GZA GeoEnvironmental Simplifies and Standardizes Nationwide Hybrid Meetings With Airtame

The use of virtual and hybrid meetings is standard practice for all kinds of businesses today, but the meeting experience itself is hardly standardized. Due to the wide variety of online collaboration platforms, operating systems and digital displays that may be used on a given day, along with growing preference for BYOD spaces, office managers and IT staff often struggle to ensure a streamlined process for all users that provides reliably excellent performance. Until they try Airtame, that is.

Seeking a Simple Solution

For a company like GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., a Norwood, Massachusetts-based geotechnical and environmental engineering consulting firm with 32 offices and more than 650 employees across the United States, such meetings are a daily necessity. That’s why they are deploying Airtame’s video conferencing and screen share SaaS solution throughout the entire company – 22 meeting rooms are already outfitted and operational with 39 total rooms planned for installation. According to Paul Malagrifa, CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental, Airtame has transformed their operations by enabling a single meeting process for all users regardless of devices or platforms, all but eliminating the need for on-demand IT assistance or training.

“When we began returning to our offices following a brief period of COVID-related remote work, the nature of how we conduct daily communications had changed, but our offices had not,” Paul Malagrifa said. “We had already moved beyond relying on in-room PCs for on-site meetings using the original Airtame solution, but we couldn’t find an equally simple solution for hybrid meetings. We wanted to enable BYOD hybrid meetings and eliminate the logins and other challenges presented when switching between Zoom, Meets, Teams or GoToMeeting, and the first product we tried was an unqualified failure. Then the Airtame 2 and Airtame Hub became available, and we haven’t looked back since.”

Focusing on the User Experience

GZA leadership and IT staff had generated lots of positive feedback after deploying earlier Airtame technology for in-person meetings, so they were excited to see how the brand’s new virtual and hybrid meeting solutions could standardize all types of meetings for the entire organization.

“What we want are conference rooms that do not require live IT support,” Paul Malagrifa added. “With Airtame’s simple connection procedure and ability to screen share any content a host wants from their devices, the most common reaction we get from our employees is ‘That’s it? It’s that easy?’. And because it actually is that easy, we are no longer dealing with delays, impromptu IT calls or frustration among our staff. As we expand Airtame to every office, we are able to launch hybrid meetings quickly and easily, and even offer the same excellent experience to visiting clients or partners who have their own presentations to share.”

Enabling Secure Hosting from any Device

The beauty of Airtame screen sharing is that it is entirely device agnostic, so it can be used with virtually any digital display, any PC or mobile device and any online collaboration platform. As part of its initiative to introduce ease-of-use and security enhancement, Airtame recently introduced a new web-based Share From Browser feature that empowers users to launch meetings without any software downloads or preloaded apps.

To use Share From Browser, users simply connect to the local WiFi network then follow on-screen instructions to launch the Airtame Browser web app on their personal device. They can then choose to share their whole desktop or a specific browser tab or window, without any need to re-enter personal logins or passwords. This also enhances security by eliminating the need to transfer data or files between devices and limiting opportunities for bad actors to gain access to internal systems.

A Growing Platform for Cross-Office Communications

In addition to offering streamlined meeting capabilities, Airtame has also allowed GZA to simplify its internal IT operations through a cloud-based management interface that provides insight and access to each connected Airtame device with ability to initiate software updates. Since the company does not have full-time IT staff at every office, this has been a boon for ensuring consistent operations and accessibility.

GZA is also exploring how Airtame’s powerful digital signage functions may be used to provide in-office messaging to welcome clients or promote ongoing successes. Any Airtame-connected digital display can be used as a digital signage board with cloud-based control, enabling centralized real-time management.

“We really don’t have any complaints about the Airtame solution or experience, including the customer support we’ve received for any questions we’ve had along the way,” Paul Malagrifa said. “A major benefit of working with Airtame is the consistent product enhancements and software updates they provide, including the recent launch of Share From Browser and native integration with Microsoft Calendar and Google Calendar. Even if we don’t use all the features, it’s encouraging to know the company is constantly making its product more valuable and easier to use, instilling confidence that it will continue to serve our needs as they change based on new industry expectations.”