show.
(c) Harald Steindl http://www.haraldsteindl.eu
3. Up until recently our life was not that bad
◦ Mostly got the money we needed & when we needed it
◦ Did not have to really explain ourselves
Nowadays the AV budget shrinks significantly
◦ Need to accomplish more with less money
◦ “Good is good enough” instead of “Only the best”
◦ Replacements at a fraction of the previous system
◦ “No money left for you” heard more often
Although the organization needs us more than ever!
4. Good old days New reality
AV was Big Boys Toys
◦ No (real) justification needed
◦ Often their pet projects
No business case needed
◦ No controlling
◦ No formal budget
not for investments
not for operations
Users wanted to have it,
organization tried to avoid it
◦ Business impact was rather low
AV is strictly business
◦ Used in all corners of the building
◦ Must prove its value
◦ Just another line in the budget
◦ One of many working tools
Organization PUSHES it
towards the user in order to
◦ Save costs
◦ Getting work done faster
and more efficient
◦ Enable “New World of Work”
6. New skills needed to survive in the future
◦ Finding Advocates in all areas of the organization,
who support our case - “AV is important for all of us”
◦ Being able to quantify, qualify and justify our needs:
“We need xxx for yyy in order to accomplish zzz!”
◦ Setting up and executing a multi year plan based on
long term budgets without changing course
◦ Evaluate new technology before the old breaks down
7. New task of educating our CTO boss, that our equipment
o Get things done faster & more efficient as well as saving energy
o Enable totally new work styles (read: UC, room automation, … )
o Not just look impressive & sound impressive but are productive
If we fail to:
◦ Our budgets will decline steadily as we cannot prove our value
◦ We will be pushed out of ever bigger parts of our own field
(QoD: How many huddle room projects happen without AV people?!)
◦ We will be trapped in the ivory tower, which will kind of always exist
as a tiny niche of the industry but getting smaller each year
8. But mainly NOT for technical reasons
◦ The CTO is THE business enabler within the
organization! Nothing happens without the CTO!
We now need to get along with others
◦ All of the sudden we do have a boss demanding that
we explain ourselves in order to get her/his attention
(read: money, time, respect)
◦ We compete with other sub departments and have to
sell our ideas besides simply delivering our tasks
◦ Let’s not forget the hidden danger: War Of Talents
10. Prime examples:
Projectors were too dim, too loud, having too less of
resolution and broke down frequently
Automatic need for constant replacement
◦ Now almost any projector is “good enough”
Did you see the major price drop recently?
AV usage was a privilege of the top dogs.
They demanded (and got!) always new stuff, right?
◦ Nowadays everybody is having meetings
11. Currently installed Projectors are considered good enough
For smaller rooms procurement bought consumer LCDs
with HDMI extension cords without even asking us
Top Management has other pet projects nowadays
People use Facetime instead of VC, iPads instead of touch panels;
they call our stuff “old, complicated, overpriced legacy”
Our new CTO boss has no clue about AV and therefore
cuts our budget or shifts it to IT
My IT buddies are being sent to trainings frequently but not me
If I think about it, the average age of our stuff increases
14. Direction And Initiatives
◦ What needs to be done? Who does it? What resources are needed?
◦ Remember: No pain, no gain! Business Lingo: Spend to save!
Meet the Administrative Imperatives
◦ Job security = Making sure they want something from you!
Manage Growth, Secure Resources, and Operate Effectively
◦ These are classic overall goals.
Our job is to think about how we can help achieving these goals.
◦ Important: It’s not about improving internally (that’s a no brainer!)
but how our technology can make a positive impact for the overall
organization! No price tag = no impact!
15. Define the role of AV within the organization
◦ How are we responsible for the overall success?
◦ If we cannot justify our existence we can only hope for charity!
◦ Define the interfaces to IT, Building management
◦ Approach HR (totally underestimated!): They “own” the user!
Define a long term investment plan
◦ What do we need when and why? If you don’t get enough input, suggest!
◦ Define expected life time for every device!
In line with your CFO’s plan regarding depreciation/write-off?
Example: Austrian Tax law write-off time frame:
IT-equipment 3 yrs, normal goods 5 yrs, building investments 20 yrs!
16. Define use cases and present solutions for them
Define expected life time
At max. 9 different systems:
3 different sizes with good, better, best versions
80/20 rule does apply, so there are special rooms
◦ More than 20% have special needs? You got it all wrong!
Get approval once, roll out over time on your own
Every other department does it, why don’t we too?
17. Track uptime and document each and every outage
◦ Users under estimate perfectly working systems
but over estimate (their own) problems #dramaqueen
Hard facts will always trump. Bosses love facts but hate guesses!
Start collecting all the data you can NOW!
Via SNMP, Crestron Fusion (or others), from building mgmt, etc.
Find and use metrics making sense to the bosses
Proactively hand over colourful pie charts to your boss so
he/she can shine at the board meeting.
NEVER forget to include suggested actions based on trends!
18. Less than >3% usage
on installed Doc Cams?
◦ Better spend our money
elsewhere!
15% TV & BluRay?!
◦ Boss, we‘ve got a
problem!
>8% Fixed PC vs.
<50% notebook?
◦ Why do we still have
fixed PCs in the room?
20. Most likely the most telling piece of data:
Average Age of Devices vs. Expected Lifetime
It’s that easy: If your stuff gets older over time you invest too less!
This will bite you (and your boss!) badly down the road!
You do have defined an expected lifetime?
It’s agreed upon, documented and in line with the CFO’s book keeping?
You do know you suffer when you hear:
This seems still ok! No need to think about it now!
Tip: Start 2 years early with replacement! One for budgeting and
(at least) one budget carry over (you cannot always win!)
Strategic Planning = Thinking now about what should happen in 2 years
21. CAPEX
Capital Expenses
Buying stuff
“Projects”
“investing”
OPEX
Operating Expenses
Employing people
Paying rent & energy
“keeping alive”
Grey area example: CAPEX or OPEX?
User Training is CAPEX when budgeted within
the project but OPEX if forgotten to be
included!
22. IT is calculating with
3 years life time
AV‘s life time is normally
longer (how long?)
Ratio is even worse
IT people dont trust us when we
only ask for CAPEX money
BTW: Some consultants are
REALLY bad in geometry!
This is what you get, when you
steal a graphic from the internet.
23. Companies are obsessed to reduce OPEX (see previous slide)!
◦ CAPEX often not a big problem if budgeted in time
◦ Bosses fear that OPEX will kill them in the long run
Whenever people say „we don’t have any money“
always ask „what kind of money“ ;-)
AV people often don’t budget in advance, so no CAPEX for AV!
◦ Bosses need to take OPEX money as last resort to get things done!
Did you ever “repair” a system but in fact totally replacing it?
◦ This is NOT the proper way to survive as an industry.
Once again: SPEND TO SAVE
◦ Increase CAPEX to reduce OPEX is THE Play Of The Day
24. The AV Masterplan is an agreed upon long term
worksheet about the WHAT, WHY and WHEN.
It is NOT a technical wish list but a serious
document about the implications AV will have on
the organization’s ability to achieve its overall goals
by providing efficient and effective ways of
communication. It also details all related
investments needed in order to fulfil its duty.
25. It takes some cheese to catch a mouse!
First, plan your work, then work your plan!
Qualify & quantify but never forget to justify!
Document or die! (German: Wer schreibt, der bleibt!)
The information is already there, what you make out of it
is called innovation. (#IoT, #Big Data )
Data is nothing without interpretation! Trend = Friend
Bosses are like politicians: They need to look good despite
knowing that they have no clue about the subject.
