This week here at AVI-SPL UK, we have been very excited to be able to launch Collaboration as a Service (CaaS) – the first of its kind to bundle hardware, software licensing, installation, training, maintenance, help desk support, managed services, and analytics with reporting to optimise user experience of collaboration technology – all within 1 subscription!
So, let’s dig a little deeper, what is Collaboration as a Service…
Paying for services on a subscription is nothing new. For the last few years in our personal lives, we have been paying for our phone contracts, our internet access, TV, or music as a subscription. Gym memberships are now a subscription, and we’re even paying for our cars as a service instead of leasing.
In the commercial world, there has been a large adoption to paying as a service with Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and even Platform as a Service. In the commercial property world, companies are now paying for offices as a service with services such as We Work.
These all-in-one subscriptions are no longer leases with a fancy new name.
How we used to finance
Until now, the meeting room equipment has been financed as a capital expenditure or on a lease agreement. This equipment then has a maintenance agreement paid annually and perhaps a managed service and help desk service to increase the service levels for the users. Software licenses have also been perpetual and a capital expense with annual upgrade costs. This has meant meeting rooms could be expensive to fit out, complicated to budget for the true costs, costly to maintain, and were not updated with improved technology or changing user requirements.
AVI-SPL’s Collaboration as a Service
In this changing world, AVI-SPL are now able to help our customers benefit from an As a Service model for their collaboration needs with our unique Collaboration as a Service. This means our customers can pay for all of their meeting and UC services in a cost-effective subscription model, monthly or quarterly as they prefer.
The AVI-SPL Collaboration as a Service can include as much or as little as the customer requires. It could include meeting room hardware such as:
- Booking panels
- VC equipment
- Screens
- Cameras
- Audio equipment
- UC licenses and services such as remote support, events, monitoring
It could also include services such as:
- Room design
- Installation
- Maintenance
- Analytics reporting, and
- Lifecycle management
It could even be a standard room cost to include everything, or a cost per user to include headsets, cameras, and licenses. Plus, if our customers are stuck with existing equipment that is no longer fit for purpose, or the needs have changed, we will trade in and environmentally recycle the existing equipment.
The value of Collaboration as a Service to your organisation
What does this mean in real terms to our customers? Some of the advantages are quite obvious, like cash flow, using operations expenses rather than precious capital. Other advantages such as one cost for all services allow for budgeting of true cost of ownership. And no surprise renewal costs or unexpected increases are less obvious but just as important.
The main benefits are improved value for money, return on investment, and maximising the user’s level of satisfaction and therefore productivity. Why is that the case? By using an as-a-service model, our customers have the flexibility to have better equipment. More often, they can add services to improve their users’ level of satisfaction and are able to change and upgrade as their requirements change without having to refinance.
The journey to Collaboration as a Service
What is the customer journey to Collaboration as a Service? That really depends on the customer, where they are now, and where they want to get to. Generally, most customers have a road map or standards policy that they are to move toward, but perhaps are stuck with legacy equipment or finance and budgets restraints.
At AVI-SPL our collaboration specialists work with our customers on the standards they are looking to achieve and the services they would like for their users. We can then advise on a standards catalogue or an online portal and give a financial model to suit the short-term transition as well as a long-term migration of all the collaboration needs.
One Fixed, Predictable Payment for the Contract Term
