What’s Smart about SMART Technologies

One of the highlights of Enterprise Connect was getting an up-close demo of SMART Technologies’ SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync. At the Microsoft Lync conference a couple months ago, Microsoft introduced the Lync Room System (LRS) client, which bridges the gap between the desktop- and room-based collaboration experiences, making it easier for users to schedule and join Lync-based conferences. Microsoft is partnering with several vendors, including Crestron, LifeSize, Smart Technologies, and Polycom in order to “bring Lync into any size meeting room to provide seamless voice, data, video and collaboration. SMART Technologies was “smart” in several ways, including bringing on board Warren Barkley, Former General Manager in the Microsoft Lync/Skype division, who is now Chief Technology Officer of SMART Technologies.

At Enterprise Connect, Smart Technologies’ Jeff Lowe described how collaboration is usually discussed in three dimensions – voice (I can hear you), video (I can see you), and sharing (I can see your data and screen), but that a fourth dimension is needed – interaction around the data.

Lowe described several best practices for achieving inspired collaboration:

• Capturing and sharing collaboration sessions,
  
  
• Establishing informal, structured, formal and dispersed collaborative environments,
  
  
• Implementing a collaboration strategy, and
  
  
• Having a setup that participants can walk up to and use intuitively.

According to Scott Johnson, Senior Director, Lync Customer and Partner Engineering at Microsoft, it’s all about the customer experience and the simplicity of joining a meeting by simply touching the screen.

As Warren Barkley explained, what’s unique about SMART is that it’s “in the collaboration business, not the room business.” The touch device board was built with Microsoft as a solution for Lync from the ground up, and the touch devices were developed specifically for this solution. I was surprised to hear that this product did not exist before SMART’s work with Microsoft.

Watch the video to see Ted Shuter, Program Manager, Room Systems, demonstrate the simplicity of setting up and joining conferences.

1 Responses to "What’s Smart about SMART Technologies" - Add Yours

Marina Geronazzo 4/10/2013 1:57:05 PM

Thanks for your comments Blair and your fair assessment on SMART's showing at Enterprise Connect. We were delighted to unveil the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync at EC and the response from those who attended the show was clear - SMART had the most complete solution - including customized product, pricing and timelines for availability. Show delegates also commented that our three configurations make a strong case in serving the needs of virtually every meeting environment. As Warren Barkley noted, this is a solution that has been built from the ground up, not cobbled together in a scramble. We have been working with Microsoft for some time and the customization of each component demonstrates a true solution that fits with the needs of enterprise. For the ever-growing community of Lync users, extension into meeting rooms is important. You noted simplicity as being a key element and this is certainly one of the strongest points to be made.Business people are increasingly frustrated with too much time wasted on trying to connect, reconnect, dropped calls, lost functionality, etc. A one touch system is overdue and as you pointed out - "surprised to hear that this product did not exist before SMART’s work with Microsoft.". And just to clarify that point - in terms of Lync Room Systems, you are correct - this is a brave new world for Microsoft and partners. But for SMART, we have been offering various forms of collaboration solutions for business users for over 20 years - less of a leap for us and part of the reason we have been able to design such a robust set of solutions. The video you included gives a good overview. Here is another link for any readers who may want to learn more: https://www.smarttech.com/smartroom