BBK Worldwide, a recognized global leader in patient recruitment celebrating their 30th year in the industry, recently relocated to a new space in response to rapid growth and plans for future expansion. The global headquarters was designed to foster the translation of ideas into innovative, more effective solutions for clinical trial challenges. The goal was to facilitate immediate collaboration.
“We’re a very collaborative organization,” says Lauren Kruglak, Tech Lead for BBK Worldwide. “We wanted technology that we could write on and be able to capture content, then save it and bring it up someplace else.”
In the past, BBK Worldwide had utilized whiteboards in a majority of their collaborative efforts. Their practice involved a significant amount of brainstorming, and writing out their ideas was the best way to work. The problem was that too much content was being generated without a way to keep and share that content. Employees were taking photographs of used whiteboards, leaving ‘Do Not Erase’ messages to keep content safe, and generating so much content that the whiteboards were getting too dirty to use. BBK chose SIGNET Electronic Systems as its integration partner for the project.
“Their whole office design was based around having their staff be able to work together as fluid teams,” says Jared Royse, Business Development personnel for SIGNET. “[BBK President] Joan Bachenheimer had done a little bit of research on her own and was interested in having a digital whiteboard. The Sharp product was a perfect fit.”
To enhance collaboration in the conference areas, six 60-inch by 80-inch Sharp AQUOS BOARD digital whiteboard displays were installed. The boards came complete with built-in PC and wireless internet access to allow for creating documents and sharing ideas. SIGNET also provided the company with eight mobile rolling carts fitted with Sharp AQUOS BOARDS, with PCs mounted to the back of the boards. The carts come with power strips to allow for use with a single outlet.
The installation of the screens did come with some challenges. As BBK Worldwide did the build-out themselves in the brand new space, they wanted to create an architectural environment that coincided with the advancement of the company. Many curved, rounded walls highlight the space to create pod-like setting for people to work within. This meant hanging the square boards on rounded walls. SIGNET worked with the architects and contractors ahead of time to make sure the right type of blocking and pathways were in place.
“They did have some dedicated meeting spaces that were specifically designed for gathering groups into a conference room atmosphere,” says Andrew Pelletier, Senior Project Manager for SIGNET. “They decided not to install standard cubicles rather they have an open desk format where everybody can move all around and freely collaborate. We recognized that they didn’t want a fixed display in every location. It was clear in the design of the space what was going to be fixed conference areas and what really needed to be fluid, mobile collaboration areas.”
Once the systems were put into place, SIGNET used their usual ‘train the trainer’ model to teach BBK how to utilize the screens. The company spoke to individuals that would be on hand to help out with usability, and taught those employees how to train the rest. As 95 per cent of employees would be utilizing the technology, it was imperative that SIGNET give BBK the resources they would need to teach the rest of the company how to use the boards.
Click here for a virtual tour of BBK’s new corporate headquarters.
“They’re not going to want to call us again every six months when they hire new employees,” says Pelletier. “Let’s get a core group together and spend as much time as necessary to get them trained and comfortable with the systems. BBK took the core components of each of their divisions and brought one or two representatives of each together for different demonstrations, presentations, and Q & A. It was very much an interactive training.”
BBK Worldwide is currently utilizing the technology in the way they intended. The AQUOS BOARDs are meeting their goals and allowing them to capture and share content in ways they were never able to before. They are utilizing every piece of the tech, and their expectations have been met.
“SIGNET partnered with us to get us to a place where we felt comfortable,” says Kruglak. “Since then everybody’s pretty self-sufficient on the equipment. It’s pretty intuitive at this point and everything’s fine.”
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
Leave a Reply