THE CHALLENGE
Meet customers’ changing needs for interacting and working with more distributed workforces
Provide interactive meeting and video conferencing technology that was compatible with Microsoft Teams Rooms to support the needs of remote workers
Have products on hand and installed at its own headquarters for demonstration purposes
Founded in 1955, RJ Young was an established leader in delivering copiers and printers – along with a “We Make It RightTM” guarantee – to businesses across the southeastern United States. In 2020, the company and its customers alike found themselves suddenly inhabiting a changed business landscape.
“When Covid hit, everything shifted for us and for our customers,” said Destin Echols, RJ Young Technology Solutions Architect. “Our customers needed support to do business with a much more distributed workforce. To our leadership’s credit, they took a hard look at our customers’ business needs and how they were changing, and determined what we could do to meet those evolving needs.”
The ability to effectively connect, communicate, and interact with remote workers had become a major pain point for RJ Young’s customers. A critical part of the company’s new focus was the need to be able to provide interactive meeting and video conferencing technology to support the needs of remote workers.
“Now we had to quickly pivot to respond to the sudden changes and challenges that our customers faced,” said Echols. “Interactivity was going to be key. Everyone was already accustomed to the interactivity offered by their smartphones and iPads. We wanted to deliver that to our customers in a way that would facilitate collaborative in-person meetings, and as well as bring together remote and on-site participants.”
THE SOLUTION
Implementation of ViewSonic® ViewBoard interactive displays into its product lineup
Responsive and packed with features, ViewBoard displays were also intuitive, easy to use, and had a great price tag
The 105-inch 21:9 ViewBoard IFP105S was installed at RJ Young headquarters in Nashville, TN – becoming the country’s first installation of this groundbreaking product
Before taking on the role of Technology Solutions Architect at the RJ Young Corporate Office in Nashville, Echols had worked in technology for a decade. That experience led him and his team to question how RJ Young customers would benefit with this type of technology.
Around that time, Echols met ViewSonic Channel Account Manager, Matt Hurley, who showed him the ViewSonic line of ViewBoard® interactive flat panel (IFP) displays.
“We were very impressed with the ViewSonic ViewBoard displays, which were responsive and packed with features, while also being intuitive, easy to use, and having a great price tag,” said Echols. “As we worked with ViewSonic, we became even more impressed with the way they do business. The support they offer is outstanding. In the early days, we had a massive learning curve, and when we had questions, someone at ViewSonic always picked up the phone and had answers for us.”
RJ Young made the decision to partner with ViewSonic to fulfill its customers’ display needs, including commercial displays, digital signage, interactive displays, desktop monitors, and projectors. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Our partnership with ViewSonic is over the top,” said Echols. “The product is good, if not better, than what else is available and at an outstanding price point. ViewSonic also had the support, quick turnaround, and good relationships that we wanted to allow us to quickly satisfy our customers’ needs.”
THE RESULTS
ViewBoard displays provided interactivity and visibility for customers’ virtual meetings
myViewBoard software made it easy to manage ViewSonic displays across the entire region
Ultimately decided to partner with ViewSonic to fulfill its customers’ complete display needs, including commercial displays, digital signage, interactive displays, desktop monitors, and projectors
During the work-at-home days of the Covid pandemic, adding ViewSonic ViewBoard interactive displays to the RJ Young lineup proved to be a wise decision.
“It was easy to show our customers how the ViewBoard displays could help them navigate the changing business landscape,” said Echols. “Not only did the displays provide interactivity and visibility for virtual meetings, they were also a logical extension to the way business had been evolving pre-pandemic.”
“I tell my customers that the ViewBoard interactive display is a common-sense extension of how they already do things, and it all revolves around interactivity,” he said. “Everyone is on a cell phone, which you can show to one or two people. The next step up from that is an iPad or a touchscreen PC, but you’re still limited to the few people that can gather around and see it. The natural extension, if you want five, 10, or more people to see and interact with content, is to throw it onto a giant TV touchscreen.”
Most of the time, his customers say, ‘Yes! That makes sense. That’s exactly what I want!’
Today, RJ Young is both a ViewSonic reseller and customer. The company has installed solutions for their customers using virtually every model in every category of ViewSonic product. They also rely on ViewSonic ViewBoard interactive displays to facilitate meetings in their own conference rooms.
“Every one of our 30-plus offices has at least one ViewSonic CDE display and one ViewBoard interactive display,” said Echols. “The quality and interactivity provide amazing functionality for our all-hands meetings, sales meetings, and breakout sessions. Also, we love the myViewBoard software, which makes it easy to manage our ViewSonic displays across the entire region.”
Echols can easily troubleshoot any situation using the myViewBoard ManagerTM software.
“I can turn on their conference room display – no matter where it is – add a welcome screen with the company’s logo, drop in any other content they need,” he said. “We don’t have to send our IT resources, and no one has to worry about whether there’s someone tech savvy in office. We can remotely manage the device, and it’s been fantastic for us.”
The duality of being a ViewSonic customer and reseller comes in handy.
“It’s ideal to have the products in use and available to demo,” said Echols. “If a customer comes in and asks to see the technology we’ve installed for other customers, we can simply take them to our conference room.”
The most recent installation is the 105-inch ViewBoard IFP105S interactive display with ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio. To showcase this flagship product and gain its ultra-wide benefits for themselves, RJ Young installed this 105-inch 21:9 ViewBoard in the conference room at their Nashville headquarters.
“I’m proud to say that our conference room was the first US installation of this groundbreaking product, and we have been thrilled with how much the added screen real estate has increased visibility and efficiency in our meetings,” said Echols. “The ability to cast multiple devices for collaboration and have a picture-in-picture view with different sources is extremely handy when checking jobs and designs against alternate versions. The annotation and tools are invaluable when we are marking up plans, doing systems designs, troubleshooting with customers, and when working internally on any number of tasks from HR to marketing.”
“We often work in collaboration with customers to review building plans, work out locations for their equipment, and show them how it will function in their space,” said Echols. “We use the 105-inch ViewBoard display to work with the customer to design their ideal office space and working environment, and the fact that we are using the same technology at our office speaks volumes.” Soon after their own installation, RJ Young brought the ultra-wide interactivity of the 105-inch ViewBoard display to several customers.
“For us and for our customers, the ViewSonic ViewBoard displays are an outstanding standalone meeting platform,” said Echols. “The 105-inch ultra- wide model takes it to a whole new level, with added space for more effective viewing and content organization, along with support for the Microsoft Teams Room Front Row layout, which delivers a natural and efficient digital meeting experience.”
