Dan Root: Differentiation within the market as far as we're bringing a Android based modular, uh, compute system, uh, that will support Microsoft Teams Rooms, uh, to the, to the market. And we're combining that with the, the ClickShare, uh, BYOD experience at first, and then conferencing here will come with a, a software update shortly after launch.

Tom Arbuthnot: Hi, and welcome back to the Teams Insider Podcast this week, great conversation with Dan Root, who is Global Strategic Alliances at ClickShare. He takes us through the whole journey with Microsoft and what they've been doing with MDEP and now Infocom has happened. Some of the announcements around their new.

MTR and Android devices and their partnerships and, and their vision for where they're going. Really interesting conversation. Dan has a wealth of knowledge in this space. We talk about his history as well and some of his analyst history. Hope you enjoy the show and many thanks to Landis who are the sponsor of this podcast.

Really appreciate their support of everything we're doing at Empowering.Cloud. Great contact center and attendance solution. And also check them out at Commsverse in a few weeks. They'll be, uh, having some sessions there and that should be a really good show. So on with the show. Hi everybody. Welcome back to the podcast As this goes out, I think it will be Infocom Week or just thereabouts.

And, uh, got some exciting announcements from the show. Uh, Dan, excited to have you on. Maybe try to introduce yourself. 

Dan Root: Hey, Tom, it's great to be here with you. Uh, my name's Dan Root and I'm the head of Global Strategic Alliances for ClickShare by Barco. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. I want to get into Barco and ClickShare and what you're doing, but first of all, a little bit of background on you because, uh, you've done a few different things.

You've been in the analyst space. People might recognize you from the, uh, the Wayne House days. So maybe you could give us a little bit of a, a, a, a brief tour of your background in our space. 

Dan Root: Yeah, certainly. Uh, so. Geez, almost 15 years ago now it's getting up there. I started at Carousel Industries as a, as a reseller and integrator within the industry.

Uh, mostly working to, to move Avaya product at that point in time. Uh, and then from there, went and worked for a startup called Bluescape, which was, uh, in the digital whiteboarding realm. Uh, think of like a, a mural mural. Uh, type competitor. Uh, and was, uh, there, uh, just about through COVID and then left, right as COVID, uh, was happening.

And in that period there were a lot of, uh, end customers as well as vendors trying to figure out how do I integrate a digital whiteboard into my stack because I've got folks that are now distributed everywhere who are not coming back to the office as quickly as maybe I'd hoped. Uh, and so from there I started taking some consulting work and then, um, Alan.

Uh, from Wayne House and Mark and the team there came and approached me and said, Hey, we worked with you at Bluescape. We really liked the work you were doing there. We've seen some of the, you know, some of, uh, your stuff pop up here and we're having a lot of customers ask, would you want to come and join, uh, Wayne House?

And so, uh, I did that, uh, midway or late in 2020, uh, and was there through, uh, the. Um, exit or kind of the transition to the Futurum group. Uh, and then right after that, I had an opportunity to come back on the vendor side of the house, uh, and go from being an analyst covering the space, uh, to back being a practitioner, which doesn't happen that often.

So, uh, I decided why not? Let's, uh, let's give it a shot. Uh, so I've been here at Barco now for two years, and I, uh, came on board to really help bring what we're. Excited to talk about here this week, uh, two to market, which is, uh, bringing together, uh, both a room system value proposition and that idea of the flexibility or BYOD value proposition into one solution into the market.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It is interesting that you've been on the analyst side and seen the market and then come back to kind of, uh, execute, which is always interesting. 

Dan Root: It's been fun. It's also really interesting because there's. You know, the group of analysts, you travel with them regularly. We used to cross paths here and there.

Uh, so you're, there's a group that you still have a good connection with, and that has been nice. But I will say I do miss being more of a referee, being able to sit with everybody at one point. And, you know, as something's happening, uh, there are certainly certain times where, uh, I'm like, oh, I really want to call this person at this vendor and just have that full conversation with them.

And I'm like, oh, wait, oh, nope. Can't do that anymore. That, that wouldn't work. But, uh, it's been a lot of fun. I gotta say, being back on, on the side of building something and really trying to, to push the boundaries of, of what is expected in the market, uh, has been a lot of fun, a lot of passion, uh, you know, I'm sure as you've.

Already seen. I've been all around the world over the last few weeks to say the least places 

Tom Arbuthnot: recently you have been 

busy. 

Dan Root: So the lead up has been, uh, a lot of fun. The whole team has really been putting in the hours and, and putting in the miles, uh, to make sure we are, are everywhere we need to be, uh, to, to roll this out here this week.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. So like, I'm sure a lot of people know ClickShare, certainly if you worked with enterprise customers, you tend to see ClickShare devices about, but for the, for this community, maybe you could talk about what ClickShare is and what it's known for and, and what's the ClickShare to Barco relationship.

Dan Root: Certainly, 

uh, let me start with kind of the high level, which is Barco stands for the Belgian American Radio Company and it was started over 90 years ago. Uh, we were started in Belgium and it was, uh, utilizing certain pieces out of radios at the time that were best known, quality-wise, uh, coming from the United States and putting together the best of the, the parts available across the globe into a single solution and bring that to market.

And that's something Barcos really built on throughout the years. And so, uh, they were very big within. Uh, projection. Uh, and so if you remember back, uh, you know, a little bit, uh, when I was more of a kid, but for most people when they were a little bit younger and they're on a plane, uh, and had the projector that would come on and, and show a movie at the front of your section, uh, very likely that was a Barco projector.

Uh, that was something we really pioneered. Uh, as well as personal computing in the eighties. And then throughout that we also, um, have branched off into medical. Uh, so a lot of the times if you go in for an X-ray or an MRI, the displays that, uh, the doctors are using today, uh, to actually look at those, uh, and analyze those.

Are typically Barco displays. Um, and then we're also big within entertainment. So within, uh, movie theater projection, we're actually the largest, uh, vendor globally there. Uh, there's a one in two chance that if you go to the movie theaters, you're watching it on a Barco. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Oh, interesting. 

Dan Root: Uh, these are all areas of the business that we've branched off into, and ClickShare is part of that, and that's called the, our immersive, uh, meeting experience division.

And we've been in market now for well over a decade, coming up now in 15 years. Uh, and really what we specialize in is making the in room meeting experience as simple, uh, and flexible as. As possible. And so that started with screen sharing, uh, or just simply taking my display or what's on my laptop and putting it on the display at the front of the room.

And then it matured through, uh, COVID to be able to take advantage wirelessly from your laptop of the peripherals that are in the room. So the camera, the microphone, the speaker, uh, to be able to run. Yeah. So from, 

Tom Arbuthnot: from, from having a dongle that could kick your display forward to actually USB over Wifi kind of to, to make the device work.

Dan Root: Exactly. And then we can do that either through an app or through our physical button, which everybody. You know, it was mostly familiar with our, the, the button, so to speak. They may not know what ClickShare is, but if you show them fact, I think I have one here. Yeah. Little if I, if I pull out the button, they go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've used those before. I know what that is. Um, and so. We, we, uh, have made it so that you can either use it in an, uh, a button list experience through the app, where you can just walk into a room. The app will pop up saying, Hey, you're in this meeting room, or You're trying to connect here and, and let you go that direction.

Or you can always use the button, which is still great, especially when you have, uh, in some of our more later, uh, recent, uh, additions to the lineup. Allow you to, to give this to guests. Uh, 'cause they don't need to have network access. They don't need to have any sort of passwords to get in. They can plug this into their laptop , press the button and be injected into a Microsoft Teams room or a Zoom room call.

So the, some of those friction points that folks tend to have with room systems, we're able to really become an equalizer and make it a simple, you know, one step sort of process, uh, to getting that, that person into the meeting and sharing the content they need to. Uh, there. So we've now come to a place where we work pretty heavily with Microsoft.

We've actually been developing on the Microsoft devices ecosystem platform, or MDEP up now for well over a year. 

Tom Arbuthnot: And that, that's a big inflection point, right? I feel like a few years ago, we wouldn't have been having this conversation on the teams inside of podcast, right? Like it was like MTRs or MTRs and BYODs is the thing we don't talk about.

And, and, and now a few things have changed. So you were one of the early announced people to working with MDEP. We've talked about that on the, the podcast and the newsletter a few times. You say the, the Microsoft devices, uh, ecosystem platform, but maybe you'd like to explain that and, and how that came into, into ClickShare.

Dan Root: Yeah. A few years ago it was really, they were, you know, there was a focus on room systems and trying to move. BYOD or, or even just the HDMI ingest out of the rooms. Uh, and I think we've kind of lived through that and most people have come around to the idea of, hey, flexibility requires some of these capabilities in the room.

If you want the room to work smoothly and be highly utilized, you have to be able to address those edge cases. As simply as possible. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah. Yeah. You look at a lot of MTRs now and they have a, uh, an option to do some kind of BYOD bypass and, and also Microsoft have started investing in BYOD 'cause the reality is, even some of the customers we've, we've talked to on the past board, you know, a thousand plus teams rooms, they still have a BYOD estate as well.

Yes. And Microsoft that to work as well as they can for the customer. 

Dan Root: And that's what we see in our data as well. Uh, you know, we have a very large footprint, uh, of devices, uh, well over, uh, you know, well over a quarter million, uh, conferencing devices that are enabled today, uh, as well as well north of 1.3 million, uh, overall with our, our casting devices that are, are in use regularly.

And so we see a pretty good take on, on where enterprise customers are. Uh, and we see that. A good portion of our customers are aligned with Microsoft in some capacity, but are not full Microsoft Teams Rooms in every space. It really depends on what is the utilization of that room for training rooms, for spaces you're having guests, uh, and a lot of external folks.

We still see a strong. You know, uh, lenient, you know, lean towards, uh, BYOD, uh, and wireless BYOD. So what we felt, uh, and, and you know, we worked with, uh, Ilya and Sandia and Albert and Irina over the years on. If you bring these things together, is there a better way in talking to them as an analyst and asking and probing those questions, uh, along the way.

And then as the, the opportunity became available here at Barco was how do we as a team, but how do we drive forward together, uh, instead of, uh, of kind of. One or the other. Uh, and thankfully it was happening right at the same time that Ilya was, was seeing some of the changes and kind of moving in in a direction himself.

And so it aligned really well for us to say We should jump on this opportunity because we need to get off of Linux at this point in time, we're running multiple versions of Linux across our portfolio. Can be difficult to. To, uh, release feature sets with parody and things once you get to that place. Uh, so this allowed us to move to a singular platform that we can really target, uh, a purpose-built device into those spaces utilizing the same platform.

Uh, and also we, I. Are behind on starting with Android. Realistically, you have some, uh, some of the MTR partners that have really been able to drive their own ecosystem off of the platforms they've created for Yeah. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Line like some of the, some of the OEMs got on Android early, have built up the muscle, have the capability, and then for Barco it's been Linux.

So you, you've, you've, you've, you've, you are one of those perfect use cases to take advantage of. The big investment Microsoft are making and just say, yep, thanks very much. We'll take all that investment and build on top. 

Dan Root: Exactly. And so this allows us to have more flexibility in how we go to market down the road allows us, you know, we're at the very beginning of what MDEPap is going to be as far as an operating system is concerned.

And I think, you know, there was. At a point in time it was thought to just be a, an operating system for Teams Rooms. And I, and that was at one point, I think true, but the group moved, uh, different. Uh, at one point it was with the AI Cloud group. Now it's uh, over with Windows. Yeah. And since being with Windows, there's been a lot of support put behind building this beyond just a teams rooms, sort of an ecosystem.

And now you're really seeing it start to take off in the market. And the first wave of of devices are now arriving, uh, as far as announcements and ship dates and things like that are coming, coming to market. So I think you're gonna see more and more devices move in this direction because it's the best of the security.

It gives you an appliance like experience within the room as far as a management perspective is concerned, where I can make it pretty straightforward and locked down without having to worry. Uh, about somebody kind of, you know, with windows getting in, playing around with things, leaving things in a different state than where they found 'em.

Um, it cleans up some of those, those pieces while answering some of the unanswered, uh, questions that it and security teams had up until this point. So we're excited to be one of the first, and, and we think that, uh, what we'll bring to market here this year is gonna be a unique, uh. Differentiation within the market as far as we're bringing a Android based modular, uh, compute system, uh, that will support Microsoft Teams Rooms, uh, to the, to the market.

And we're combining that with the, the ClickShare, uh, BYOD experience at first, and then conferencing here will come with a, a software update shortly after launch. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah, that's really interesting because I've been tracking MDEP quite carefully and seeing, like you say, a lot of OEMs have said, we're agreed in partnership, but we haven't seen what's happening.

And, and when Barco slash ClickShare came up, it was like, oh, interesting. Is, is that an MTR device? Is that a BYOD device? Is it a new ClickShare device? So, so it is, it's an MTR compute unit, MTRO, a compute unit essentially. Can you talk us through that in a bit more detail? What, what does that look like and what's the use case and, and is it.

Exclusively for ClickShare together? Is it envisioning other things? What's that look like? 

Dan Root: So I, first and foremost, the compute or operating layer, operating system layer is going to be MDEP up mixed with Barco as far as, uh, security and things like that are concerned. So we will layer on, on top additional security features that we tend to bring to, or already do bring to our customers and, uh, our ecosystem.

We will also bring on top of that, to your point, a Microsoft Teams Rooms, uh, environment. And that will be the first environment that goes on, uh, this device. But as Zoom has already said, they're not. Uh, in the business of certifying operating systems, uh, they, so we, you know, certainly are already in conversation about how we can bring some sort of a Zoom room solution onto this, uh, box as well.

Uh, we feel confident we'll be able to get there, uh, with a little bit of time. Um, and really we wanna bring. Kind of, uh, the best of that room system from management perspective, from the it and even from, uh, the end user perspective for calls that are on the internal platform of choice. Uh, we wanna bring the best of that into this space, but still give you that, that great BYOD fallback so that when you do need to make an off platform call, hey, I need to make a zoom call and it's a teams room.

I need to, uh, you know, get onto a proprietary call that has to do, you know, especially when you're in healthcare and things, there are some very. Unique, shall we say, proprietary platforms that you platform? Yep. You don't come across that often. Same thing if you're in venture capital. There are some very unique high security platforms that go around, so you need to be able to adapt and accept those.

Um, and in today's world, you have solutions like Pexip, which deliver a great experience. Please don't, don't let me. Anyway, uh, tarnish anyone's opinion of Pexip's solution. Uh, the challenge can be though for SMEs and, and, uh, certain companies that maybe don't have the same budgets, uh, to put towards that solution.

You're looking at a pretty high reoccurring cost. And so something like a ClickShare can really solve for that in a way that's a little bit more cost effective, low total cost of ownership, uh, in time. And so we believe by mixing these capabilities together. You're able to have a great experience with Microsoft and ClickShare across all different types of spaces, uh, because we are also a part of Teams BYOD, so we have that enabled.

We are able to be seen as ClickShare within the PMP or Pro Management portal, uh, and be able to leverage a teams shared device license so that you can get the most out of the monitoring, uh, and capabilities there. Um, this has allowed us to be able to give speaker attribution and room attribution. Out of the gate.

So if you're in a ClickShare environment, you plug in the button, it automatically recognizes your, yeah, 

Tom Arbuthnot: you BYOD investment benefits Microsoft have made with 

Dan Root: the exactly. Which it, you know, sounds like it should be simple, but at the same time is, is a fair amount of work on both sides to make sure that the correct hooks are there so that Microsoft can latch in and give the correct agents.

And I think we're gonna see more and more of that over time is, uh, setting up some of the devices in a way that communicate at the correct time. When to fire the right type of an agent because the environment does matter. When you're talking about meetings, do I need my personal facilitator or do I need the team facilitator?

Well, I'm in a meeting room. I kind of need both. I need my personal one to give me my information, but I need the team facilitator there as well because that needs to be managing what's going on in in the meeting. And so I, I think we're. We've already developed and we'll continue to develop in that direction of optimizing that experience for Microsoft, but also making sure that those optimizations and that really ease, uh, of workflow, uh, is there regardless of what type of platform you're, you're going to use.

Tom Arbuthnot: Nice. And then are you envisioning, what's the, what's the model number? What's the box called? So it's going to 

Dan Root: be called the ClickShare Hub, and we have two models. One is the core and one is the pro, the major differences there. Uh, are around really the size of the space that you're deploying in. So if you're going for the pro that has the dual display, uh, output to be able to, to manage both displays and the content on those displays, uh, also that gives you two buttons versus a single button.

Uh, as far as what you need in the space, 

Tom Arbuthnot: uh, balance of one of my questions, sorry. All come with, uh, a ClickShare device, uh, as, as that kit? Yes. 

Dan Root: So it'll be a ClickShare base unit. Uh, just like what you see today from our CX line or our CS line. Uh, and, uh, you will also get the new Generation five button, uh, which will be slightly different than this, but still very much.

You'll look at it and go, okay, yeah, that's a ClickShare button. Uh, but you're able to do it there. 

Tom Arbuthnot: A lot of people know now. So I feel like that kind of, uh, rounded off square thing is, uh, is well understood. 

Dan Root: So, uh, the new button will be able to do 4K, uh, transmission, uh, bidirectionally. We're able to take care of ultra low latency on this, uh, to really make sure that there's sync between what's going on in your laptop and what's happening in the room.

Uh, you know, we, we've really been able to clean up a lot there, so we're excited to be able to deliver, uh, both of those later this year. Uh, should be shipping some time in Q4. 

Tom Arbuthnot: And are you anticipating that your existing install base of ClickShare will take rooms with ClickShare already? I. And retrofit this?

Or is it a, is it not a retrofit? Is it really a replacement? And what's that look like? 

Dan Root: So there's a couple different factors. One, uh, we're one of the first MDEP e solutions in market. So there's an, and and we're the first MDEP up compute. I know there is another vendor that has announced, uh, in market that they're doing something, uh, as far as a compute is concerned.

I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks there, just 'cause I don't, I don't wanna be rude, uh, in that regard though, they. We are going to be one of the first to ship. We believe that this is kind of a green pasture, so to speak, in the sense that this is the first time an Android compute has been really matched up with the Microsoft ecosystem.

We've had a lot of interest from end customers saying, we're actually. We weren't really interested in Android compute, but we are interested in the idea of MDEP up compute. Uh, so let's that interesting. That's what Microsoft's 

Tom Arbuthnot: uh, premise is, is that actually there's a bunch of customers that like the appliance concept, but aren't super comfortable with Android for various reasons, and, and Mike the same can leverage this trust of.

We're committing to it. And we just had Chris on the podcast who I think will be the show before this. He talked about the kind of, uh, the, the contract between the OEMs using MDEP and Microsoft, and that the OEMs have to commit to patching on a regular cadence. So there's a, as a kind of a commitment downstream of, if I picking up an MDEP device, it's going to be patched throughout its lifecycle.

Dan Root: Exactly, yes. The, you know, the, the thought process is that we've got. The right backing at this point. A really good schedule for how we're gonna be able to deliver the Android updates that are coming. We've been working, actually there were multiple calls today with Chris's team, uh, and uh, around that exact topic.

Uh, and I think at this point for us, this was, this was really like the only. Path forward unless we just created another iteration of the same ClickShare. So it was either take on these newer challenges. Yes, there's certain things that are still a little unknown and you know, we're at the very early stages of an operating system, so there are a few.

Areas of feature sets we'd like to still see be developed in general. Uh, but this is the, you know, the right way for us to be able to expand our value proposition, uh, within the market and be able to solve, uh, for all types of spaces. Uh, like I said, our customers, we see a lot of Microsoft, uh, usage within the, our spaces that we can see on xms.

Tom Arbuthnot: Oh, I was gonna ask, 'cause you, you've, I've seen your, your things work with other. OEMs as well. So you've been in this space in the sense of you've been an accessory to MTR in other cases as well? 

Dan Root: Yes. Our CX-50 Gen 2 allows you to attach to an MTR, uh, within our certified device program and be able to switch between that BYOD and MTR uh, mode, and we've seen a lot of success with that.

And so we also, uh, we're. Have been testing different value propositions. You know, we tested, uh, kind of that bar value proposition last year. Uh, and while that device has done well for us with a couple of customers that we needed it to, to really suffice for, for us, we see ourselves as being more about the experience than we do see in ourselves being the peripherals today.

Uh, and so that's why you're gonna see these units that we're bringing out are, are back to our core of being a base unit, uh, that will leverage our ecosystem partners. Uh, and since. This will be broadcasted the week of Infocom. I can share, uh, you know that we have four brands that will be joining us, uh, at the start for, for some certified bundles or room bundles, uh, that we're working towards to deliver.

And, uh, that includes Sennheiser being first with their team Connect bars. Uh, because of the Dante ports and expandability there, there's a lot of flexibility. Uh, so we we're working with them there. Uh, also we'll be working with our largest, uh, part ecosystem partner, which is Logitech. Uh, and, uh, we will be working with the, the meetup too, as well as some of the Yeah.

Tom Arbuthnot: Nice. Nice. Get the 

meetup 

too. 

Dan Root: And then, uh, we also will be working with a combination of Huddly and Shure. Uh, for some of the larger rooms around their crew system, around the, uh, um, audio, uh, systems from Shure. Within the ceilings. Uh, and a similar sort of an approach to what you see with the Windows side on the Intelix room kits.

But more of a, an Android, uh, base there, uh, utilizing ClickShare. 

Tom Arbuthnot: So that was you, you got my question I was going for there was that. Who are you working with? Because on the Windows MTR side, we can mix and match. I. Any OEM with any compute, because Windows picks up the driver model and actually part of the certification people don't talk about a lot, but part of the certification is it should all work.

Any, any, that's not really the case in Android world because you have to do extra work in terms of drivers and support. So I'm, I'm curious as much as you can share, like Yeah, talk us through how that works and, and how you have to partner to make sure everything works between you and your, your, uh, kind of peripheral partners.

So. 

Dan Root: As is with all of the, the first versions of things when they come out. Uh, and if we go back to the very first Android or uh, windows room kits that came out, everything had to be certified because even though the goal was always plug and play, at first, it was still a little sketchy. Uh, and we're kind of, we're in the same exact place here with Android.

Uh, yes, there are some more features and things that need to be changed, developed, uh, to really make plug and play more, uh, readily available for, for devices that, uh. Uh, are going to be in the ecosystem. I think it's, you know, we're still a little ways off from the idea of full plug and play with Android just because of the way that it was architected to begin with.

Mm-hmm. Um, and that takes time to make those adjustments. Uh, from our perspective, we are going into it with the idea of, uh. Having a broad base, just like we do today. We have one of the largest certified and compatible programs, uh, as it sits today with over 400 devices, uh, tested and, and in it, uh, and updated every, uh, quarter.

Uh. So we'll continue on that same premise where we're gonna pick a little bit of this and a little bit of that that we can see has broader implications. So one of the ways that we're working with Microsoft is where can we optimize? If I'm already testing one device that has a certain chip set, if another device is a, a sibling device, has the same chip set, has the exact same interactions, and it's just a difference between microphone and speaker, you know, what do you know?

How many of these tests do we really need to run through if we've already done this? Once. Yeah. And so we are making progress towards coming to terms, you know, this is a new product and a, a new operating system with a new certification process. So, uh, in all the ways it's taking, you know, a, a little bit more thoughtfulness from all the vendors involved to come together and be open.

Yeah. Anybody's 

Tom Arbuthnot: spearheading the way and goes through the first round of certification. It's always, uh, always fun to be like, oh, well, how's this work? How's that work? 

Dan Root: Yes. But I will say Microsoft has been a fantastic partner. Uh, and, and I'm not just, you know, giving lip service to it. I, we mean this genuinely, our team has been really, really humbled by how much they have stepped up and, uh, helped us through this process and through this transition and how much support they've given us, uh, as we're, we're coming to market here.

So, uh, we've been very fortunate in that regard, uh, that when. Once they saw the vision that we had, it was, okay, we, we can get behind this and let's work towards getting this solved. Uh, and so we've had great support start 

Tom Arbuthnot: on your ground in a sense as well, because you've got the MDEP OS from Microsoft and other devices have been through certification on that.

You, you've got the Teams Room, obviously that's software from Microsoft. You've got your need, additional value and stuff you add. But then you are picking from an already uh, certified peripheral list. So they know, they know those devices. Meet the audio video specs. Yes. Now it's just about does it all play nice together?

Dan Root: That's exactly 

it. 

Tom Arbuthnot: And did you have to run through the certification cycle, I presume, each time for each combo. So. 

Dan Root: I currently undertaking that, that we're getting dangerously close to things. I, I cannot say. Uh, what I would say is that it's a ongoing development process towards what will be the standard, uh, for.

Individual device and portfolio of devices. I think we will, we're still a ways away from a blanket, Hey, here's a general spec. You can just go out as a device vendor and you're constantly gonna plug and play with anything that's end up. Uh, I think we're still a ways out from that, but I think that, uh, you know, it's imperative to Microsoft and to us as the vendors that we get at least the majority of the main pro, uh.

Portfolios, uh, within programs that can plug and play, uh, as quickly as possible, um, over the next year to two years. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome, and maybe I can get you to put half your analyst hat on back. Again, a lot of the conversation I'm having around m debt with the OEMs is kind of the, like, it's great if we didn't have that, that traditional investment in Android, but we do.

Um, and like how much can we add value to, do all devices become similar because they're MDEP plus MTR? You mentioned you are adding some extra security and capabilities on there, so I'd love to hear from your point of view how that's worked out 

Dan Root: so far. What we've found is that they give us a, a good base layer.

Uh, but there are a lot of openings for us to be able to differentiate on top of it. I mean, we're bringing our ClickShare value proposition on top of it. And so for us to be able to differentiate, protect our IP that's there within the market around this, uh, and still bring this to market with the endorsement of Microsoft, I think kind of says you can definitely flex and do things.

Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah. 

Dan Root: With 

this platform now. Um, beyond that, as you said, some of the security stuff and implications that, that we work with, uh, because of some of the civilian, um, governmental work that we do, uh, both in North America as well as in Europe. Uh, there's some higher security protocols, some on-prem stuff that we have to do with XMS and things like that.

And in that case, we need to be able to have, uh. Certain rest APIs and, and connectivity a, excuse me, connectivity to the box in the room. Um, and so we, we are able to, um, deliver that as well, uh, within the MDEP environment. So I. The few times that we've come up to challenges, we've been able to lean on Yuha and OV and the team Chris and things, uh, and they've been very receptive, heard our, our feedback as to why we need something.

Um, gone back to the drawing board on how, how to make it happen. And, and usually within, you know, a couple of weeks, maybe a month, they've come back with, well, what about this solution? Could this work for you? What about this? And so it's been a really good. Bi-directional development, um, from our perspective.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. And, and, um, I dunno whether you can share anything or not, but is there, is there vision at, at ClickShare that future devices outside of the MTR box could be around MDEP? Obviously you've got a lot of, uh, Linux at the moment and. Is that a future vision? 

Dan Root: That is a, that is the vision right now is that, uh, all of our next gen devices will be built on M up.

So whether it's an MTR, whether it's just a ClickShare, whether it's something else, the idea is that it will be click. Uh, that's 

Tom Arbuthnot: interesting because that's the start of, and there's been some other announcements, Infocom, uh, as we recall where like, like as you say, the MDEP team have been saying for a while, we're.

We're coming to teams first to service that, that market. But there's a bigger story here around all different types of devices. So it's interesting to hear that you are on that journey to be a, a completely non MTR device. You can still be an MDEP device. 

Dan Root: Yeah. That's been our, our vision and our ask from Microsoft from the beginning is, okay if we go in this direction.

We don't want to get into a situation where we're tied to teams so closely that we can't still service our very healthy set of Zoom customers and folks that maybe just say, I don't want room systems at all, no matter what you want to do about 'em. And that's fine. Certain companies will, will always stay in that, that category.

So we need to be able to, uh, service all of them. And a good chunk of the customers who say, I'm not doing Room systems, still are on Microsoft architecture, right. For their backbone and things so. It makes sense for us to still go in this direction because with MDEP up, that allows us to have easier reporting for a lot of those customers that, uh, don't have an MTR but are Microsoft centric, uh, and allows us to ensure that we're gonna give the best experience from the Microsoft platforms and things.

Uh, and if they do decide to start playing around with MTR. Great. You can easily scale into that. Yeah. And you can. Uh, and so that's, that's the message that we really want to bring is no matter what the room type, no matter what the room size, you're able to, uh, satisfy all the workflows with a simple ClickShare solution.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. Well, Dan, thanks for giving us the, the background. Really interesting to hear how it's all come together and congrats on the announcement and, uh, yeah, I'm sure we'll have more to talk about as those, uh, as those partnerships come to fruition. I'll be keeping a close eye on the, on the certification list and the process.

Dan Root: Oh, yes. Uh, it's definitely, uh, I will be calling you, you will be first to know, but uh, we also need to get you out to Court Creek at some point in time, uh, to check out the, uh, the Barco headquarter building. 

Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah, definitely. It's on, it's on the list of, uh, of a tour spot for sure. Awesome. Thanks so much.

Dan Root: Well, thanks again for having me. I really appreciate it.