The Impact of COVID on Integrators and Solutions Planning

Mark Coxon, Technology Leader at Tangram Interiors, Digital Workflow and AV Professional Blogger, and Podcast Host, stopped by Collaborative Tech Talk to talk about the impact of COVID-19 – specifically, the pandemic’s effect on integrators from a planning standpoint.

One of the primary things Coxon felt has been missing since the pandemic hit is the ability for professionals to collaborate on the fly in a physical setting.

“When we go into an office, there are collisions, there are chance meetings that happen, and sometimes those lead to maybe an innovative conversation or getting a unique viewpoint to getting a problem unstuck,” Coxon said.

Collaboration in a work environment is critical for success, and, while virtual meetings allow work to continue in the pandemic, “there is no such thing as adjacency in a virtual world,” Coxon said.

“Where is the impromptu Zoom meeting that all of a sudden happens when I have an idea that I need to talk to somebody about, and we need to have three other people to be in a room?”

A lot of coordination and scheduling must take place to get people together for a virtual conversation. For many, including integrators, a lot of work must be done on-site, so safety precautions and considerations need to occur to get workplaces ready for people to come back.

In addition to safety measures and protocols, Coxon said, “we can’t all be in the same space, anymore, so a room that sat 12 seats six. If you need all 12 of those people in a meeting, those people are distributed, even if they are all in the office. This hybrid work environment we’re going back to is a lot trickier to pull off and to navigate than the work-from-home transition.”