As a leading financial institution with an international remit, BBVA has exacting technology demands. The company employs approximately 6,000 people at its Ciudad BBVA headquarters complex in Madrid, with thousands more around the world. Connecting all these employees requires an advanced technology deployment.
As it built out a new hybrid work culture following in the wake of COVID-19, BBVA needed to find communication technology that would suit various room types, from massive conference spaces to individual workrooms. It found its answer in the form of Cisco Devices, which connect rooms to a seamless network.
The link between Cisco Devices and BBVA extends to multiple parts of the bank’s technology needs, including networking in the data center and cloud-based unified communications. The latest deployments are merely new chapters in an extensive and fulfilling partnership.
Adapting to a hybrid work style
In the years before the COVID-19 shutdowns, BBVA maintained a standard office culture, with employees expected to work in person 100% of the time. Following the reopening, the business changed its approach. The new blend is based on spending 60% of work hours in the office and the other 40% working remotely.
This brought a change to the company’s needs. It is now normal for meetings to include both on-site and at-home contributors, demanding a secure and reliable network of collaboration devices. The company operates over 500 meeting rooms, and they have different footprints. The technology to connect all the many types of spaces would have to be versatile, which is where Cisco comes in.
Alongside efforts to beautify the offices, foregrounding wooden and green elements, the team installed cutting-edge Cisco collaboration communication devices. Some spaces call for two screens — one for presentation content and another for viewing remote participants. Other, larger rooms may include as many as eight monitors. The tech must suit the space, while still providing a unified, consistent user experience.
“In a space with offices, we have multiple different tiny spaces, where we can hold different types of meetings with people who are at home, with people who are here,” said Carmen de Miguel Calabia, Manager, BBVA Campus Complex “The teams can continue business as usual, regardless of where they are physically.”
To engage with not just internal teams but also external partners, the BBVA team needed its videoconferencing devices and systems to be interoperable with other solutions. Cisco’s open standards facilitated this process, allowing BBVA to communicate outside of its walls without added complexity, delays or inconvenience.
Embracing AI-powered advanced features
The latest innovations within Cisco Room systems often leverage powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that automate and expedite key processes. In BBVA’s case, AI-powered Cisco systems automatically focus cameras on meeting participants at the right time, and remove background noise from videoconferences. With these processes running automatically, the communication experience becomes smoother, without the need for manual intervention from IT.
“Artificial intelligence is behind many of the improvements that Cisco puts in our hands,” said Iván Argüelles Carralero, Head of Digital Workplace. ” Something that can be seamless for us, like not having noise in a video conference, behind the scenes is a very complex engineering task to implement noise filters that filter outside voices from the conversation, general sound, and that occurs seamlessly with Cisco’s products.”
Maximizing the use of space
After installing the equipment for its new hybrid meeting spaces, BBVA hasn’t rested on its laurels. The technology team actively collects usage information from the rooms and analyzes it in Cisco Spaces to make sure each room is being used to its fullest extent.
Cisco Spaces is a cloud platform that acts as the connective tissue between the many different types of communication technologies deployed in meeting rooms. The solution is designed to enable smart building controls without additional hardware, taking its readings from existing equipment.
“The Cisco Spaces solutions combine data from different sources,” said Daniel Gonzalez Rodrigo, Audiovisual Systems and Collaboration Manager. “We can use the information provided to us by the Meraki antennas. We can use information from the videoconferencing cameras that helps us identify the number of people in the room, or even the sensors in the panel itself on the table. It gives us information about the temperature, noise or humidity in the environment. These data that we collect are of great value to colleagues in space management, which can help them to better manage the operations in a building.”
With that data in hand, the team can adjust buildings’ environmental controls and other settings to optimize the energy efficiency and overall environmental footprint of the structures, alongside employees’ comfort and convenience.
Standardizing around the world
BBVA has spent the past few years rolling out the Hybrid Spaces project, designed to create pleasing and user-friendly workspaces to suit the new split between in-office and remote work. This project, which affects buildings around the world, is powered by consistent and reliable Cisco technology. By deploying the same devices at each location, BBVA’s team is able to recreate a consistent collaboration experience in offices separated by oceans.
Each type of space has a distinct purpose, and the devices to match. For instance, to give employees an option other than dialing into remote meetings from their desks, the company has implemented small phone rooms in both its Madrid and Mexico offices. These rooms have become very popular with workers, as reflected in frequent reservations as well as the results of user experience surveys.
“I really think it has turned out amazing,” said de Miguel Calabia. “I think it helps a ton that aesthetically it’s very nice-looking, because it seems to me that aesthetically, it’s very pretty. And it’s very easy to use. It’s very adapted to the space. The technology has helped. In fact, there are a lot of reservations for these rooms. The stands are always occupied.”
Connecting to the standardized communications systems is simple — rooms have QR codes that reveal easy setup directions when scanned.
Enjoying an enduring, two-way partnership
The BBVA team appreciates the fact that when Cisco rolls out new solutions, it listens to its clients. This means the new roadmap of device and connectivity releases takes direction from what companies like BBVA need.
“We feel that we are heard. We also see that, aside from it being a two-way street, it’s very quick,” said Argüelles Carralero. “Our demands are met so quickly. And that contributes fundamental value, because agility is a differential value in solutions that are people-focused.”
The two-way street between Cisco and its customers has empowered BBVA as the overall state of technology has become ever more sophisticated. The BBVA team realizes that financial institutions must keep evolving and make use of the latest technology solutions, while also acknowledging that such constant development is difficult and demanding. With Cisco taking care of this forward progress, BBVA is free to reap the benefits.
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