Andre Razzuri: In the legacy days, there were many ways to configure a SIP endpoint. You could do a lot with different controls and APIs. In the MTR world, it’s highly recommended to stay within the Microsoft sandbox and follow Microsoft’s guidelines.

Tom Arbuthnot: Hi and welcome back to the Teams Insider Podcast. This week we’ve got a great customer case study. Andre from IQVIA gets into the kit he’s chosen for over 700 Teams rooms and the deployment journey — a really interesting conversation. I’m also joined by Allison from AVI-SPL, who talks about the partnership and what AVI-SPL have done in the project.

Thanks to Andre and Allison for joining the podcast, and many thanks to AVI-SPL for being such a big supporter of Empowering.Cloud. On with the show.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Teams Insider Podcast. We like to hear real customer stories on the podcast — it’s a great way to understand what real rollouts look and feel like, and how to manage them.

We’ve got a great Microsoft Teams Room story to get into with two guests this week. Andre, maybe you could start by giving us a bit of an intro and setting the scene about yourself and your organization.

Andre Razzuri: Sure. I work for a company called IQVIA. My name’s Andre, and I’ve been here a little over six years. We’re a global company with hundreds of offices across every country and region. We work across different cultures, time zones — everything. Teams has been a great tool for our conference rooms.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. And Allison, maybe you could introduce yourself and talk about the AVI-SPL relationship with IQVIA.

Allison Thompson: Absolutely. I’m the sales rep with AVI-SPL that helps manage IQVIA. Andre and his team have been great to work with. They do some of their own deployments, and we typically handle their high-end spaces where they need a different level of expertise.

We’re very focused on making sure Andre and his team look good for choosing us as a vendor. We have several examples of high-end spaces we’ve delivered successfully, and we want to continue doing that work and supporting them.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. We’re going to get into some of those high-end rooms and what that project looks like. But first, Andre, maybe take us back — you’ve got hundreds of rooms globally. You mentioned some strategic changes in kit choice post-COVID. Talk us through where you were — I think you had Crestron and SIP setups — and where you are today.

Andre Razzuri: When I joined IQVIA in 2019, we were in a SIP environment deploying Cisco, Poly, and even some Lifesize endpoints. Everything was managed in-house. When something went wrong, there was one team to blame.

We evaluated different tools and kits — Logitech, build-your-own HP — and fell in love with Lenovo’s systems. They were easy to deploy and support, and having the same Teams touch panel everywhere was a big deal.

We started with small and medium rooms — 12 people and under — and rolled out about 15 systems in our London office in 2021. It was very successful, and we expanded globally. Since 2021, we’ve built around 200 rooms a year. AVI-SPL helps with the more complex spaces.

We moved from small and medium rooms to larger archetypes — boardrooms, training rooms — with ceiling mics, wireless microphones, and projectors. It took a couple of years, but the incremental approach to scaling up complexity was definitely the right one.

Tom Arbuthnot: Good to think about. Did you particularly choose Windows MTR for manageability and standardization with Lenovo?

Andre Razzuri: Yes. When COVID hit and we returned to offices, budgets were tight. Our previous rooms cost $75,000 to $100,000 for a 12-person space. Switching to Lenovo Windows MTRs delivered huge savings.

Before COVID we built about 15 rooms a year, mostly in VIP locations. Video conferencing wasn’t for everyone — people just joined Skype for Business from their laptops. But when we returned to the office, we had to make collaboration accessible and affordable.

Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. How many Windows MTRs are you up to now?

Andre Razzuri: About 650 Windows 11 MTRs.

Tom Arbuthnot: Impressive. And you’ve done well holding global standards — most organizations your size struggle to do that.

Andre Razzuri: A key recommendation for anyone starting out is to get business buy-in and maintain ownership of deployments. Many organizations outsource standards to consultants, but if those aren’t enforced, they’re pointless.

We sign off on every deployment, build the material lists, and give them to local teams to work with vendors. In regions where hardware can be hard to get — especially in APAC — we sometimes substitute switches, but we’re still at about 99.8–99.9% global parity.

Tom Arbuthnot: Microsoft’s been talking about simplifying large-scale MTR deployment. 200 rooms a year is impressive. How do you do that with a small team?

Andre Razzuri: Our core team is five people — based in North Carolina, Kansas City, Singapore, and Shanghai. We focus on supportability first: easy to support, easy to deploy, easy to use.

The remote tools are fantastic. We can remote into any touch panel in two ways, enable or disable RDP, and fully support the systems remotely.

We’ve also standardized on remotely controllable DSPs — no more vendor-locked programming. Around 20% of our rooms now have DSPs we can administer ourselves.

When AVI-SPL helps with complex spaces like boardrooms, we rely on them for the physical cabling and fit-out. We finished one install on a Friday, programmed the DSP over the weekend, and had it live for business on Monday.

Tom Arbuthnot: That’s awesome. Allison, from your side, how has that partnership model worked?

Allison Thompson: It’s a huge team effort — Andre’s team, our project managers, engineers, and commissioners. Everyone has to be aligned on standards and timelines.

It’s been a great experience. IQVIA treats us like an extension of their team, and that’s how it should be for a successful project.

Tom Arbuthnot: It’s nice to hear that flexible partnership model — not “all or nothing,” but collaborative.

Allison Thompson: Agreed. We’re also starting to work with Andre’s team outside the U.S., which is exciting. It’s another way we can fill gaps where needed.

Tom Arbuthnot: Andre, that must be helpful when you need regional presence.

Andre Razzuri: Exactly. In some regions, local vendors have never deployed these tools before, so working with AVI-SPL ensures quality without having to train someone from scratch.

Tom Arbuthnot: You’re six years into this MTR journey now. How did you build leadership buy-in and internal capability?

Andre Razzuri: Our company is fairly traditional, so change can be challenging. My strategy was to build relationships and place systems with people who cared about collaboration. Word of mouth spread quickly.

I started as an executive support engineer, which helped me earn trust with leadership. I used usage data and adoption rates to show the success of Teams rooms versus legacy systems. That trust was key to gaining support.

Tom Arbuthnot: Do you think that background made you more sensitive to manageability and tooling?

Andre Razzuri: Definitely. In the legacy days, you could do anything to a SIP endpoint with different APIs. In the MTR world, it’s best to stay within Microsoft’s sandbox and follow certified guidelines.

If someone suggested a tool, I’d ask, “Is it on the Microsoft certified list?” If not, there’s a reason. That helped drive standardization.

Tom Arbuthnot: Did you face pushback from people saying some rooms needed to stay on traditional codecs?

Andre Razzuri: In the early years, yes. When people requested larger or more complex rooms, we sometimes had to say the hardware wasn’t ready yet.

We bridged the gap by deploying mobile carts with flexible configurations, which bought us time. Now, with so many certified peripherals, that’s no longer an issue.

Tom Arbuthnot: Agreed — there’s so much flexibility now. How did you decide on Yamaha for audio?

Andre Razzuri: We partnered with AVI-SPL in India, where we have some of our largest spaces — cafés for 300–500 people. They introduced us to Yamaha’s Adecia series.

We tested it and were impressed. It’s a 16x16 DSP supporting up to 16 wired mics, with ceiling, wireless, and wired options. The audio is excellent right out of the box, and we can program it remotely via the MTR’s browser interface.

About 20% of our systems now use it. I came from a DSP programming background, so I appreciate how far it’s come — no more separate VoIP, we just use Teams’ softphone.

Tom Arbuthnot: That’s great. Thanks for sharing the details of your journey. Allison, any closing thoughts?

Allison Thompson: Just a big thank-you to Andre and IQVIA for choosing us as a partner. We’ve really enjoyed working together.

Tom Arbuthnot: Andre?

Andre Razzuri: Likewise. It’s been a great journey. I’m not a CAD designer, but AVI-SPL does a great job of interpreting our designs and bringing our vision to life.

Allison Thompson: Some of the best ideas start on a napkin!

Tom Arbuthnot: As long as someone takes it off the napkin and makes it real. Awesome. Thanks both so much.

Andre Razzuri: Thanks Tom, thanks Allison. Take care.

Would you like me to tighten it further for readability (e.g., suitable for publishing as a blog post or transcript on Empowering.Cloud), or keep this as a cleaned but still conversational podcast transcript?