Monthly Archives: May 2023

Whether or not you have ever heard the term “digital signage,” chances are you have seen it in use. In today’s fast-paced environment, companies, schools, hospitals, and government organizations use digital displays to share information in various ways.

Whether displaying maps of campus or showcasing the latest product launch, digital signage is a cost-effective way to communicate with a broad audience. It can also improve customer experience, and enhance brand awareness. This article will discuss the benefits of using digital signage players in different settings.

Commercial Offices:

Have you ever seen a large video wall display in a commercial office building? The lcd video wall both captures your attention and conveys information in a visually engaging way. Talk about making a great first impression!

For this reason, digital signage displays are becoming increasingly popular in commercial offices. They offer a dynamic way to communicate with employees, visitors, and customers.

We know psychologically that the brain processes visuals faster than text, so individuals are more likely to remember what they see. By leveraging quick imagery provided through digital displays, businesses can make a lasting impression on viewers in a fraction of the time.

Some of the content companies are showing through this technology includes company news, event promotion, product showcases, and providing wayfinding information. By using digital signage players instead of traditional paper-based signage, companies can save time and money and share unlimited messages. Administrators can update digital signage in real-time to support quick changes. This allows businesses to communicate important information to their employees or customers whenever needed.

Education:

Digital signage players are an excellent tool for educational institutions to communicate with students, faculty, and visitors. Schools and universities often leverage digital displays to share schedules, promote campus events, display important safety announcements, and show maps or directions to specific buildings or rooms.

Digital displays also make a difference in the classroom by displaying educational content, such as videos and presentations. Using interactive digital signage, teachers can conduct quizzes; students can collaborate on group activities, share their comments and responses on display, and see real-time information like stock market updates.

In classrooms especially, information retention is a significant focus. Research shows that people are more likely to remember information that elicits an emotional response. When teachers share imagery that evokes emotions such as excitement, empathy, or curiosity, their students are more likely to create a connection with the content and remember what they learned. By using digital signage players, educational institutions can improve campus communication and classroom engagement.

Healthcare:

In healthcare settings, digital signage players can provide patients, visitors, and staff critical real-time information. It can also boost the trust and credibility of the hospital. It is no secret that hospitals are often stressful places full of uncertainty.

When hospitals display information professionally and with visual appeal, viewers are more likely to trust and believe that information. So whether the goal is to put people at ease or teach them pertinent health information, digital signage plays a crucial role.

Other helpful uses for digital signage include displaying wait times so patients know how long they may have to wait for assistance. Wayfinding information helps visitors discover where their loved one stays in the building, and learning where amenities like the café, gift shop, or hospital services are, just got easier.

Internally, administrators can use remote managing to update digital signage to give essential training and presentations to hospital staff. By using digital signage players, healthcare facilities can improve communication with patients and staff to improve the healthcare experience for everyone.

Government:

Government agencies increasingly use digital signs to improve communication with citizens and visitors. When capturing people’s attention, nothing does better than digital signage. Digital signage grabs viewers’ attention with its display of motion, color, and other visual elements. It keeps them engaged with your message.

Displaying real-time schedules and routes on a digital display is ideal for public transit. There are many distractions in these environments, so the display needs to be attention-grabbing.

Governments use digital signage for many purposes. They share community events at their various sites, promote tourism, and communicate emergency response and disaster relief. This ensures that the general population is able to view this information quickly and easily. Government agencies are improving their communication and engagement with citizens by using digital signage players.

Digital signage can help capture someone’s attention and make them remember your message. It can also help you emotionally connect with your content. By using digital signage players, businesses, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and government agencies can improve communication, engagement, and the overall experience of their audience. Is digital signage right for your organization?

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If you are struggling to decide which video conferencing system to standardize on, we can help. Right now, the two most prominent video conferencing solutions are Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, and you are guaranteed to have different opinions among staff on which reigns supreme. So how do you decide which system is best for your company?

What Both Zoom and Teams Can Do

First, let’s focus on the similar features each program offers. Both programs provide video conferencing services with tools to help teams collaborate. On the conferencing side, they each offer meeting rooms, record sessions, and provide transcripts. Each meeting host can share these recordings with invitees and save them to Google Drive.

Zoom and Teams each offer whiteboarding capabilities for meetings and chat features. However, Team’s offerings are much more robust, allowing you to use gifs, stickers, and more from its taskbar. The two platforms have excellent sharing functions that enable remote screen control when someone struggles with tech issues. Both programs also integrate exceptionally well with other video conferencing device technologies like camera bars.

Differences Between Zoom and Teams

Now, let’s move on to some of the significant differences. To begin, Zoom was created first and foremost as a video conferencing tool. It excels at hosting online events and webinars, streaming to social media, and hosting large amounts of people even when their internet connection is poor. It provides sharp video and audio for hundreds of people in real time.

In contrast, Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one tool that offers video conferencing, meeting tools, and a robust chat feature.

Integrating With Other Products

While both programs have similar functionalities, each stands out in different areas. For starters, Teams integrates seamlessly with other online Microsoft products and is already available if you have Microsoft 365. This integration allows meeting collaborators to work on the same document and have it updated automatically.

In contrast, Zoom pairs with over a thousand different apps and has similar collaboration functionality with Google Sheets and other products. However, it updates slowly for shared documents.

International Collaboration

Both programs offer translation functionality if your company works with teams internationally. With Teams, you can get live translation in over 40 languages. You can select a message in the chat and translate it into your preferred language. With Zoom, there are only 12 language translations currently supported.

Internal vs. External Meetings

Regarding connecting to the meeting, Teams is excellent for in-office meetings with staff who have the app. Outside meetings can be challenging to join if the meeting participant still needs to get the Teams app or access to Microsoft Edge or Chrome. Meanwhile, Zoom sends guests one link that quickly and easily logs them into a meeting.

Price Point Comparison

The price point is another essential consideration when comparing the two systems. Each has a base-level free version available. These versions give around an hour of free meeting time and can hold up to one-hundred participants. Moving up the levels, however, Teams is more budget-friendly per user and offers a fair amount of storage.

Which Platform Should You Choose?

As you can see, Zoom and Teams each have their perks and drawbacks. So, when choosing which video conferencing software is best for your organization, you must decide what is most important. Microsoft Teams has many fantastic options if your goal is better productivity and employee collaboration. If you want to make your external meetings and events great, Zoom may be your best choice.

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BR Wealth Management

Most of the time, when wealth management is mentioned, the first thought that comes to mind is managing portfolios. That is not the case at BR Wealth Management. Managing Principal of BRWM Brian Randolph and Client Associate Hailey Duncan sat down with OEC to discuss how their exciting new office project is setting their business up for success.

What Makes BR Wealth Management Unique

Unlike most financial advisory firms, BRWM focuses on blending investment management with financial planning. “We call the combination of those two pieces wealth management, and that combination gives our clients the best financial outcome,” says Brian. For anyone walking in their door for the first time, BRWM has a solution that fits everyone’s needs. However, they first ensure they are the right fit by learning about the client’s goals, objectives, and concerns before developing a plan to help. The company is unique in its multi-generation aspect of wealth management. “Most of our clients are second or third-generation clients, and we hope to be a quasi-family office for them and their future generations.”

Teamwork plays a critical role at BRWM. While each member of the six-person staff has a different specialty, they all work together to serve a family unit. This collaboration allows them to give their clients the best service possible and makes the staff feel like one big family.

A Blessing In Disguise

What BRWM did not expect recently was the sudden need to move that family to a new location. “Our lease was ending,” says Hailey, “and we had to find a new location quickly. However, what started with a move based on necessity quickly became an opportunity to design a space that better fit our needs. It was a blessing in disguise.” Fortunately, the new space offered BRWM a clean palate. “I wanted a welcoming space that felt like home but was still a great place to work. We wanted more open space, light, plants, comfortable seating, and individual spaces for people to work privately or collaborate in the open. Cailey [Workplace Consultant] and the OEC team helped us flush that out,” says Brian.

The company was working under a tight timeline, but with Cailey’s help, they met all their deadlines.

What started as a potentially stressful experience was quickly fixed by Cailey and OEC.

Hailey Duncan, Client Associate

Hailey shares, “Cailey covered the different types of furniture we needed and showed us all the possible finishes. We landed on some light veneer for our desking and a lot of blue, soft seating that looks
modern and reflects our branding.”

The Difference Between Offices

The old space BRWM worked in was old, dated, and had the classic wealth management feel with dark colors and rich mahogany. While the offices are roughly the same size, the new layout gives staff privacy within their own offices as well as conference rooms and spaces for open collaboration. One such space, the lounge, is Hailey’s personal favorite, while Brian loves the informal conference room.

Fortunately for me, helping clients meet their financial goals is my passion, so this job doesn’t feel like work. Being in this space is great because it’s both welcoming to older generations and innovative and fun enough for younger ones.”

Brian Randolph: Managing Principal

Ready For Growth

Now that they are settling into their beautiful new office, BRWM is ready to dive into growth mode. “Our main focus for the next decade-plus is on growth and continuing to serve our multiple generations of clients,” Brian shares. “Fortunately for me, helping clients meet their financial goals is my passion, so this job doesn’t feel like work. Being in this space is great because it’s both welcoming to older generations and innovative and fun enough for younger ones. It brings in the technology we need for conference calls and the comfort of having casual conversations and sometimes heated or difficult conversations about the decisions clients need to make over time. This is a great space, and we’re looking forward to growing in it while we help our clients reach their goals.”

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What should be an organization’s goal when developing collaboration spaces? At OEC technology, we believe the most important part of installing new technology is ensuring employees understand and use it easily. If your room is too complicated, it won’t get used, hurting your business.

BYOM Offers Flexibility

With simplicity and ease of use being the goal, BYOM or “Bring Your Own Meeting” is essential in any organization. Why? BYOM simplifies complex control systems by running all the technology in a room with a single laptop. This allows employees to run any meeting from their device, regardless of the meeting type. This flexibility is important because employees are comfortable and in control when hosting a meeting using their devices. Employees in control are more effective and more inclined to collaborate in hybrid meeting environments.

What to consider when selecting technology:

• Standardization + BYOM
• BYOM Exclusively
• Cost for Each System

The Importance of Standardizing

While BYOM offers flexibility, standardizing on one operating system like Microsoft Teams or Zoom is still a good idea. The main benefits of standardization include ease of training staff to use a single system and IT management of that system. Training a team and managing licenses for a system is much easier if standardized. The primary drivers of standardization are current limitations on technology. While collaboration room technology is improving, it still lacks the ability to flip between platforms. While you may like both Teams and Zoom, the camera bars on the market cannot support both simultaneously. To create the best experience, choosing one is crucial.

BYOM + Standardization

To circumvent this flip issue, standardization in conjunction with BYOM gives users the best of both worlds. If a company standardizes on Teams, they can reserve a room from their calendar, share a Teams meeting, and join that meeting with one touch. If they want to reserve the room without creating a Teams meeting, the room is still reserved, but they can manually connect their device to the camera and microphone bar while hosting, say, a Zoom call. Both options allow the user to access the full functionality of the technology while supporting their precise need.

Choosing The Best Technology For You

When bringing new technology into your space, consider a few things. First, do you want to pick a platform or go BYOM for everything? This is a question about functionality and deciding what works best for your team. Second, there is a cost associated with every platform you choose, so consider how many rooms you will be supporting. Ultimately, the goal is understanding and ease of use for your teams, so choose the technology that will help you succeed.

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