Simplicity Equals Reliability: Greenergy's Blueprint for Better Meeting Spaces

What does it take to make meeting rooms that nobody complains about?

For Greenergy's IT & Security Director James Herbert, the answer was simple - literally. In this episode of Nat Chat, James joins host Jason Welch, Principal Architect – Collaboration at Natilik, to talk through the move to Greenergy's new London HQ, why simplicity and reliability are the same thing, and what happened when a client and their technology partner turned out to share the same design philosophy.

An honest conversation about getting it right, and what's come since.

🎧 If you're planning an office move or looking to simplify your meeting spaces, this one's for you.

If you'd like to have a conversation with one of our collaboration specialists, we'd love to hear from you -> https://www.natilik.com/trials/smart-and-sustainable-workplace-discovery-workshop/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hi, welcome to this episode of NatChat. I'm Jason Welch, principal architect here at Natilic, and I'm joined here today with James Herbert from Greenergy. For me, this is such a great story and is a fantastic example of how Natilic's design philosophy works in practice, consisting of five pillars simple, manageable, sustainable, consistent, and scalable. In this episode, we'll bring these to life in our conversation. Without further ado, James, welcome to the studio. Would you like to introduce yourself to listeners?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, thanks, Jason. So yeah, James Herbert, I'm the um IT and security director for Greenergy.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Welcome. Thank you very much. So our first topic's about the deployment journey. Now, James, what prompted Greenergy to rethink its meeting space strategy?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

We we were moving to a new office. So we were moving our London HQ into a new office. And part of that was a complete fit out. Um and that gave us the opportunity to look at the the A V solution. And really what we we needed there was reliability and simplicity because we we sort of felt those two go hand in hand. And we also had a net news space for us, which is uh a town hall space, which we didn't have in our office. So so that was really the the reason for for looking.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Perfect. I mean you mentioned some of those already, but there were there any other sort of key objectives that you had in mind before starting the deployment?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah, I I I mean number one, obviously we we we had to meet the executive brief. Um so this the the office move was was very um very much led by our CEO. So it was very much what what did we want from each space? What was the vision particularly for the town hall space, but being new for us. So reliability was was key for us. So we we just want the meeting rooms to work. We don't want people to think about going into a room, is it gonna work, and added any stress from from that. So in the in the old uh the old office we we had a various different rooms um from there, and the ones that we found that worked consistently were the rooms that were simple. So for us, whilst meeting the requirement was absolutely key, we we wanted to keep the solution as simple as possible because for us really that simplicity equaled reliability for us.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I think I think when we sort of we spoke about at the start, you know, our design and philosophy, I think it was it was really good when we started those conversations, wasn't it, around how um yeah, there's a lot of sort of synergy between us and and and yourselves at Greenji, of like, yeah, we were very aligned, wasn't we? Absolutely starting.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, and and I think that was the the the key differentiator, right, of of when we we started to speak to Natilik on on the offering.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

So sort of next sort of um point to discuss is like you know challenges before the change. So yeah, first sort of question there is what were the biggest pain points with your previous meeting space setup?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Reliability, really, and and in particular in our boardroom, that was the room that was a more complicated space. We had uh two rooms that sort of merged into one when we were doing large, large meeting rooms, so there was more tech involved in in actually delivering that as a set to work as a meeting space. So predominantly it was the it was the the reliability. Also the the lack of sort of seamless connectivity to to all VC platforms. So natively we we run everything on Teams, but if we had a third party to to that we needed to join via WebEx or Zoom, whatever it was, we we were we we were basically having to come away from the main tech in the room, the core tech in the room, then focusing in then more on utilising the laptop to to basically connect into the room technology. And again, that was was challenging and and and lacked the stability in in when we were using it.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, we see that quite a lot when it's it's not just about your platform, but you sort of connect into other people's and you need to maintain that same experience. So yeah, definitely, definitely see that as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, I I think that consistency, because I think for uh from a business user coming into a room, it's just a meeting, right? That be it on Teams, be it on Zoom, be it on whatever, it's just a meeting. So it just needs to be seamless and consistent, as you said, what whatever the platform.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, their objective is to join the meeting, not to worry about the technology, which is kind of sort of read leads us on to another question, which is you know, when you when you look at the challenges and the pain points, you know, I I think we kind of covered a little bit before about you know technical challenges. But yeah, did you have any sort of cultural or operational challenges on that on that journey as well?

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, I mean, I I think they were mainly technical, right? It was the the room kit letting us down in in in essence. But I I think cultural reputation of the rooms, stress for the pol for the people, etc. going into a room, is it going to work or not? There was, especially for the bigger meetings, there was a lot of pre-text um that that went on. So is it mainly technical challenges? Um, but there was definitely an operational impact to the business.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, definitely makes sense when you're talking about, you know, reputation, because yeah, we see a lot in the market about brand, like how your meeting spaces feel, they look, and how they're used, yeah, really do sort of give an impact in terms of the brand. Um, so yeah, that's that's great. So why Natilic and what was different in in this slight question is like, you know, what stood out about Natilic's approach compared to the other solutions you considered and um and partners?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, I I think the a number of things, but Natillik really invested time of us up front to really understand what we want, be that um come into our offices to understand from our from our from our CEO what he was looking for, what we were looking for from a tech perspective. We came down to the Natilic offices to to see the solution, see the tech and in in in real life. We we brought our CEO down here, our facilities team down here as well. So there was a lot of time spent with us up front of understanding really what we want and and really explaining it to us to for us to gain to gain our confidence really that the solution and the offering was correct. I think the other thing which I I guess is kudos to you to you, Jason, was Jason being our solution architect. Jason was remained on the project. So from those very first meetings through to the day one we went live in the new office space. So it ev all along the the way we had the consistency of that design principle and that outcome from what Jason had designed with us to to the actual successful delivery at the at the end of it. And I think really we we we resonated with that design ethos. We we very much strongly believe that simplicity equals reliability. And and to the point that we we did actually question ourselves, right, is this is this too simple? Is are we actually going to meet the requirements of what we need the rooms to do? Because is it actually too simple? Obviously it wasn't, and and it does meet the requirements, but but yeah, as I say, that that really resonating with that design ethos was was key.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, I think from from our perspective as well and and my own of like is like I think what we try and do you know with with our clients is we don't sort of look at you as you're our client, we look at you as it's a partnership, right? It's about working together. I think that it felt like from the very start, it was a really good like team um team effort to get where you wanted to be. And also, yeah, having different um sort of stakeholders from your business up front really helped us really sort of get under the skin of what you wanted to achieve and make sure we could meet the principles. But as you said, you're you know, your brief moving forward. I think we you mentioned a little bit about you know our um sort of design philosophy, but was there any particular feature or part of those that design philosophy that made you sort of more confident with the deployment?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Yeah, I again I I think it's simplicity and and and I think that's almost the tag word of the podcast. I'm not sure how many times I've said it so far, but we'll probably be the consistent word throughout. So I've got a tally going here. Okay, good. We're on six. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

We'll we'll go for ten by the end. So impact and outcomes. How has the new solution changed the way your teams collaborate?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, I think reality is people aren't thinking about meeting rooms. People are going to the rooms, joining the VC meeting, carrying out their meeting, and it works, and it's a successful meeting for them. As a as an outcome from that, that there's time back for my team. So my team are now focused on more high-value tasks as opposed to dealing with meeting room issues that that are arising.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So leads on to probably like the next question for you. I know this can be quite hard because it takes time to sort of get there, but have you seen measurable improvements in productivity or meeting experience since the rollout?

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah, I think not specifically, but there must have been time savings because the the the time before wasted meeting time, overrunning meetings, um, plus then the the the IT saving, right? Of us going in after a meeting or during a meeting and the five, ten, fifteen minutes, whatever it is, to resolve the issue. So I think really that the the time saved from an IT perspective and and the overall business as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

One one thing is um unmeasurable could be is um spoke a little bit about the brand of your meeting spaces, but there's also the brand of your team, right? So not being there visiting, would you say that that that's really sort of you know given the I your IT team uh you know a good good brand or increase the brand or reputation of your team?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I think it certainly helped, right? Because uh I I think almost any IT department, right? You're as good as the last issue, right? So the less issues we have in general, the the better perception of the IT department. So yeah, it's uh it's definitely helping towards that.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Yeah, fantastic. So are there any unexpected benefits or lessons learned from the deployment?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, I I I think benefits slash lessons for us, it was was really the the project was delivered on time and and on budget, which is which is always great in a and a first point. But I think this was sort of achieved from the points that I've mentioned before was the the time spent up front, consistency uh of of yourself, Jason, throughout. And I think the the key thing for me was Nitilik's willingness to interact direct directly with our building contractors, because that just removed us as the man in the middle. We weren't Nitilik asking us for hey, we go to the building contractor and say, can Nitilik have that? That that really allowed us to to focus on the other elements of the move, because as you know, there there's a lot of there's a lot of work that goes involved in getting a new new office space up and running. So really it it from the from the the video conferencing solution, it was something we we didn't have to worry about was was the reality of it.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, I know, yeah, it makes complete sense. So sort of come into the the sort of last remaining sort of questions, this podcast, and this is about futures, so the future outlook. How do you see your meeting spaces evolving at Greenergy over the next few years, especially with the you know the change of your you know your London office and you know um obviously you're a you're a global company. Yeah, what what are you what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah, I mean, so I think since we we've completed London, we we've already rolled the the solution into our offices in Ireland. We're we're in conversations with Natilic team about two other locations as well, where we're we're looking to roll out the meeting rooms with the addition of the town hall space. And I think as we've been in the office now uh sort of approaching sort of nine months, I think particularly the town hall space, the way that we're using the space is evolving as well. So we're we're sort of coming up with a a few more scenarios, particularly on that town hall space, of how we want to how we want to use that space. And then Tilic team are helping us to to configure and program those those for us again. So we've got scenario one, two, three, four, whatever the scenario is, we s we switch the kit into that mode and then and then we use the space for that mode.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yes, it's really important, isn't it? When you've got like a dispersed workforce to, you know, those town hall engagements on company updates and you know keeping everyone sort of in the know. Yes, we we we sort of see that a lot of being very, very important. That's your kind of like your your conduit into the business to sort of yeah uh share that that information.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah, and and as I say, I think the town hall space was the net new space for us. We we didn't have that in the old office. So yeah, we we've used it for for for sort of company town halls. We've had our parent company uh executives come in and and speak to us, and we've also used it for external spaces as well. So today, funny enough, we're we're we're hosting a customer session in our in our London office in that space, and part of that will be presenting to that to that audience that's there from there. So it's a very versatile space for us now of sort of a a couple of different modes that we would run it in.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, perfect. So yeah, kind of on the final question, so it wouldn't be a technology conversation if we didn't mention this word right. Are there any plans to integrate emergent technologies such as AI or advanced analytics into your meeting space?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, I think really we're we're gonna rely on that tech innovation that comes through Cisco and and the solution. So part of the design principle that we that we agreed with Natilic was all of the devices are set to to auto-update. I have my Monday meeting with my direct reports every Monday morning, and and we've seen it a couple of times since where we we that meeting starts on a Monday and there's a different view or there's a different uh sort of take on on the what the meeting experience was last year. So so really I think it's really relying on that innovation from Cisco will allow these to flow straight into the to the meeting experience and just to improve on what we've already got today.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Yeah, also you don't have to kind of worry about those updates. So, like as part of the implementation, we set a you know an upgrade schedule. Um so it'll update out of hours and you almost your your um your view now is that when you come into the meetings, it you're on the latest, right? You don't have to worry about you know rolling loads of updates, times, worries about it breaking other components within the room, which is part of that philosophy of keeping things simple.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

And I think that comes back to that that more time for IT, right? So not only did we not worry about when it was going in, we we don't really worry about it now running, is is that self-healing, that self-upgrading, is it's not a project, it's not a on the to-do list. Oh, we need to go and upgrade, update, or upgrade whatever it is, the meeting rooms. It it it just continuously happens. It's that self-healing, self-upgrading piece.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

There's um as we mentioned, sort of AI and things, and you know, you are uh you know leveraging Microsoft Teams as your as your meetings platform and the likes of Copilot that resides within there. So we're we're seeing a lot of clients start to use copilot. So when you when we look at meetings, you have like the before the meeting, you have during the meeting and after the meeting. It's really important that after the meeting you capture actions and tasks and and all the notes to make it very productive, or even for your next meeting after. So um, yeah, we're internally we're we're we're doing a lot of work as well. Um, we find Copilot really gives you a very concise list of of all of those actions. Is um yeah, with with the evolving features of eventually when Cisco get and you know get Copilot to sort of work um you know fully within within the platform, is that is that something you're looking to adopt? Yeah, I I think absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I I I think it it's just about uh time back for everyone, right? For the more value add pieces and I'm probably one of the world's worst of capturing action, capturing notes in a meeting to to to send out and missing something. So I think if it's removing that even if it's five, ten minutes of of someone, right, okay, what what do we do? Send that out, the the the the agreement to do it, I think that's a that's a great thing, right? That's that's ten minutes saved out of my day, everyone's day. Number of meetings in a day, in a week, you add that up, that that adds up pretty quickly, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, we really I I find it really does start to like provide a lot of value to a business, and it's sort of this technology starts to support you, you know, as you you know, as you sort of go throughout your day or helps you plan your your day as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, I I think it's that it's using the tech as an enabler, right? Is to take those more menial or or or or low value tasks away from yourself. So that 10 minutes that you'd have been doing, writing up your notes, writing up the actions is 10 minutes that you're spending doing on something that's more valuable, right? So I think that for me that's that's that's a real win as as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Another thing that we we spoke a little or haven't spoke much of is we spoke a lot around meeting spaces as part of your yeah, your new office move. We also did speak a lot with your yeah, your comms team when we looked at you know how we could enable digital signage around your um your business. So we were leveraging app space in this instance. But yeah, Zen sort of any any viewpoints on on that?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, I I I think again, so we we engaged our comms team with with with yourself, the Nitilic team from from very much the conception of of what we want. So they were very much there stating what the requirements were. And I think the position where we've landed now is the comms team have got another tool that they use. It's it's a it's a tool for the business, it's not an IT tool, it's a tool for the business. And very much a uh a vessel for their for them getting the the the corporate messaging out around the office is is via the app space. Um and obviously as we look to extend this into other locations, that that spread and and that that means just gets bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

That's a good point, actually, that yeah, with with App Space and the um that we've got within your environment, it your yeah, your comms team always yeah, they don't have to talk to you in in IT at all. They're literally they can own it, they could they know exactly what displays has what, um, and they can upload any different types of content that they that they wish. And it's um it's almost very hands-off, isn't it, from your perspective?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, no, absolutely. It it it's it's a tool in the in their toolbox, right? That that that they use to to spread their corporate messaging. So it's it's not an IT tool. We we don't need to get involved. They that they know they were shown how to use the tool, it's pretty intuitive, etc. And that and they just use it as part of their everyday um comms plans, really.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, so yeah, James, it's been great having you um today. It's really good to sort of hear about how you know our design philosophy around the TILIC has sort of really sort of applied to your um your office move. And it's been really good to sort of hear your insight and kind of a real-world client story, actually, uh, about sort of the the journey that we went on um together. So yeah, been yeah, it's been great having you here today. Brilliant. Thanks, Jason. If anything we've covered today resonates, if you're moving to a new office or even looking to simplify your existing meeting spaces, we would love to hear from you. We'll pop a link in the show notes for you to get in touch. Thanks for listening, and hope you tune into another episode in the future.