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Introduction:
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0:09
You're listening to B2B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro, the place to learn about new technology and technological advances before they become mainstream.
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This podcast is sponsored by Ingram Micro's Imagine Next.
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It's not about the destination, it's about going someplace you never thought possible.
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Go to imaginenext.ingrammicro.com to find out more.
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Let's get into it.
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Shelby Skrhak (Host):
0:29
Welcome to B2B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
0:31
I'm your host, Shelby Skrhak.
0:33
Our guest today is George Borden, solution sales architect for Sharp NEC.
0:39
George, welcome.
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George Borden (Solution Sales Architect at Sharp NEC):
0:41
Shelby, thank you for having me here.
0:42
How are you today?
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Skrhak:
0:42
Excellent.
0:43
I'm good.
0:43
Well, you know, today we are talking about Sharp's collaboration tools for our hybrid work world.
0:50
But let's pan out a little bit 1st and look at who Sharp or Sharp NEC is today.
0:58
So how has the merger of Sharp and NEC gone?
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Borden:
1:01
Yeah, that's right.
1:02
And I'm glad you brought it up.
1:03
The travel for my my work has started to improve a bit.
1:07
So when as I'm getting out there and talking to folks there, there's some that have that known about this since when it first happened back in November 1st of 2020, and there are there are those of believe it or not that are new to it.
1:18
So it's it's nice to hear the reaction about the merger and the acquisition from all the different folks that I'm talking to.
1:25
From my standpoint, change is always good and having now the Sharp, because I'm a legacy NEC person, and and having the Sharp products now in addition to our our NEC products,
1:36
it's just a fantastic offering to to be able to have you know so much different scope of of equipment you know from the very entry level that we'll probably be talking about today, to the most advanced, in addition to our legacy equipment.
1:49
I'm very excited about that and the new people that have come on board.
1:52
And the same thing could be said if you were talking to the equivalent of me over from Sharp, you know that's been merged in the same way vice versa.
2:00
So they're happy to now have you know a portfolio that includes so many other things such as projectors and direct ULED technology that we've been known for.
2:08
So it's been a really exciting merger and acquisition.
2:11
We're still you know melding together as these merger and acquisitions happen to take.
2:16
But it's exciting the future that we have in front of us and I'm really excited about it.
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Skrhak:
2:19
Yeah.
2:20
You know the trend in collaboration is BYOD or bring your own device, but that can certainly present a challenge to to really maintain connectivity and and security with you know with the office.
2:35
So George, how do Sharp NEC products make BYOD easier and more efficient?
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Borden:
2:42
That's an excellent question, Shelby.
2:44
You know, back before the pandemic, you know there were a, I should say a fair amount of folks using, you know, software that you know where they were using obviously the company computer, software on the company computer.
2:57
Then unless they had a, you know, a company computer that they could take home, you know, then they were forced to work on their machine.
3:03
IT department had to scramble to get them security resources and provisions to work in such a way.
3:09
It's just been a darn nightmare for the IT people in addition to the already existing headache bucket that they live with.
3:15
But the trend is to continue with BYOD.
3:18
And what I've seen out there in the in the in the field is that companies have adjusted to either provide a company provided laptop that's already vetted with all the security credentials and software and meets all the specs of the VPN for the company and all those important things from a an IT perspective.
3:34
So that that challenge I don't see it being as as prevalent as it used to be albeit there are still some companies out there that are you know working their way through this from different structures, whether it be cost structures and work from home, work at the actual office, balancing and travel and all that other stuff.
3:49
So yeah for sure bring your own devices definitely where the future is headed and what Sharp NEC is doing is allowing for the different connectivity types that are expected and and and the customers are looking forward to in a solution out there in the market, whether it be a tethered connection with HDMI or new up and coming USVC, all you know single enable connectivity or of course wireless options and app options for remote connectivity.
4:14
So the future is headed down that way.
4:16
Sharp NEC is recognizing that and we're building our equipment accordingly to support that effort.
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Skrhak:
4:22
Of those paths of connectivity, are you seeing one or two really rise above as as the most prevalent ways that that offices want to connect with their employees and therefore, what are you know anchor micro partners or resellers may be hearing from their customers or I guess is there kind of a front runner of what is the most prevalent form of collaboration out there?
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Borden:
4:46
Yeah.
4:47
Another excellent question and you know when I'm, I'm talking with you know IT professionals, engineers, AV professionals and and we all seem to level set on the one major requirement that we want and we want solid connectivity.
5:00
We don't want disruptions, interruptions and goodness,
5:04
it became a meme and a joke over the pandemic of our you know is your mic working, is this thing on, frozen screens.
5:10
You know everybody was relying on Wi-Fi and you know the rest of the family or significant people were in the home as well killing the router and you know that's just not a reliable connection when it comes to solid up time connectivity.
5:23
Now there are places within companies where wireless is definitely, you know they have the the bandwidth to support you know those activities in in such places.
5:32
But believe it or not most back to you know the hybrid work nature BYOD, the home environments on wireless, they just don't support you know that kind of activity full on.
5:41
So I highly recommend tethered connections and so do a lot of the professionals that we consult with out there in the work world.
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Skrhak:
5:48
Well, so let's let's talk about the collaboration itself.
5:51
So we did a podcast last month or so about this concept of meeting equity.
5:58
So you know, if our listeners aren't familiar, it's basically the idea that remote workers that are connecting to a meeting have the same voice connectivity presence that the on site workers would have.
6:14
So how can technology like this really ensure that those that are working from home can stay engaged with on site workers?
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Borden:
6:26
Wow, that's a multilayer.
6:28
That's a multilayer answer potential question there, Shelby, but I'll dissect it a little bit from from my vantage point.
6:35
The first thing I do, believe it or not, I have to step away from technology for a minute and I I just have to say to everybody we know we've been in meeting environments where the camera has not been necessary to show.
6:46
We've been in meeting environments where we've been peer pressured into turning our camera on and all of the above.
6:51
And there ultimately what we have to do is we have to create a presence somehow whether it's showing our our avatar or our face or participating in the sideline chats in any of these softwares that are available.
7:02
Even if it's a a meeting with a broad stroke of audience attendance in your company, if you have 250 people attending and just say you're a participant and you don't necessarily have any value to add, at least throw a “thank you” in there on the chat.
7:15
So that if you know one of the upper folks and marketing folks or anybody else of of of authority see that they're going to know you're participating and they're going to know that you're there.
7:24
Now the on the technology side of things, you know what I'm liking and what's exciting me is the different aspect ratios of display technology that are being talked about.
7:33
Some of you see some of this in the gaming world, you know, the 21 by 9 aspect ratio.
7:38
I like that because as you know, companies you know, like ours that are, you know, considering these things, you know, we're going to be, you know, giving folks the visibility from an avatar and a, you know, a headshot perspective, you know, in in a real meeting looking type of room with a long elongated aspect ratio like that, it's going to help as well.
7:57
We've seen that with Microsoft Teams and they're pushing, you know, they're pushing that, you know, and I and I agree with it wholeheartedly.
8:04
So yeah, definitely it's going to be a combination of make yourself known, participate wherever you can, even if you don't have value to add.
8:10
But when it comes to, you know, display technology and then being able to show the faces and you know, not, you know, I remember the guy who was had the green screen and he was riding the motocross bike out at the beach.
8:22
I love that one and it's it's obviously burnt out a bit, but that kind of illustrates, you know, just how much we need to be seen.
8:28
So I think that as you know, you know, the display technology keeps increasing where more and more faces can be shown in a combination with participation,
8:36
you got a winning combination there.
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Skrhak:
8:38
Yeah.
8:38
Tell us a little bit more about that 21 by 9 aspect ratio.
8:41
I want to make sure that I'm understanding the concept here.
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Borden:
8:44
Well basically it's it's a longer looking aspect ratio, currently the only thing I can say about it is that our current direct view LED technology we're working on providing kits and accessibility to 21 by 9 aspect ratio and that from a product standpoint, I don't have any domain over the product marketing folks.
9:03
So we will have to wait until key announcements are made moving into 2023 for such things.
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Skrhak:
9:08
That's exciting.
9:09
Well, so let's talk about some of the price points here in terms of good, better, best.
9:15
So I I ask that because a lot of companies are really, right now they're considering maybe tightening their belts,
9:22
so they want to make sure that their technology spend is a really good balance between quality and affordability.
9:30
So can you speak to some of those price points then and and how a variety of companies, not just the big enterprise level but SMBs can take advantage of this type of technology?
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Borden:
9:43
Yeah, you know how true, I don't care who you are, we all want to save money and and you know having you know down revenues over a time that was you know against our will, it was one of these things that you know we're all looking in order to capture lost revenue.
9:55
You know one of the great things Sharp NEC is doing now by virtue of the merger and acquisition, Sharp brings over a plethora of AQUOS BOARD offerings that really makes sense and and they've they've done a really great job positioning features and costs associated with whatever budget level individuals have.
10:12
Now some of these machines, you know from the marketing level they're presented from a vertical standpoint.
10:17
So always the assumption is very entry level products, they tend to be more adopted in education and House of worship and things like that.
10:26
That's not necessarily true.
10:27
There's you know big business, big budget entities that appreciate a quality simplistic display with just exactly what they're needing as a use case for that particular area.
10:38
So in combination with what we come to the party with from the NEC perspective, which is our CB series all inclusive you know collaboration product, which by the way shameless blurb, it's on sale you know reach out to your NEC Sharp Rep find out more about how you can get into that
10:52
you know in a very attractive price all the way to what Sharp brings which is the the 4TB, 70 and 80 entry level product all the way up to the the PN-CD7O1 which is more of the the Windows collaboration type of things with Internet of technology, Internet of Things technology, sensors and all of that.
11:09
So we really run the spectrum now from a a display standpoint, all the displays are 4K as one would expect, the viewing angles are are respectable in the industry, anti-glare technology is available, fingerprint resistance and then ultimately the the different ports that the verticals expect whether it is a tethered port of an app to share information or a a wireless radio.
11:31
One other mention I have to say about any of the AQUOS BOARD offerings in the Sharp portfolios that is fantastic pen software that comes that can be installed on an external computer.
11:42
This pen software acts as an overlay and an expanded whiteboard unlike the anything that I've seen in the market in this space.
11:49
And that's because I come from a very simplistic one off whiteboard in our CB series.
11:53
Now that we have something as comprehensive and fantastic I I can't stop talking about it because it adds so much to the experience of any of the vertical users for any of these products.
12:02
So load balancing here the the the end answer is that we have anything from the very entry level to the very advanced.
12:09
I would say just from a price perspective,
12:11
I don't ever talk price because I'm not in that in that direct sales mode.
12:14
But the entry level stuff is is just shy sub 2000 the the high end in the high end perspective you're looking at about the 8k give or take some some change.
12:23
So that's the the nebulous Cliff notes version of that from a price perspective.
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Skrhak:
12:28
Yeah. Well and that's great because just to give us a, a reference point to understand if your budget is within the, you know, you're in the right space, right.
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Borden:
12:36
Exactly.
12:37
The net is please call us.
12:38
No no matter what your use case is, no matter what your vertical is, we have a solution for you.
12:43
And outside of the already prepackaged solutions, we even have the ability to do custom solutions.
12:48
So you know, if there's something that you don't think that we can handle, please bring it to our attention, you know, and then let us let us see if we can help you because I know that we can.
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Skrhak:
12:58
So what's coming next for Sharp NEC in 2023?
13:02
I wonder if we can go over some of the maybe specific products that have already been announced that we can look forward to seeing or are things that you really want to highlight.
13:13
I mean you mentioned the pen software that sounds interesting and in what it can do as a kind of extended whiteboard.
13:21
What other cool stuff is coming down the pike?
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Borden:
13:23
Well, there'll be some microphone camera, you know add-ons for certain boards that are going to be coming down pretty soon.
13:31
The trend moving in into 2023 from that I've witnessed from the marketing department, they're going to keep improving upon efficiencies and economies of scale by virtue of our merger and acquisition.
13:43
You know there's going to be you know a pace moving forward to providing what I would consider the best of features with price point on all models across the board that we're going to still you know be moving forward with a lot of initiatives from the NEC side as well as on the Sharp side and from the road map that I have seen which is you know pretty much been announced.
14:03
Nothing really stand out that that I've seen to talk about it beyond that except for some TAA considerations which I'm really happy to have now for government customers and people that are TAA compliant, you know capable.
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Skrhak:
14:16
What is that?
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Borden:
14:18
TAA compliancy is displays that are manufactured in countries that have a, basically it's the United States list for acceptable countries of manufacturer and certain countries are not on that list.
14:29
So if there are entities that have that regulation or that consideration for purchase, we have that pathway for them with our products.
14:37
With that being said, yeah, we're really excited about the future.
14:39
Obviously some of this, you know, since I, it's not in my purview, but I can't speak about it as we move forward and some of these products are still being worked on diligently by our professionals in the product department.
14:50
I am personally excited from my vantage point about the consulting that I'm getting into to be able to deliver these offerings to our potential customers and our existing customers.
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Skrhak:
4:58
Yeah, yeah.
15:00
Well, as we do start to wrap up our episode, this is actually kind of a related question to my last one.
15:07
But we always ask our guests the same final question and that's where do you see technology going in the next year?
15:12
So you talked a little bit about what Sharp NEC technology might be coming down the Pike,
15:17
but within the collaboration space and BYOD and all of the potential technology stack that's out there, what do you see coming in 2023?
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Borden:
15:29
Yeah, well that's a good one.
15:30
But the the loaded question right, that you asked, you have to ask that. Personally speaking, I never get to talk about mobile, it's not what we do.
15:39
However, I feel that the software manufacturers for collaboration technology, they're going to be making more mobile friendly inroads with their software, software in general for the display technology, large screen displays, collaboration displays are are they're going to only improve.
15:58
And what they have done especially under you know the situation that we've had for the last couple years now that it's full steam ahead and the businesses are trying to figure out how work from home, work on prem is going to bode, you know they're going to be load balancing all these different technologies whether it be your laptop, whether it be your actual, you know, huddle room, meeting room space or your your handheld.
16:17
So I think the handheld's going to come come in a little more prominent moving into the future as we figure out how we're going to be working and where we're going to be working.
16:25
And from a display technology, I'm like I mentioned early on in the in the in the call you know the different aspect ratios, different display technologies like direct view LED considerations are still high for projection technology because of its ability to do a single span vertical and like a traditional video wall, traditional video walls are still being considered in a lot of areas.
16:47
So it's it's really going to keep moving forward in my opinion, but we're going to start seeing a little bit more augmentation on the software side, some interesting things regarding aspect ratio and of course what we're going to, you know whatever unknowns we're going to see coming up in the mobile space.
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Skrhak:
17:02
Yeah. Also for listeners who have any questions about something that we talked about today or want to reach out, how can they find out more information?
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Borden:
17:10
You can go to Google and you can search Sharp NEC displays.
17:14
You can go to the Google, the Google later, right and go Sharp NEC displays and then or you can go to the Sharp Corporation and look at everything that way.
17:23
But essentially, it's SharpNECdisplays.com is our URL.
17:30
And if you need to reach me, feel free to reach out through the website.
17:33
They know where to find me.
17:33
I can't hide.
17:34
And I'm more than happy to go through any product offering with you or any demonstration of certain collaboration solutions as I I happen to be able to do so from my Home Office.
17:44
So yeah, reach right out to us and we're more than happy to help.
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Skrhak:
17:48
Excellent.
17:49
Well, George, I appreciate all the the insight today.
17:51
Thank you so much for joining me.
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Borden:
17:53
Thank you, Shelby.
17:54
It's been a pleasure
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Skrhak:
17:57
And thank you listeners for tuning in and subscribing to B2B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
18:00
If you like this episode or have a question, please join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag “B2BTechTalk.”
18:07
Until next time, I'm Shelby Skrhak.
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Outro:
18:10
You've been listening to B2B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
18:13
This episode was sponsored by Ingram Micro’s Imagine Next.
18:16
B2B Tech Talk is a joint production with Sweet Fish Media and Ingram Micro.
18:20
Ingram Micro Production handled by Laura Burton and Christine Fan.
18:24
To not miss an episode, subscribe today on your favorite podcast platform.
[outro music plays]
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