Commercial Integrator May 2021 - 44

3 QUESTIONS

Brian Cockrell,
Product Owner and
Cofounder, Intel Unite
COMMERCIAL INTEGRATOR sat down with Brian Cockrell,
Intel Unite product owner and cofounder, to discuss
collaboration, Intel Unite, and more.

Commercial Integrator:
What has collaboration
looked like during COVID,
and what will it look like in
the post-COVID era?
Brian Cockrell: The pandemic
forced organizations to adapt
quickly to social distancing
mandates and they largely
turned to technology for
solutions, setting off a scramble
to incorporate popular video
conferencing apps into dayto-day operations. Collaboration modernization plans
were suddenly pushed to the
forefront. The results were environments in which there were
varying levels of technological
savvy among participants, a
broad variety of devices in
the environment, competing
UC platforms, and a matrix of
remote and on-prem collaboration scenarios.
The rush to familiar UC platforms has given way to a more
deliberate search for the right
solution. Experiences will vary
from two people sitting down at
a touchdown space to a café. Users want whiteboarding, scrum
applications, and other functionality that may not be offered
on their current solution. They
also need to collaborate across a
plethora of UC platforms.
IT faces an array of challenges
that include selecting, deploying, and managing new technology; user training and other

support; and security, from
endpoint security to integration
with third party systems.
CI: What qualities should a
collaboration solution have
to meet the challenges of
corporate, education and
healthcare environments as
they continue to evolve?
BC: The solution should allow
for wireless sharing of high-resolution content. The elimination of dongles and adapters
not only helps meetings start
faster and run more smoothly,
it enables social distancing and
reduces shared surfaces that
can be vectors for the transmission of infectious diseases.
A solution should be device
agnostic. Although devices may be standardized in
schools, meeting participants
in other scenarios may be using
laptops, tablets, or phones running Windows, Mac and even
Linux operating systems.
An effective collaboration
solution must be easy to learn
and use, with the same use
instructions across devices and
OSs. In many environments, users may have different aptitudes
for technology, frustration with
having to learn yet another
program, and limited time for
training. A simple-to-use solution results in less disruption,
aggravation, and potentially
fewer IT tickets.

44  Commercial Integrator  MAY 2021	

CM2105 pp44-45 3Qs Intel Unite-AtlasIED.indd 44

A collaboration solution
should be able to be easily
adapted as needs develop and
caption in here
organizations experiment with
new approaches to collaboration and instruction. Extensibility and an open platform
are key, allowing users to add
off-the-shelf integrations or develop their own new features.

is a flexible, easy-to-use wireless
collaboration platform that,
out of the box, excels across
use cases but can be quickly
adapted to address changing
needs and approaches to
collaboration and educational
instruction. It is compatible with
a wide variety of devices, operating systems, and computer

" Collaboration doesn't look like it did
before the pandemic. It isn't identical
conference rooms that seat eight
people. " - Brian Cockrell
Frictionless deployability and
manageability are essential.
Centralized management and
configuration deployment
should be available in the
cloud, but there should also
be an on-premise option to
accommodate security profiles.
Finally, the right solution
must be secure, offering not
only data encryption, but
features like a rotating PIN
and protected guest access.
Shared content and personal
information shouldn't leave
the organization's network and
shouldn't be stored.
CI: What can the Intel Unite
solution provide to customers that makes it a unique
solution for their needs?
BC: Proven across verticals and
organizations of all types and
sizes, the Intel Unite® solution

form factors. Its open architecture seamlessly integrates with
a growing ecosystem of apps,
including UC platforms that let
in-room users start conferencing with a click while remote
participants enjoy the same rich
viewing experience as in-room
participants.
The Intel Unite solution
features centralized management and flexible deployment
options. A cost-effective and
open-platform solution, it is
designed to deliver easier
deployability and more security,
manageability, and adaptability.
Organizations are still trying
to figure out what collaboration and educational instruction looks like post-Covid. The
Intel Unite solution is designed
with features that make
experimentation easier while
reducing its risk.
commercialintegrator.com

4/12/21 12:35 PM
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator May 2021
