In my tenure as a technical architect, I have witnessed a great evolution in collaboration business reviews. What once was simply reviewing system compute, versions and tickets is now so much more.

So what should organizations prioritize when reviewing their collaboration environments?

The first bookmobile hit the road in 1839 to serve students in rural communities far from any library. Today, school buses are bringing an even richer source of information — the internet — to students in underserved areas.

My wife and I are looking into renovating our home, but the truth is that we don’t know where to start. Do we need to bring in an architect, or can we work directly with a contractor? The problem boils down to an old truism: You don’t know what you don’t know. I frequently see a similar sort of confusion when school leaders set out to revamp their learning spaces. That’s why we created the CDW Blueprint to Design™ initiative.

It may seem easy to buy a simple technology tool such as a laptop. But many questions can swirl around even such a modest purchase.

When CDW works with organizations on hardware purchases, we talk about how staff members plan to use the devices, how much memory they will need and other factors such as processing power and applications.

Recently, I helped set up a demonstration of a video collaboration huddle space at an East Coast law firm. My partner and I expected the lawyers to use the equipment for a couple of minutes to test it out with their colleagues in another office, but two minutes stretched into five, and five stretched into 25. As the call went on, steady voices rose to angry shouts. However, when the legal team emerged from the room, one of the managing partners looked at us and said, “Please move forward with the project.” Then he walked away.

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