Beyond Blue picks ThingsAt for communications overhaul to improve hybrid collaboration

The mental health organisation was struggling with a legacy platform that was not fit for purpose.

Beyond Blue has partnered with ThingsAt to overhaul its videoconferencing and meeting room management platform enabling hybrid all-staff town hall meetings, remote connectivity and collaboration with external partners and contacts.

Following a market assessment, the mental health not-for-profit identified Microsoft Teams as the best fit to improve the ease and convenience of internal and external collaborations.

“The majority of our contacts and partners were already operating on Teams so the productivity and customer experience gains were going to be a game-changer,” said Craig Jameson, technology operations and performance manager, Beyond Blue.

Beyond Blue approached five vendors through an RFP process for the solution, eventually selecting ICT specialist Kenstra, following a formal review process.

MS Teams was deployed across the organisation and all meeting rooms were Teams-enabled. Kenstra handled the MS Teams implementation and its partner, ThingsAt, provided the managed meeting room service.

“We’ve delivered a ‘state-of-the-art’ managed meeting room solution using HP/Poly equipment that supports the Beyond Blue team to be fully productive,” said Ruy Franco, CEO, ThingsAt.

Legacy tech plagued with connectivity issues

Beyond Blue struggled with delayed connections and other hassles while running the previous legacy communication solution. It was messy and unproductive.

“The previous communication solution was, put simply, unreliable,” Jameson said.

The bespoke platform was not used by many other companies, which meant external parties had to download software or join calls via a web client, creating delays in communications.

“We also experienced connectivity issues with our meeting rooms and our hybrid working approach meant quick meetings and effective full company town halls were a challenge,” Jameson told CRN Australia.

Jameson said the organisation chose ThingsAt and Kenstra because the proposed solution was a best fit with its technical needs and the values aligned with Beyond Blue.

As part of the overhaul, ThingsAt upgraded 15 meeting rooms at the Beyond Blue head office in Melbourne. Its main meeting area can support town hall meetings with multiple cameras to showcase the speaker, the crowd and presentations. This set-up provides a similar meeting experience for employees calling in remotely.

It has also meant reduced training and coaching, as Teams is a solution everyone knows and is familiar with.

“We already had a well-established Microsoft environment and we were licensed for Teams. These days most people are on MS Teams and there was going to be a clear benefit in the ease and convenience of collaborating internally and externally,” Jameson said.

It was also a conscious decision to choose an implementation partner that could ease technical set-up and not to work with a big player in the market.

“We’re not a huge organisation and we didn’t want to get lost within a big corporate. Kenstra also had an existing relationship with Telstra which meant setting up the licensing and phone system was a seamless process,” he said.

Easing digital collaboration paves the way to improved productivity

As Teams is an integrated platform for chat, video conferencing and document sharing, staff can work together more effectively with seamless coordination across teams and departments.

As for meeting room management, the system works with simplicity and ease – staff walk into a meeting room, select ‘Join’ and they are into their meeting without the previous hassle or wasting of time.”

Coming out of this project, Jameson has learnt that a strong change management plan is needed and not to underestimate the importance of end-user training, even when adopting a familiar platform.

“And ensure you allow enough time for the room configuration if you’re upgrading meeting rooms,” he said.

Beyond Blue is finding the service quality is excellent and that Things At and Kenstra are responsive when he raise issues and they have the knowledge to solve any problems.

“I’m really happy with the support we’re getting because they understand our business,” he said.

Looking ahead, As Microsoft Teams is continually involving, Beyond Blue will continue looking for enhanced collaboration and to get the most out of its digital tools.