Professional on-site and off-site work to fit-off, commission and deliver the audio visual solutions that are what you expected; fully integrated into the building space & with ICT systems and processes.
The way organisations work has fundamentally changed. Hybrid models, digital collaboration and expectations around workplace experience have made AV and workplace technologies business critical. Workplace Tech directly influences productivity, engagement and culture, and poor experiences have a real impact on how people feel about coming to work. Importantly, today this technology runs on ICT systems that requires proactive, ongoing management to perform well.
What has not evolved is the way workplace technology is planned, procured and delivered. Too often, it is treated as an add-on to the construction process, where the focus is on the physical space rather than how people interact. Or responsibility is pushed to internal ICT teams who are experts in enterprise systems, but not in specialist workplace technologies that sit between people, space and technology. As a result, AV and workplace technology falls between ICT and Facilities, with no clear owner, accountability or depth of expertise.
If your organisation has experienced bad AV as part of a new fit-out, you probably don’t need to read why the current construction model fails with workplace technologies. If so, jump to our methodology here.
People are often the organisation’s most significant investment, yet their effectiveness, engagement and retention are undermined by poorly considered workplace technology.
Workplace technology is frequently oversimplified in construction briefs and tenders — reduced to statements such as “an eight-person meeting room running Teams.” In reality, effective workplace technology must support a wide range of behaviours, work styles and collaboration scenarios. And which flavour of Teams is that anyway?
When this complexity is overlooked, it leads to everyday frustrations such as:
These issues directly impact productivity, confidence in hybrid work and staff engagement — contributing to frustration, disengagement and quiet quitting.
ECAV is not the expert in how your organisation should work. Those decisions sit with your executive team, Human Resources and line managers — they define how people work in the office, remotely or in hybrid environments. Where ECAV brings value is in ensuring the benefits, cost and implications of the related workplace technologies are properly considered. And then translating those workplace strategy decisions into the technology, systems and environments required to support your teams effectively, consistently and at scale.
ECAV is also not the expert in creating a beautiful or inspiring workplace — that remains the role of architects and interior designers. However, the implications of incorporating workplace technology are rarely their area of specialisation.
Some space decisions must be informed by technology early — what technology capabilities are required to achieve the business and workforce outcomes and do those technologies fit with ICT. Other decisions can follow — including how power and data are provisioned, where systems are located, who delivers the work and how it will be maintained.
This requires genuine design and planning synergy between workplace strategy, technology and the physical environment — something the traditional construction process is not designed to deliver.
Workplace technology is no longer separate from the ICT environment. These systems – computer-based and running alongside the corporate network – introduce to ICT:
No ICT team would deploy enterprise systems without planning for active on-going management — yet monitoring, support and lifecycle management of workplace technology are rarely defined or budgeted for in construction-led projects. A genuine total cost of ownership perspective is essential.
ECAV has the deep expertise in both the design, integration and support of Workplace Tech, expertise often missing from ICT departments, whether in-house or outsourced.
Insufficient up-front effort in the business, technical and construction considerations raised above results in budget guesstimates for the tech in the planning phase. The actual tech costs are finalised too far into the construction cycle, when all other build aspects & expenditures are locked in – far too late for sensible Value Engineering.
This back-to-front approach creates both immediate and long-term financial risk, including:
When investment decisions focus only on upfront cost, organisations miss the opportunity to assess return on investment across productivity, employee experience.
ECAV are experts at costing & comparing Workspace Tech solutions and ensuring their effective operation.
The relationships of workplace tech with the new ways of work are clear. The implications of getting the tech wrong are critical.
Addressing this requires more than better products or tighter project management. It requires a fundamentally different approach — one that treats workplace technology as a strategic capability, not a construction add-on.
The ECAV Approach brings structure, accountability and specialist expertise to an area that traditionally sits between ICT, Facilities, HR and Finance. By engaging early, aligning stakeholders and designing technology around how people actually work, ECAV ensures workplace technology is integrated, scalable and financially justified — from concept through to reality.
Since 1996, ECAV has partnered with hundreds of organisations and construction projects, learning where workplace technology succeeds — and where it fails.
From this experience, we’ve developed a three-part methodology:
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Consulting across stakeholders on workplace technologies to meet business, culture & space needs, integrate with ICT, fit within the full lifecycle budget, and delivered through the construction process.
Professional on-site and off-site work to fit-off, commission and deliver the audio visual solutions that are what you expected; fully integrated into the building space & with ICT systems and processes.
MaintainPlus is a suite of customisable services including remote monitoring & support, preventative maintenance, and onsite services to ensure high reliability audio visual systems.