Commercial Integrator March 2022 - 36

3 QUESTIONS
SPONSORED CONTENT
AtlasIED on Selling
Mass Communication
to IT Departments
Commercial Integrator chats with AtlasIED's
Michael Peveler about the power of shifting
the technology spend from AV to IT.
Commercial Integrator
(CI): We've been talking
for years on how IT departments
are increasingly
empowered when it comes
to the ecosystems that AV
technology is part of. Can
you pinpoint a couple of
ways that integrators can
" sell " mass communication
to campus and district-wide
IT departments?
Michael Peveler: The first
thing is to focus on an issue or
a solution that's relevant to the
IT department. Historically,
although many people have
talked about engaging with
the IT, that connection has
largely been because a category
cable was plugged in,
and we were running on their
network. Today, the needs of
the IT departments have shifted.
These days, it's important
to have a solution. For example,
AtlasIED partnered with
a company called Singlewire.
They're a large telephony
and mass-notificationmanagement
solution that's
entirely software-based.
When we mention Singlewire
in our meetings, the IT
people immediately respond.
They'll recognize that's the
technology running the phone
system, for example. It's there36
fore
a relevant conversation to
talk notification and the challenges
they have getting both
on-premises and off-premises,
as well as how to make sure
they have proper audio coverage
for all their key spaces.
The key is to have a solution
that's relevant to them -
maybe even something they're
working with. And it needs to
have the appropriate tools,
licensing and reoccurring support
tied into it. That gets them
engaged very, very quickly.
CI: What are the implications,
with respect to budgets
and available funding,
when a project or technology
expenditure shifts from
AV to IT? From an integrator's
perspective, what are
the dollars and cents of this
shift?
Peveler: Let me offer an example
that I think everyone can relate
to. Think about the school
environment. If you go to the
facilities department in most
schools, their sole focus is on
fixing things that are broken.
They're not looking at the next
generation of evolution. Instead,
they're looking at what's
going to ensure we have a
working system. So, if you have
a conversation with them and
Commercial Integrator MARCH 2022
inquire about opportunities,
you'll find that their budgets
focus on what's broken.
If you switch that conversation
over to the IT team and
say you want to talk security,
mass notification and audio
coverage, they're looking at
how to easily deploy a solution
that can be managed via one
single infrastructure for both
on-premises and off-premises
notification. As soon as that
shift happens, the budget
grows exponentially. So,
in simple terms, the facility
person is going to tell you
about the one school that has
a non-functioning system. By
contrast, the IT person isn't
going to focus on one school.
The IT person is going to look
at a district-wide, factory-wide
or campus-wide implementation.
And the IT department's
budget for security, safety and
communication is much, much
larger than a facilities budget
that's dedicated to fixing
what's broken.
CI: Let's turn to AtlasIED's
IPX family of IP endpoints.
These days, IT departments
are highly focused on investing
in technologies that
are easy to support...that
won't generate a lot of helpMichael
Peveler,
vice president of
sales, AtlasIED.
desk tickets. What makes
IPX particularly attractive
to the IT professionals with
whom integrators are increasingly
working?
Peveler: I think the benefit
centers on the toolsets we built
for the end user, enabling them
to manage their applications.
Those toolsets are key to how
they manage everything in a
system. For example, we have
our product in all the San Diego
Unified Schools - over 200
schools. With this deployment,
they have the tools to allow a
message to go out to all the
schools at the same time. That,
of course, is far preferable to
calling every school and asking
it to make an emergencyrelated
announcement. It's
equally essential to have the
software tools to identify that a
unit is not working; reporting
from a fault standpoint is very
important. Finally, there's power
in seeing all this off a single
pane of glass and being able to
remotely manage everything.
One reason that IPX has
really taken off is that it has
the tools to be scalable and
fit the client's infrastructure
from a helpdesk standpoint. I
believe that's why we've seen
incredible growth over the last
few years.
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Commercial Integrator March 2022

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