Operational work continues. For the interop solution we are now exploring Pexip, an cloud based service which allows the bridging between the various Cisco, Microsoft, Google and other AV collaboration technologies/services. Hopefully we see more return to office becoming possible soon. For sure, the changes made to the AV estate will support these users in their collaboration requirements. It remains interesting but at same time demanding times. Stay safe, look after yourself!

Making further improvements to the webcasting service. An important requirement was to deliver live captioning for disabled staff. In all our events live captioning is now offered by default. Next step is to offer other language captioning as well. We adjusted the webcast service for China, specially in the network/data traffic between end users, office users and the Internet. Country regulations made end users to experience delays and stalling in the connections. Also in the Europe/US region we saw network constrains. Having audio/video traffic on proxies can cause delays which lead to users experiencing staling and lost packages. Moving traffic to “direct” is the answer by using the PAC files. The Video conferencing and Telepresence service is seeing low utilization at this moment due to less people in the offices. Keeping the estate up to date and checked for any vulnerabilities remains priority one. As units reach there expected maximum live time this will become an new focus items as well and to look for remediation at some point. With the MTR’s getting ready for deployment/operational it raised a new questions. With an mixed estate of MTR, VC and TP but as well the required connectivity to the external business partners seeing the need for an interop solution. Allowing a mixed connection between various technologies possible. Called for new project to explore the market for solutions.

The first couple MTR system have been built in a “prove of concept” in different locations around the world. With Covid remaining its challenging to perform any proper user acceptance in the rooms. The systems are build on a two screen setup, Logitech camera and microphones. The usage of the system is very comparable with Skype room systems (SRS) Schedule a Teams call, invite the room and the user can join the Teams call from the room by clicking the invite from the touch console. There are new options available, one is the proximity join from Teams. In the office setting up an Teams call will allow the user to see available MTR rooms and if they are free/available. This would then allow the user to join the call from the laptop but proceed with the call from the meeting room. Now exploring our new monitoring possibilities with Teams Admin Center (TAC) This will allow us to spot and identify issues in the room before users, this is an important update. Moving AV to an connect state for monitoring is an hard requirement. It will allow you to see issues but as well monitor usage and ultimately trends, are we actually building the right rooms for our customers?

Working on the Skype room system (SRS) replacement project. We landed on Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) An system that promise similar functionality as SRS and will be able to connect seamless with MS Teams calls scheduled from the desktops and at same time backwards compatible with any Skype call still out here. New archetypes have been created based on MTR for the medium, large and special meeting rooms. Looking back at SRS, wanted to get much higher level of standardization in the rooms. Very similar to my work in the “standard” meeting rooms. This will allow easier user adoption, less complexity from the support perspective and lower costs to implement. The option to let the equipment adjust itself to the room size and shape was an important requirement. Audio/video system (Logitech Rally) allows this flexibility but at same time remains delivering to that standardization as well. New camera technologies allows user tracking in the room. Users sitting on the far end of the meeting room will now be automatically framed correctly and as more users would join in the room the camera adjusts accordingly. It allowed us to create the rooms “wireless” Users joining a MTR room can share content by connecting to a Teams call and share the desktop, taking the need for HDMI away. Need to setup a new Service description document and support process with our existing support vendor and agree on SLA’s. The idea is to take SRS fully out and replace for MTR.

Changed to new business unit. The Zoom webcasting service is running strong and service usage is well above expected numbers. Covid hit us, making this webcast service even more important for the organization. The change to speak and share info with the large majority of users now working from home is much appreciated by leadership. As the webcast service is cloud based, users at home where able to connect with events directly from the personal internet connection, this took away the load on the VPN servers. Getting the service to operate around the world still required additional work, especially for China we needed to make some adjustments. MS Teams is rolled out to Shell, this will now make me focus on my Skype Room Systems. We don’t have users in the offices due to Covid, we know that if users would return and schedule Teams calls that SRS would not be able to support. An project is called for to explore options to replace SRS units.

My Skype room systems (SRS) are now running under the new support contract and things have been improved. Systems are less offline due to account issues or HW failure now the support vendor is looking after the service. When a system is offline its being resolved much quicker which leads to less user impact and escalations. Now focusing on my webcast service. The existing service delivered by AT&T enabled audio and video webcasting to large group (+10k) users. The service is based on single and multicasting connections. The multicast for the offices where large number of users would join webcasts and to protect the LAN to keep required bandwidth in check. An project was called for to explore the market on available solutions. We landed on a solution from Zoom with additional components added on that. Our presenters are joining Zoom, this enables all the functionalities of the platform for presenting and audio/video sharing. Our participants watch the webcast from the web browser. Only offering the video player takes away the unneeded controls and putting the audience is a truly listen only mode. Our offices remained an concern, we enabled HIVE for this. The majority of users would pair within the LAN and only small percentage of users getting the video stream from the Internet. (CDN’s) This keeps the LAN/WAN data stream to an minimum. The service when launched in November saw an explosive service take-on, specially the EVP community saw the big benefit. It lead to an all staff event with just under 20k participants and an event quality rating of excellent. As OLM very closely involved in the contract, service description and the financial invoicing. Clear SLA’s where agreed on, monitoring of the service and its components and proper invoicing based on consumption was delivered.

Working as Operational landscape manager (OLM) on the new collaboration enabled meeting rooms. Developed new quick reference guides for the rooms, an quick step 1, 2 and 3 is what it takes to help users in getting connected to the new rooms. Really great and simple, feedback from users remains very positive. My focus in work is changing, there are specific AV collaboration services that require OLM presence as well. My new portfolio contains of; Video Conferencing, Telepresence, Skype room systems, audio conferencing, webcasting, digital signage and video conferencing on demand. (an interop service) My first goal is to get Skype room systems (SRS) added as an properly supported and managed service. Worked with project manager and external support vendor to build an support process for SRS. Ensure that account, system and HW management\warranty are all properly build in a solid service description document which again is based on SLA’s and contractual agreements. It delivered an way for end user to go to in case of issues with systems and the ensure the SRS systems we able to deliver on business requirements. Getting a better feeling on my other services as well, starting to understand the some of the complexity and difficulty of these servers and the possible improvements they require.

The project end on the Shell The Hague HQ meeting room remediation was getting closer. Over a year we remediated on the end close to 200 meeting rooms. Converting our rooms from a place to meet to an place to collaborate. With the new rooms build it was good to reflect and take the business feedback, how did these new collaboration rooms connect with business requirements? It has been proven an big success! User felt the rooms where easy to use and at same time offer so much extra functionality. Being able to use the own laptop and connect with the room system by plug and play USB and enabling high video/audio and content sharing was an big improvement. Finally them in the office but also colleagues connecting from “away” where able to share, contribute, see and collaborate. It has been a big success and the start of an new journey for me. November 2018 I was taken on as Shell staff as Operational Landscape Manager (OLM) AV. My portfolio started with the new remediated rooms. Reason for this job is an change you see happening in many organizations, the meeting room as it moved to an collaboration area is transitioned from an Real Estate to an IT component. The AV equipment allows the collaboration to the end users but at same time unlocks the technical functionalities for IT to monitor and to better understand how rooms are being used. Also items as asset management and remote control became available. Setting this up with a team of regional OLM’s was a great journey to take.

From February until November have been asked to join a large project within Shell. The project is to deliver a global standard to the meeting rooms to all Shell locations word wide. My role has been to help from technical perspective and to validate the centralized created meeting room archetypes. The archetypes has been created for, Huddle, Small, Medium and Large. The standard consists of LCD presentation screen, audio\video true USB solution and minimalizing cables on the desk. The rooms has to be plug and play and from end users perspective, no need to press any buttons. Connect the cable to start working with the room. Decided to build 4 pilot rooms (each archetype one) and perform user testing, compare the new rooms with testing reports of rooms before upgrade. This showed some need for change, add even further simplicity and write quick reference guides accordingly. Project for the Hague took of based on testing outcome, remediating 180 rooms in the Shell Hague headquarters. In the meanwhile preparing same remediation for Aberdeen, Houston, Indonesia and China.

With the many of the larger rooms now moved over to Skype systems my focus is now changing to the small and huddle meeting spaces. Specially the last becoming more and more important. With open office floor plans huddle rooms will be used for all kind of “private, confidential and collaboration” situations. On the other hand, with only 4-5 seats and high number of rooms proposal for investment must be kept as low as possible. For this type of rooms, the message should be, bring your own laptop. The room is then offering a simple to use “USB” collaboration connectivity and a presentation screen. Clearly this solution must be plug & play and Skype certified! I’m also looking at meeting utilization. Many rooms we see booked for meetings but actually standing empty. This problem can be solved by using technology. Small screens next to the meeting room door can show room availability and allow users to add-hoc use a room based on availability. Room presence sensors will “feel” if the room is in use and when not clear bookings after a certain time. We can use the same sensors for our Skype room systems to let the system come on automatically. This will simplify meeting setup by taking away an extra step from the end user.

When I write this, we are already three months in 2017! Our Skype end-points have been delivered and we have been working very hard with our AV partner to get the units implemented. Not an easy task in some cases. It seems with any “construction” work you do, there are always the unforeseen issues and challenges. Type of microphones, camera’s, get the units patched with latest updates and how do we connect the systems to the network. It was very much for me a learning process. Learned a lot but also pumped my head a couple of times.With most of the SRS systems installed it is interesting to see how end users experience the service. I’m always trying to implement less from a IT mindset and more from an end user perspective. As example, easy meeting setup by clicking the meeting tile on the touch screen. That is great! But you first need to explain to the user that the screen is a touch screen and you need to touch the panel or nothing will happen. Users are used of sharing content by sharing the “desktop” Not wrong but letting users upload content will enable additional functionality like screen annotation. Not something very high on my priority list but one we will work on as we go. I’m working closely with the AV integrator and the hardware manufactory. Overall stability of the systems, room programming, screens, cameras and microphones, at times we experienced problems. As we move on we are learning, adjusting and making improvements. We noticed a “disconnect” between our new SRS systems and the still available “legacy” video and Telepresence services. Having a mixed meeting setup was technical possible but it required a cumbersome process. We are now implementing a “video” bridge that allows easy connectivity from all platforms internally and externally. Dialing a bridge number and entering the Skype meeting ID will connect a VC\TP system with a Skype for business meeting.

The remaining of 2016 has been a challenging year. Cost saving initiatives have continued over the year and more cost pressure has been applied to existing projects. For me as collaboration consultant challenging times as well. Technology is moving fast. You don’t have to be the first at everything and implement always latest technology but you should at least try to follow. I’m seeing the market moving to more Skype enabled endpoints. My end users are embracing Lync\Skype. Mostly due to the easiness of scheduling a meeting, more freedom on where to join your meetings from. External participants can join meetings and gives them similar options as users internally with the Skype web app. On the other end, it’s not all good news! Call quality and stability can be challenging from time to time to say the least. Looking at “legacy” collaboration equipment like video conferencing (VC) and telepresence (TP). Great services, good quality but against high cost. Moving to Skype enabled end-points (SRS) for the meeting rooms was the way to go but…it required an investment, not easy in today’s world of cost saving. Building a strong business and show insight of benefits and cost saving over time. Run & maintain for VC\TP is much higher than for SRS. SRS systems bring compatibility to the desktop and other systems out there. No long, end users training required. Users already know how to use Skype from the desktop. Training is mostly on adding\inviting the system to the meeting and joining the meeting from the room. SRS offers additional functionality like screen annotation. For them like to use it great, for the majority. Joining a meeting from the room with colleagues around table and virtual connected. Enabled audio and video with a single push of a touch screen button. Great!The business case was approved and the decision was made to replace 90% of VC systems for Skype end-points. The order is out! Early next year 2017 we will begin enrolling them, exciting times!

We are already a month and a half in 2016! Time is going so quickly. We are working, testing and implementing a first user pilot with Lync room systems, very exciting. Also we are working on implementation of Office 365 and moving our applications to the cloud. On Office 365 we have seen a challenge already, our Lync 2010 client is not really compatible and thus…we decided to move our migration to Skype for business 2016 forward! Also and in parallel we are working on getting Skype mobile ready for Shell. More and more mobile devices out there and thus business will benefit highly of Skype mobile we believe. Still some huddles to take, Wi-Fi do need to be improved and FAAS has to be implemented to allow this “clients” to connect with Skype correctly. Cutting cost is a major challenge for this year. We are working hard to get these assets out of the business that generate “monthly” expensive run and maintain cost. Replacing for native Lync/Skype clients with added functionality but against much lower cost has to be the way to go! More to come....

Migration to Lync has not been fully without problems. Additional network bandwidth requirements started to cause problems when using Lync in low bandwidth locations or using weak wireless connections. It required quite intensive connects with service providers to get a stable and solid network improvement implemented. With Lync now enabled in Shell it opened the door to “new” technology which required Lync. Existing Video conferencing estate was already seeing less usage. Easiness of scheduling but as well the lack to connect with Lync participants made usage of VC even lower after the migration to Lync. We started to investigate VC systems that offered a Lync component as well. Looking at the market and listening to the end users we felt a system that could connect directly with Lync using the same steps by the end user to book a Lync meeting would generate more easy service take-on but as well much less training/awareness required. On that we started to invest in Lync room systems (Microsoft service hub next year) and first signs are positive. Users understand how to use and to book. To start with the basic and slowly proceed to the more advanced tools like onscreen annotation. We are not there yet, there is so much more in collaboration to happen. Lync mobile will be the next logical step in 2016, as well the migration from Lync to Skype for business. Further bringing our VC estate down and replace for Lync end points, look at “cheap” USB options for the small meeting rooms to enable cost reduction. I’m looking forward to 2016; it will be an exciting year again.

2015 has been an exciting year for me in my role as collaboration consultant at Shell Project and Technology. From late 2014 we started the work in preparing the various businesses in Shell for the migration from Microsoft Live Meeting and MOC to Microsoft Lync. Beginning of 2015 we started our Lync journey with our Amsterdam office as early adopter. Over 1400 users left the office on the Friday evening and by returning on Monday morning receiving Lync installation by push software on the computer. To ensure end-users where aware of upcoming changes and what actions had to be taken by the end user migration various stakeholder and “power” user awareness sessions have been organised. Parallel to this end-user sessions we created posters, banners and emails to all staff informing them on the upcoming changes. All let to a very smooth change process, we received many positive responses on the overall migration process. “Finally an IT upgrade and I knew in front what was going to happen” Getting this positive feedback and on that users deep diving in the tool made it that Lync quickly became the “new” main collaboration tool within Shell, Lync was really embraced by end users. With the success of Amsterdam office and the learnings we took it felt comfortable to proceed with our next main projects and technology hubs. Before the summer holiday period we proceeded in our migration process and we followed a similar migration process for users in our Rijswijk, (+3200 users) Houston US and Bangalore office.

Working as Collaboration consultant at Shell Project and Technology for Michael Bailey Associates

In my role as Collaboration consultant my primary task is to support Shell end users with advise in best use existing collaboration tools. This tools exist of Office communicator, Soft phone, Microsoft Live meeting, Microsoft conference call, Polycom/Microsoft Round Table devices, Premium audio conference, Premium audio & video Webcasting (both supporting up to several thousand remote attendees) Cisco/Tandberg video conferencing, Cisco Telepresence, Yabber instant messaging, Microsoft Lync 2011/2013. On this tools give end user training, face to face or by virtual training sessions using Live meeting. Run pilots on new services, equipment that possible enable a better end user collaboration experience. As example, enable more easy and transparent connections with business partners (third party’s) from the internal business network domain. Setup and manage collaboration federation requests where two companies allow a collaboration connection true firewall rules. Meeting rooms equipped with Microsoft Lync certified equipment, Vaddio camera’s, SNOM phones, Crestron and AMX room control.

In my role as Collaboration and Events manager I have been involved in many large virtual collaboration events. This events took place within the customers locations but as well in hotels and conference centers. During this events various collaboration tools have been used to allow worldwide connections. Have been responsible to setup this events from start to finish. Work with hotels or conference centers in getting required location/meeting rooms and (internet) connections. Where needed plan/book “small” equipment like room projectors, LCD screens, whiteboards. In case of large Town hall setups work with external audio&visual companies in installing and delivering cameras, sound, light and stage. Important that all installations are delivered on local safety rules and regulations. Professional Cisco Telepresence/Video Conferencing equipment is used to enable high quality video connections. Video connections with over 25 worldwide connections were made in this type of setups.

As Project & Technology service manager I have several services in scope. The service supporting executive and critical users. How do we deliver this service on a local scale (staff in NL) but as well creating/developing a service on a global level for Project & Technology. Secondly, collaboration services globally. Developing a service on collaboration support for all Shell project & technology staff. This service will include Tandberg/Cisco Video Conferencing, Cisco telepresence, Microsoft Round Table, Microsoft Office communicator and Live Meeting. It is important and business critical that this "new way of working" is shown to the organization as a big cost saver compared to travel. With outstanding visual performance new collaboration tools can give a same connected feeling as meetings held face to face. And last, dedicated support service for the Shell project & technology learning centre based in Rijswijk. As the learning centre needs a deviant level of support compared with rest of Shell the decision was made to build a team of engineers dedicated supporting the Learning centre staff and students.

Windows Vista migration project for Shell Global Solutions. A separate migration strategy had to be created for members of the board and executive Shell staff. The migration had to be created in a fully hands on approach with minimal down time. Not only the migration of the computer to the Windows Vista operating system but as well all necessary backup's for the end user where in scope. We created new documentation and guides that where created with a quick to the point mindset. The guides have been created in a small format, this to give the end user the possibility to easily carry the information with them during business travel. Many users found it very impressive that after returning from meetings they found there computer with a new operating system but all personal files, desktop and outlook configured the same way.

As Executive and Critical support engineer it is important to know your customers. Delivering this type of “specialized” IT support is not just delivering the right level of expertise. With knowing the customer and in detail knowing the EVP and VP’s will create a trust. Working with customers who have day to day fully booked agenda’s it’s nearly impossible to generate time for IT. This means that most work/issues/updates have to be done when the customer's are busy with their day to day ‘normal’ work and meetings. With making IT less visible to the end user and not taking expensive time it creates for the customer a less stressful IT experience. The Executive and Critical support team is service ticket based but on a first serve base. Administration, time writing and so on is dealt with after fixing the end users problem. This creates short SLA's