1.0 Summary

This document highlights the best practices with integrating pivo and will go over the points in the integration process in which we would recommend markers to perform the tasks needed for pivot implementation. 

It is recommended that you do go through and create the client, and upload the information into pivot, regardless of whether you have monitoring implemented on site or not. This will ensure that your support teams, and sales team, can have a quick overview of all rooms/installations as-built, versus navigating to different file structures, or platforms, based on what work was performed. 

2.0 Projects - Integration

2.1 For Projects without pivot monitoring 

 “Even if a project doesn't require active monitoring of the integrated systems, using pivot can still be a smart choice for tracking assets. By adding all relevant assets to pivot, you'll have a centralized repository of information about the devices, documentation, and software involved in the project. This can help ensure that all necessary components are in place and accounted for, and make it easier to troubleshoot and manage the project as it progresses. With pivot's asset management features, you can also keep track of warranty periods, and other important information, helping you optimize your asset utilization and reduce costs over time. Plus, when your project is completed, pivot makes it easy to hand over your asset information to your service team, ensuring they have all the details they need to support your equipment in the future. By using pivot to track assets, you can increase visibility into your project and ensure that everything stays on track.”

For closing out projects without pivot monitoring, it’s still recommended you upload all the assets into pivot for asset management, as well as creating a 1 stop depository for your support and sales team. 

With a Complete Asset List and As-Built Drawings, assign a team member to upload them into the platform. We recommend a team member that’s a bit familiar to the project to ensure no rooms are missed. You should be either working with your team to update assets directly in pivot with our robust editable tables, or uploading the final versions of both your Assets and Line Drawings through our upload process, so pivot will be up to date, and your support team can easily lookup and troubleshoot these rooms. 

2.1.1 Tasks to Complete**

• Upload Complete Asset List 

• Upload As-built Line Drawings (Broken up by Room Type) 

2.1.2 Additional Time Requirement**

Additional Time Required is minimal in this use case. It would take on average 1 team member to upload 5 rooms in an hour, with a full set of line drawings, user guides, and programs.

2.1.3 Example Gant Chart

Here is an example of a small project with tasks broken up by weeks.

It should be noted that the only additional task, pivot Asset Import, can be completely circumvented if your adopted workflow utilizes the editable table provided in pivot, otherwise the Asset Import can be started while the Commissioning and Documentation is being completed with importing device and room info. Best practice though would be to bundle all the assets to upload, and have the team member upload and configure the rooms all in one go.

2.2 For Projects with pivot monitoring

2.2.1 Early Network Conversations: 

In the early network conversations, it would be good to include the networking requirements for the monitoring modules, whether it be the port number you need open on the firewall, or passing along the AWS Structure and Data Policies of pivot. 

Tasks to Complete:

• Share Additional Network/Data details with client for approval 

Additional Time Requirement:

Additional Time Required should be minimal and included in the early conversations. If additional questions arise about AWS Structures or Data Policies, it may take an additional hour meeting with client to answer specifics and alleviate any security concerns. It’s important to do this early as it may take a network security team additional weeks to pass along full approval.

2.2.2 Programming/Building: 

“pivot monitoring is a valuable tool for the programming and integration teams as it provides real-time visibility into the performance of the integrated systems. By monitoring the system, the team can quickly identify any issues that may arise during the integration process and even possibly catch them before commissioning. This ensures that the system is properly configured and ready for deployment and reduces work done during any provided warranty period. Additionally, pivot asset tracking allows the team to keep track of all assets used in the integration, ensuring that they are properly documented and accounted for. This is important when handing over the project to the service team, as it helps them to better support the system in the future. Overall, incorporating pivot monitoring and asset tracking into your project integration process can streamline the integration and deployment process, leading to a more successful project outcome.”

In instances of pivot monitoring where pivot supports direct device monitoring integration, such as some MS Teams or Zoom Room devices. These devices will need to be configured either on the test bench before heading to site or can be done even after the integration. Configuration can take about 5 minutes per device if doing it one by one and a reboot is required. 

In the other instances where a secondary device is needed to monitor and report back to pivot, such as a Crestron processor, we recommend providing your programmer’s an extra day for a standard room to ensure that both signals are communicating to the Crestron Processor, and that pivot is reporting the expected results. 

Generally, at the point in which the programmer is working on the program, the room is built at this time, or the test bench has the gear set up and the asset sheet is complete. The programmer, or another team member of your choosing, can upload the complete Asset List for the rooms in a safe Staging environment, giving the programmers room to troubleshoot and resolve any issues they may be experiencing with their program away from the client facing side. You can update any assets if they may change in the future of course. Once all the work is complete in the staging environment, you are able to import your data into the production instance, as we will talk about later. 

Once that’s been completed, we recommend your Project Manager with your Lead Technical resources to check over the pivot rooms your programmers have generated in staging. If there are any missing devices or room alerts, now is a good time to investigate before releasing to the client. These alerts can be indications of a device itself not correctly setup or behaving in unexpected ways that may even merit an RMA. 

Tasks to Complete:

• On Integration/Build-out, Technician to configure any devices with integrated monitoring to pivot 

• On Programming/Build-out, when scheduling programmers to build the room, create: 

• Staging instance of the client for testing 

• Upload Assets into pivot 

• Programmers to integrate the monitoring modules into the program 

• Programmers to confirm signals going to the Processor 

• Programmers to check pivot staging environment that signals are being received 

• Programmers to ensure all devices expected to report are reporting 

• If any alerts are present, resolve if programming issue, escalate if outside of skill set (re-terminating cables, etc.) 

• PM or Technical Lead to resolve any outstanding alerts on pivot 

Additional Time Requirement

Per device being monitored, you can expect an average of and additional 10-15 minutes to be added for the programmer’s time. So if there is a room in which you are adding 2 Microphones, 1 Display, and 1 Audio DSP expect that the programmer would need approximately an additional hour to perform the hookup.

For Commissioning, allow an additional hour per processor to check and confirm signaling is behaving as expected with a variety of device/room states, any issues should be worked on to resolution right away.

2.2.3 Training

“As a trainer, you have the important task of imparting knowledge and skills to your trainees. With pivot, you can take your training sessions to the next level by incorporating the latest technology and tools to create a more engaging and interactive experience. pivot offers online help, a central repository of the client’s documentation, and a one-stop-shop of device monitoring and troubleshooting needs. This means you can augment any of your training materials with links to pivot itself, and train your trainees how to investigate and answer any questions they may have in the future, which is a huge advantage in the fast and ever changing world of technology.”

Before providing room training, ensure that the rooms are now on the production side by having a team member complete the import from Staging to Production. It’s generally recommended that someone on your team who has a decent knowledge of the deployment does this task, as they can ensure no rooms or devices are missed as a final check. 

Once that is done, conversations on training can begin. When talking to your Client’s leadership, mention about the pivot login, and who would be best to provide admin access, and add the user(s) into pivot. They will be able to add their team members prior to the training/after the training session themselves.  

Your trainer should also go over pivot alerts, and a brief overview of how to utilize the platform, and how your company is integrated to assets them if any problems arise, from SLA’s to best methods of contacting your support team. Training for your trainers will be provided.  

Tasks To Complete

• Import your Staging Environment on pivot to Production 

• Programmers to ensure the final code on site is sending to Production 

• Upload Complete Asset List (If any changes have been made) 

• As-built Line Drawings (Broken up by Room Type) 

• Trainer/Project Manager to add Client Leadership/Client IT Admins as pivot admins to manager their own teams in pivot 

• Trainer to provide training on pivot usage for any “Super-User” or Client’s “Support Team” Training you provide 

Additional Time Requirement

At least 1 additional hour of training would be required with the Client’s Admin and User base. This would be best recommended after performing the physical room training within the same day. A separate session is ideal, where only the client’s team that use pivot is invited. An additional Training session for Client Admins separately is not necessary, but if requested, an additional 30 minute session is more than enough.

2.2.4 Service Team Hand-off

“Handing off a completed project to the Service Team can often be a challenge, but with pivot's intuitive interface and streamlined workflows, it's easier than ever. With pivot, project managers can easily track and manage assets and documentation throughout the project lifecycle. This means that when it's time to hand off the project to the Service Team, all the necessary information and resources are in one place, making the transition seamless and efficient. Plus, pivot's reporting and analytics features make it easy to provide the Service Team with the insights they need to ensure optimal performance and uptime. With pivot, project hand-off is a breeze, so you can focus on delivering top-notch service to your clients.”

Just before the client team is trained up and rooms are released, we recommend a meeting with your support team highlighting the rooms you have built, and if there are any new pieces of equipment integrated they may have not seen, any reoccurring issues you encountered on site, etc. 

Take this opportunity to open up pivot and go through it together to ensure everything is where it’s expected, and complete. SLA’s and support structures would likely already have been discussed, but good to go over it again to ensure no additional change orders/client need changes have occurred before hand-off. 

Tasks to Complete:

·       Project Manager/Technical Lead to host a meeting with key members of the Support Team to complete handoff to pivot 

2.2.5 Example Gant Chart

Here is an example of a small project of installing 1 room with 2x Microphones, 1x Display, and 1x Audio DSP broken up by weeks.

Here you can note that there are additional tasks to be completed, such as pivot Programming, and pivot Training all can be slotted in with the tasks, and only require an additional hour in this example per task.

The pivot Asset Import in this example, can be completed in about an hour when all documentation is completed.

What is of mention is that the pivot Signal Monitoring task. This task can be held by the Service Team to monitor, but it is recommended that the project manager is responsible for ensuring the team members are booked and able to attend to site, so the same programmer or installation team member who built the room can easily address any errors in the installation or programming quickly and easily.