Integrator Agility
Mike Pedersen, CTS-D, CTS-I
As we are now into the one-year anniversary of COVID or at least approaching the anniversary of the date when most of us were truly required to respond to the pandemic in some significant way, I’d like to highlight one of the advantages of having an in-house integration team for higher ed: agility. As the challenges the pandemic was posing became more apparent to higher education institutions, it became clear that some dramatic changes were in store for most schools. Sure, some schools (e.g. USC) were ahead of the curve and already had their classrooms Zoom ready, but many others had only dabbled with remote education or had a special department dedicated to the handful of online classes they offered. For these schools, the technology in their classrooms was going to need to change – and quickly.
So, the challenge is to equip dozens, if not hundreds, of classrooms with some type of hybrid technology that allows for at minimum some asynchronous lecture capture for those students who needed to be remote, but even better to install technology that allowed for synchronous hybrid learning. Obviously, there are three main options to get this equipment installed: hire an outside integration company, use a completely in-house integration team, or some combination of the two. How to make the decision? Let’s look at three potential factors that may have gone into that decision: timeline, cost, and support.
As far as the timeline goes, none of the three options necessarily were superior to the other two. Most schools had around 4-5 months from mid-March to mid-August to get the bulk of the upgrades installed. This is certainly a reasonable timeline for an outside integrator, and likely more so with a lot of other business for integrators being canceled or put on hold as companies and other organizations shifted largely to work-from-home or instituted some level of financial restrictions. But there was no guarantee that any particular integrator has an open project schedule, some have projects scheduled for months. This also assumes that the school’s administration made quick decisions on what they wanted to do, which, in some cases was distinctly not the case. With many campuses largely deserted from March to August, in-house integration teams also had plenty of time to get the work completed. And the in-house team would be agile enough to quickly change gears and make hybrid technology installations their highest priority once the decision was made to proceed in a particular direction. Ultimately, however, the option to use both outside and in-house integrators were likely the safest bet when it comes to timeline as you simply had more hands available to complete the work. So looking at the timeline, any of the options were certainly possible.
How about cost? This is where the in-house integration team starts to stand out. In most cases, using an in-house integration team is significantly less expensive than an external integrator, and potentially all the more with a compressed project timeline. And the pandemic had another potential staffing shift for in-house staff. In most situations, a certain percentage of hours by in-house staff is devoted to daily maintenance, maybe by dedicated individuals, or maybe as part of the duties of multifunctional staff that also serve other roles. With classes moved to fully online, for agile in-house teams those hours could now be added to the in-house integration capacity, and those staff could stay engaged (and employed). This scenario would have simply compounded the cost and labor benefits of proceeding with the in-house staff.
Finally, let’s consider how the three options compare from a support perspective. Once the hybrid technology has been installed and classes start, those systems will need to be supported. Instructors may have questions on how to use the technology, have issues specific to their class need or their personal hardware, or the system may experience an actual failure of some nature. In my experience, if they are able to be involved in the process of installing the equipment, support staff are better equipped to answer questions or tackle any specific issues that arise. For an external integrator, some ongoing support may be provided under the contract or service agreement, especially for actual hardware or software failures in the system. In addition, most integrator support teams are actually well trained and quite capable to provide outstanding break-fix assistance. But the responsibilities of answering questions and dealing with those unique problems that an instructor may face usually fall on an academic technology team within the higher ed institution. And because the team that performs the install is often most prepared to answer questions and tackle challenges, there is a lot of benefit to trusting the agile in-house staff to perform the initial installations.
Looking at the three criteria of the timeline, cost, and support, in most cases utilizing an in-house integration team was the right answer. The in-house teams proved their ability to be agile and quickly and cost-effectively transition to the hybrid technology needs posed by the pandemic was invaluable. Of course, this advantage only went to those schools that were already using an in-house integration team. For those who did not have an in-house integration team, I would encourage their administrators to think back over some of the challenges faced due to the COVID pandemic and consider the ongoing benefits an in-house team can provide.
Get to know: Mike Pedersen
Mike Pedersen joined Iowa State University in the summer of 2018 as the Audiovisual Experience Manager. Mike has been working in the engineering industry for over 26 years. For the last 21 years, he has been focused on the professional audiovisual (AV) industry where he has become recognized as an expert. He holds both the Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) certifications in Design (CTS-D) and Installation (CTS-I); he is one of the approximately 520 people in the world to hold both certifications. In 2018, the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA), the primary industry association for professional AV, recognized Mike as CTS Holder of the Year. He currently serves as Chair of the Technology Manager’s Council and a member of the Certification Steering Committee for AVIXA. Mike is a founding member of the Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance (HETMA) and co-founder of the Big 12 Technology Manager’s Alliance.
At Iowa State, Mike leads a team responsible for maintaining the AV systems in over 200 general university classrooms. The Audiovisual Experience Team (AVXT) also assists with AV consulting, installation, and repairs in college and departmental spaces across the university. Mike spends extensive time meeting with individuals to find out how audiovisual systems can make them better in whatever role they serve.
Prior to joining Iowa State, Mike worked for the AV Engineering and Integration firm Mechdyne Corporation for almost 19 years. While at Mechdyne he served several roles including systems engineer, IT manager, manager of project engineering, research and development, and pre-sales engineering. He taught classes on AV extensively both inside and outside of Mechdyne. He has also previously worked for John Deere and Engineering Animation Incorporated (EAI).
Mike is an active volunteer in the community. He advocates extensively for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. He is currently a governor appointee to the governor’s North Central Iowa Regional STEM Advisory Board. He has served as chair of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) partnership team for the Marshalltown Community School District and on the advisory board for the Broadcasting/Digital Media program at Marshalltown Community College. He has also been very active in the churches he has attended, serving in many leadership roles including Elder and Technology Leader.
Mike is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) where he served as chair of the Central Iowa Section. Mike is a past invited participant to the National Security Forum (NSF.) In addition to the CTS certificates, Mike holds certificates in ITIL Foundation, Extron Audiovisual Associate (EAVA), and OSHA-10.
Mike is a 1994 graduate of Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in History.