The IMD Business School has installed Dten devices across its Lausanne, Switzerland campus to power global communication and collaboration.
Dten devices were installed in more than 40 study rooms and meeting spaces at the IMD (The International Institute for Management Development), a business school with campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. Known for its MBA program, which is consistently ranked among the best in the world, IMD attracts over 28,000 executives from more than 120 countries and virtually every industry. It is also known for its Executive Education, Executive MBA, and advisory work.
The Dten installation was as part of a refresh to the IMD’s Zoom enabled study rooms and meeting spaces.
Prior to deploying Dten, IMD used a complex set up in their study rooms which consisted of multiple individual components; screens, whiteboards, computers, printers, phones, table microphones and webcams. “The more equipment you have, the more potential for breakdown and the more potential for issues,” said Louis Leclézio, chief digital and customer experience officer at IMD Business School.
Not only were the rooms complex to use and manage, but the AV team at IMD were often being asked to create temporary installations to support specific sessions which wasn’t sustainable with a small team. As well as this, Mark Abery, AV engineer at IMD Business School, said: “One of the biggest pain points that IMD ended up experiencing with the old version of the study rooms was that we had some comments from participants who come in, people who were using them, and they were really starting to get towards the end of life.”
Leclézio continued: “What we really need to do at IMD is to enable discussion among people and we need to deliver our own content and for this we need technology that has pedagogy in mind, not just video conferencing.”
The team evaluated several products from different manufacturers. “As we were testing different products, it just seemed like the Dten was the easiest to use, both for us and the participants walking in,” said Abery.
IMD was also drawn to the BYOD capabilities of the Dten D7X All-in-One. IMD hosts a multitude of different participants from all areas of the world, so they have to be able to accommodate different types of software they wish to use.
IMD has already deployed 32 Dten D7X All-in-One devices with the additional Dten Vue Pro, advanced 4k camera system, attached. They are planning to roll out further devices in their other buildings throughout the remainder of the year.
Michaël Boulianne-Gottofrey, head of IT support and services at IMD Business School, said: “We not only have something that is all-integrated and that looks sleek, but it is very simple to use with just the USB-C cable that connects the laptop, you just have to click on it, you can use from beside of the screen, it is touchable and it is fast.”
The IT support team at IMD reported a reduction the amount of time and resources required from them to install, manage and maintain their study rooms following the Dten installation
The initial project of refreshing 32 rooms on the Lausanne campus took two days. Abery said: “It’s enabled us to be able to be completely adaptable to any requests any which come in, particular types of video conferencing software that has to be used, or a particular type of software in order for them to be able to do their exercises, with minimal work from our part because it’s all-in-one on the Dten.
“Overall, since then, it has become incredibly easy to be able to update them, keep an eye on them from a distance, using the Orbit feature has been integral to us being able to do software updates and that side of things as well.”