Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 23

sionals were also on hand, and they
found themselves commiserating about
their campus environments, common
struggles and shared experiences. " It
was an incubator for what HETMA would
become, " Hatchett says, " which is really a
platform for higher ed in the manufacturing
world. " Beyond that, though, HETMA
is truly an advocacy group, representing
the interests of higher-education technology
managers and, in so doing, the
interests of the instructors and students
they serve.
Why does higher education, in partic'We
did something
substantial and
created change in the
industry.'
- Joe Way, PhD, CTS,
chair, HETMA
ular, need an organization like HETMA to
advocate for its interests? Way points to
the fact that the higher-ed vertical spends
roughly $30 billion on technology annually,
a figure that doesn't include spending
for live events, stadium spaces, etc. He
continues, " As an organization, we said,
'We need a voice to represent that $30
billion.' " What a voice HETMA has created
for itself! As of a mid-January interview, the
organization had more than 1,000 members,
representing about 300 schools.
If you say the average higher-education
institution has about 15,000 students
and then do the math, HETMA is directly
affecting something like 4.5 million students'
education experience.
In only four years, HETMA has already
achieved a staggering level of influence.
And that helps explain the transformation
we discussed at the outset. Hatchett
recalls past InfoComm shows when large
integration groups would go from booth
to booth, and everyone's attention would
immediately turn to them. " Now, we're
getting just as much - if not more -
attention from the booth staff and from
representatives, " Hatchett attests, underscoring
that the pendulum has swung.
Increasingly, vendors are coming to recognize
higher-ed technology managers'
buying power, as well as their extensive
knowledge of how these systems work
in learning environments. Way also notes
the frequency with which he sees AVIXA
trainers tweeting about HETMA members
being in their CTS classes. " While we are
end users, " he says, " we are also moving
to certified professionals. And that shift is
already happening. "
commercialintegrator.com
Inside Higher Education
The experience HETMA members offer is indispensable
because higher ed is a unique
vertical. Maher-Moran pinpoints one of
its signatures: extremely tight timelines.
" Things are so tightly scheduled that we
don't have time to take hours to troubleshoot, "
she remarks. " We have to be able
to get in, make it work and get back out in
a matter of 10 minutes between classes. "
Compounding the challenge, Hatchett
says, is the diversity of environments found
on campuses. " I've got standard classrooms, "
he begins, " but I've also got a movie
theater, a fully functioning courtroom,
active-learning classrooms and lab spaces,
all of which are part of that AV ecosphere. "
Another way that diversity manifests is
in how the institution deploys, manages
and services its technology. For example,
does it have an in-house installation team
or utilize an outside integrator? Does it
rely on an internal-support department, or
does it turn to a remote-management system?
Those questions aren't just academic
(no pun intended); rather, they get to the
heart of system effectiveness and product
suitability. " Each product might be good,
but it might only have a specific use case, "
Way observes. " You can have an incredible
microphone system, but, if you don't
have an in-house integration team to put
that together, it might not be the solution
for you. " And given that higher-ed technology
managers are typically buying and
deploying technology at scale - not one
unit but, rather, 200 units - it's critical that
they're making the right decisions.
These realities inspired HETMA to
initiate one of its most ambitious undertakings:
the HETMA Approved program
which aims to leverage HETMA members'
penetration into higher-education environments
of all sizes and scales to determine
whether products work in those learning-centered
technology ecosystems.
The HETMA Approved Program
According to Monday, chair of the HETMA
Approved program, the initiative was
always intended to have a big impact -
namely, to give members great information
and, as a result, to improve higher-ed
outcomes across the board. " The process
is pretty straightforward, " he explains.
" A company signs up, and they send us
a product or multiple products, " which
HETMA then passes along to evaluator
members. The heterogeneity of HETMA's
membership - large, medium, small and
community-level higher-learning institutions
- makes the program even more robust.
" We try to spread out these products
among them, " Monday states. " Because a
large university might use a product differently
than a small university might. So, we
want to see how those products are being
used regardless of the size of the university,
or even the technical ability of the person. "
Diving deeper, HETMA evaluators put
the products into real-world environments
and evaluate whether they fit into the
workflow. Judging criteria include whether
products do what manufacturers say they
do, whether they meet HETMA's quality
benchmarks and whether they're a fit for
higher ed (as opposed to other verticals).
What's remarkable is that this rigorous
MARCH 2023 Commercial Integrator 23
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Commercial Integrator March 2023

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