Summary

SW Accountants & Advisors, a national accounting firm with offices across Australia, embarked on a mission to enhance their meeting experiences for clients and staff across their four offices in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. They partnered with Rapid Circle, specialists in delivering VR designed Microsoft Teams Rooms – to bring their hybrid work strategy to life. SW’s investment in their meeting rooms has been a resounding success, ensuring seamless connections in this new era of work.  

“The most important thing for us is to be able to service our clients and also retain great people. And the investment that we’ve made in technology ensures that being a national practice and having global clients that we’re able to connect with them in a meaningful way via this technology, which is really important now in a hybrid world.”

Duane Rogers, Director & CEO, SW  

Background

SW Accounting and Advisors is an independent, national firm with a strong presence in major cities across Australia, offering a wide range of accounting and business advisory services. With a team of over 40 Partners and 300 staff, SW is dedicated to delivering exceptional value to their clients, and their commitment to excellence has earned them recognition as the 22nd largest firm by revenue in the 2022 AFR Top 100 Accounting Firms and the 10th largest national practice in Australia.  

At SW, building real relationships and connectivity is at the heart of their philosophy, both locally and globally. SW Accountants & Advisors Australia are part of the SW International network, which is one of the top 20 global networks. Through this network, they provide integrated global services to their clients, with their international headquarters located in Hong Kong.  

Challenge

As part of their national workplace strategy, SW was undergoing a national office refresh, which involved redesigning offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The project aimed to create modern and flexible workspaces that reflect the firm’s culture and values, and to support the changing needs and preferences of their staff and clients in the post-pandemic era. The project also aimed to leverage the latest technology and innovation to enhance collaboration, communication and productivity across the firm. 

SW’s Director & CEO, Duane Rogers, recognised the importance of staying connected with clients globally and retaining top talent within the organiastion:   

“When we set out our new workplace strategy, we were coming out of the pandemic and looking at a number of challenges about how we continue to connect and collaborate as an organisation, whether it be with our clients internationally or with our staff locally.”  

Duane Rogers, Director & CEO, SW  

One of the key challenges that the firm faced was how to create a consistent and high-quality audio-visual experience across their meeting rooms and collaboration spaces. The firm had previously used Zoom rooms as their video conferencing solution, however, they wanted to switch to Microsoft Teams rooms to align with their ‘Microsoft-first’ strategy and to improve and simplify the in-person and hybrid experience.    

SW also wanted to create some innovative and engaging spaces – such as a webinar studio, an innovation hub and a boardroom with advanced features – that can showcase their capabilities and differentiate them from their competitors.   

Solution

Rapid Circle was selected based on our proven track record and reputation for designing and delivering audio visual solutions for meeting rooms with Microsoft Teams. SW wanted a high-quality, tailored, and fit-for-purpose solution, and they engaged Rapid Circle for a very thorough engagement that consisted of: discovery, design, deployment and a continuous managed-service.

To meet SW’s requirements, Rapid Circle devised a comprehensive strategy that replaced Zoom with Microsoft Teams and supported hybrid work using state of the art hardware to ensure top-notch performance. This included:   

Digital signage: Each office has the syncronised digital signage content across reception areas and corporate messaging in meeting spaces that automatically switches to scheduled meetings for one-touch-join. Digital signage is powered by Samsungs MagicInfo server, which is hosted by the firm in Azure.   

Room booking: Each meeting room has a Logitech Tap Scheduler. The Logitech Tap Scheduler is integrated with Microsoft Teams and allows users to book rooms on the spot and see what meetings are scheduled.    

Flex offices: Each office has a number of flex offices, which are small rooms for private calls, video conferences or focused work. The flex offices were equipped with Logi Docks, which integrate with Microsoft Teams to allow users to join meetings from a personal laptop.     

Collaboration spaces: Each office has a number of collaboration spaces. Designed for BYOD (bring your own device) use cases, the collaboration spaces were equipped with ClickShare wireless presentation devices, which allowed users to share their screens wirelessly to the displays.   

Staff hubs: Each office has a staff hub, which is a social common area. The staff hub has a large display that displayed digital signage, free-to-air TV and ad-hoc presentations.   

Webinar studio: The Melbourne office has a webinar studio, which was a dedicated room that could be used for hosting or attending webinars, podcasts or live events. The webinar studio has a BYOD (bring your own device) setup, which allowed users to connect their laptops, an “On-Air” light provides feedback for staff outside the room when a session is live.  

Innovation hub: The Sydney office has an innovation hub, which is a multipurpose room. It has a Surface Hub that provides whiteboarding, collaboration and presentation functionality which is also integrated with Microsoft Teams.   

Boardroom: The Boardroom consists of two separate Microsoft Teams Rooms which can combine into one large presentation space with ceiling microphone arrays, a stunning 98” Samsung display and multiple Rally PTZ cameras providing flexibility for presenter positions and room layouts depending on the meeting or event.    

Signature Room: SW were an early adopter of Microsoft’s Signature Room layout including curved table with “Front Row” seating, dual 75” displays, wide angle and dual lens Camera from Poly and spatial audio. This room has proven to be a popular meeting space with staff.    

Logitech Sync platform: Setting Logitech as the standard across all SW meeting rooms provides the added benefit of monitoring and management of devices across all sites. Using Sync ensures all video devices are healthy, up to date, and any configuration changes can be made remotely.   

“For our peripherals, we use Logitech, which has been great to fit into our sleek, modern office aesthetic. When people walk in, there’s no eyesore at the TV, they just see a big camera.”   

Thomas McGillion, Systems Engineer, SW  

Result

The project has been a huge success and has received positive feedback from SW’s staff and clients. The Teams Rooms enabled the firm to create a consistent and high-quality audio-visual experience across their meeting rooms and collaboration spaces.  
  

“I just get to walk into a room, press a button and everything’s up and running! You don’t have to get into a room really early anymore, previously you’d need to get in 30 minutes earlier to set it all up. It’s fantastic and takes a huge stress away.”  

Anne Powers, Executive Manager, SW  

The solution also supported hybrid working, by providing location equity and seamless one-touch join for in-office meetings. The solution also created some innovative and engaging spaces, such as a webinar studio, an innovation hub and a boardroom with advanced features, that showcased the firm’s capabilities and differentiated them from their competitors. 

“I live regionally, and these new meeting rooms have enabled more collaboration for those of us who want to work from home, and give us an equal ability to participate in meetings. It really does open the opportunity for people to continue their development such as training sessions as well as connecting with the people that they work with who are in office.”  

Renee Hyde, Manager, SW  

Recommendation

The partnership between SW Accounting Advisors, Rapid Circle, and Microsoft has not only revitalized meeting experiences but has also positioned the firm to thrive in the evolving landscape of hybrid work, showcasing the power of collaboration and cutting-edge technology. 

“To invest in this technology, it’s really important to plan out what the purpose you’re trying to achieve is using advisors such as Rapid Circle and technology such as Logitech to enhance that experience.”

Duane Rogers, Director & CEO, SW 

“We are proud of the project we’ve completed with SW. They wanted the best, most state-of-the-art hybrid experiences, and this is what can be achieved when you properly invest in Microsoft Teams meeting rooms. It’s been a pleasure to work with SW and to see the positive impact our solution has had on their staff and clients.”

Damien Margaritis, Converged Communications Lead, Rapid Circle