With most South African companies now open for 2017, the next significant milestone is the financial year end. For most companies this coincides with the end of February – a month dreaded by the finance department, but loved by those departments awaiting new allocations.
As budgets are prepared and performance for the previous period is reviewed, many things including your Boardroom Audio Visual system upgrade, may fall by the way side. While your IT department prioritises a new server, and your Ops department remains fixated on that new furniture, the all-serving boardroom is left with outdated AV equipment that affects productivity daily. If you’re spending 10 minutes getting your systems ready before every presentation, you’re losing lots of time.
Here are a few tips to increase the chances of AV Systems getting a spot in the budget for the upcoming year:
- Record exactly how much time has been wasted by inefficient systems, and present it so that the effect on productivity can be clearly shown.
- If your boardroom has a Video Conference facility, offset the cost of upgrades or maintenance against the air ticket costs that the company would have incurred had the facility not been there in the previous year.
- Ask your Brand or Marketing Manager how they feel about how poor video and audio quality affects visitor perception of the brand.
- Ask staff whether the technology in the Boardroom has ever prevented them from doing something that would otherwise have benefited the company.
- If there are any examples of direct financial loss as a result of system failure or inadequacy, note them.
- Chat to the IT department about how the Boardroom Audio Visual systems can help staff collaboration.
- Find and note all Audio Visual spend for the previous year and include an escalation.
- Motivate for an ongoing maintenance contract for your Audio Visual systems. Downtime costs the company money.
We hope these tips will make it a bit easier to ensure your Boardroom AV Systems get fair budget consideration.
