i3 Technologies
Innovation inspired by you

A key challenge that businesses face today is achieving digital transformation while supporting existing workflows and maximizing performance. Founded in 2013, i3-Technologies (“i3”) leverages the latest developments in technology to create innovative solutions that bridge the gap between the analog and digital worlds. With its powerful, yet simple, solutions the company continues to make its presence felt in the growing collaboration space as a trusted supplier to leading, global organizations such as Continental, KPMG, and Daimler.

In an interview with CIO Applications, Gert Van Erum, President, and CEO at i3-Technologies shares his thoughts on what led to the creation of the company.

What are the factors led to the conception of i3-Technologies?

While being a young, technology company, i3 forms part of the i3- Group which has a rich history of supplying products for the past 50 years and—more specifically— distributing technologies for the past 20 years.

Around 2010, customers of the Group noticed that the products offered by some established suppliers were no longer as innovative and engaging as those offered by new entrants to the market. Van Erum states, “Our suppliers had difficulties keeping up with the rapid changes taking place, and their products no longer met the demands of the market.”

Responding to strong customer demand, the Group committed to launching the i3-Technologies brand with a product portfolio that better suited the needs of its customers.

What are the trends that are creating an impact in the collaboration space and how is i3-Technologies leveraging them?

IT leaders are continually searching for solutions that are scalable, flexible and intuitive. Our team at i3-Technologies actively monitors market trends and gathers valuable customer feedback, ensuring that our products meet these key requirements.

We offer one of the most open and UC-friendly collaboration systems allowing businesses to scale their preferred UC platform (such as Skype for Business, Cisco Spark, Zoom or Google) within practically any meeting environment.

Seeing the growing pressure for IT to better support ABW (Activity Based Working), we also developed a cloud-based collaboration software called i3CAMPFIRE to complement content-rich workflows and provide an immersive experience with our leading interactive displays. Some examples of these workflows can include design thinking, agile development, and co-creation.

Finally, appreciating the critical importance of user adoption, we ensure our products are designed to be simple and intuitive.

CIOs tend to measure ‘true’ ROI value of an investment by simply observing if their employees actively use those investments in the long term, so product design must to be easy to use from the start.

How does i3-Technologies cope with the challenges that the collaboration space is filled with today?

Following the philosophy of the tagline “Innovation inspired by you,” the main source of inspiration at i3-Technologies is our customers—and the innovation they demand to enable them to collaborate anytime, anywhere and from any device.

It’s this demand for collaboration that resulted in the development of the i3CAMPFIRE software, which not only enables individuals to present content but empowers them to actually collaborate and co-create in real-time. This flexible and intuitive meeting solution complements all major UC platforms and, more importantly, helps business take collaboration to the next level.

What are the processes and functionalities involved in delivering an innovative platform at i3-Technologies?

i3-Technologies works through a network of accredited value-added resellers (VARs) who offer the best possible customer service and support and best understand their customer needs.

Becoming a top-tier accredited i3-Technologies reseller ensures that they are most knowledgeable, and best equipped, to tailor and deliver our broad portfolio of products in a way that best meets unique customer needs.

Elaborate on the features of the products offered at i3- Technologies?

While innovation is a top priority for most CEOs to remain competitive, co-creation (working collaboratively to maximize value and innovation) is tremendously under-utilized or not implemented at all. The main reason is a general lack of awareness of how the effective use of collaboration technologies can maximize innovation and performance. This is a gap where i3 strives to fill with the development of both hardware and software solutions.

Think of a scenario where individuals are situated in different corners of the world and need to bring a new product to market. Physically it’s not possible for them to collaborate, and even using available technologies may not offer more than screen sharing for one individual at a time (so one-way presenting but not multi-way collaboration).

The unique combination of interactive, touch displays and collaborative software from i3- Technologies makes this new level of multi-way, real-time collaboration possible.

While products from i3 support practically any standard video conferencing or UC platform alike (and compatible with different operating systems and software applications), the most valuable benefit for customers is how easily they can be adopted.

i3-Technologies through the years has established itself successfully in the field of collaboration. About the same, where do you see i3- Technologies in the next few years?

In 2017, i3-Technologies dramatically expanded the availability of its products from 42 to 82 countries, a trend that will continue due to the growing demand for collaboration. The company will carry on balancing innovation with intuitiveness in the development of its products and examine IoT integrations (such as the next generation of i3HUDDLE that will launch in the coming weeks). Being inspired by its customers, i3- Technologies will maintain its priority to help CIOs and other executive leaders to achieve the level of collaboration and productivity that they envision for their employees.