The corporate sector is in the middle of an upheaval. Michael Broadbent, Managing Director, Midwich APAC, believes we are seeing a fundamental shift in how AV is perceived.
“In the past, commercial AV was once
a ‘nice to have’ and often a bit of an
afterthought for a lot of corporate
operators,” he explains. “The impact of
Covid-19 and its subsequent disruption
has meant corporate operators now
realise AV is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it is
an essential and critical business tool for
now and for future business continuity.”
At the same time, Broadbent is aware
that AV systems and products deployed
in corporate environments are changing.
“Even though software is becoming
more prominent, there will still be a
long-lasting place for hardware. Of course,
this doesn’t change the fact that ‘value
add’ is critical for our future as a
distributor. With AV and IT convergence
and a new evolution of unified
communications and collaboration
[UC&C], Midwich must extend its ‘value
add’ proposition.”
With a focus on adding value and a
realisation of the direction the market
was headed, Midwich acted.
“When talking about UC&C in the
corporate sector, we knew it was about
additional services and this led us down
the path of starting a conversation with
Vantage Systems,” recalls Broadbent.
“The timing was perfect. We could see
we needed to add services, including
managed services, in a manner that did
not conflict with the channel and Vantage
Systems was at the point where it wanted
to take this idea and scale it. Midwich and
Vantage Systems coming together was a
way forward for both parties.”
Mark Buckley, Director UC & Services,
Midwich APAC and previously Managing
Director at Vantage Systems, leverages
his experience to distil the core challenge
faced by corporate operators.
“The main issue that the UC industry
has been facing is the level of
concentration required for a human being
to participate in a multi-party conference
call which is all based on the resolution
and the clarity of audio and video,” notes
Buckley. “If you are struggling to hear, you
have to concentrate harder and as you
concentrate harder, you cannot sustain
the effort for a longer meeting.”
Thankfully, there is a solution available.
“If you get on a plane, you want it to take
off on time and land on time,” explains
Buckley. “In the corporate environment,
it is managed services that provide the
‘predictability’ for a UC solution to ensure
meetings start on time and can proceed
without incident – without the detrimental
impact of technical interruptions and
glitches.”