West Bend Mutual Insurance had a problem, growth. They were adding employees, and their current 145,000 square foot headquarters building was at capacity. The lack of space for new employees and a limited number of meeting spaces were affecting efficiency. Meetings, training, and brainstorming sessions became difficult and cumbersome. Growth demanded a massive expansion. Upon completion, the WBMI campus expansion would more than double in size to 350,000 square feet.

Prior to construction, a focus group was formed to determine the requirements for technology additions that would serve the needs of their expanding business. In addition to more room, the team determined that in order to improve business functionality, more conference rooms were needed, and they all needed projectors. They also decided that adding interactive whiteboards would decrease their dependency on paper, and facilitate brainstorming during project reviews and general meetings. The Prairie Center, a large special use area, was designed for training and development, specifically to meet the need for large business functions and continuing education for agents from across the WBMI service area.

West Bend Mutual Insurance had two main criteria for selection of an AV Integration Partner. They were looking for a firm large enough to effectively handle their project and the ability to properly support them during and after the expansion. Second was a highly competitive price. InfoCor brought both to the table with a value engineered solution package that won the day.

All of the conference rooms in the office area of the expansion include essentially identical collaboration equipment. A large screen display is coupled with a Smart Technologies interactive device and mated to an in-table controller and laptop interface, thus delivering on the main requirements of the focus group.

The new Prairie Center was designed for flexibility. WBMI provides extensive agent training at the home office and needed a space suitable to handle large groups, breakout sessions, and receptions. The largest space is divisible into combinations of 1 to 4 spaces, allowing multiple simultaneous sessions, and providing scalability based on audience size. For large formal presentations or working sessions, an Auditorium adjoins the Prairie Center. Should “overflow” be required, the systems are designed to provide streaming from the auditorium back to the spaces in the Prairie Center. InfoCor supplied systems for presentation, conferencing, and web streaming that included projection, audio and video playback and recording, microphone and camera systems, videoconferencing, and unified networked controls.

Additional spaces addressed include a network operations center with data display wall, the boardroom, the cafeteria, and the in-house fitness center.

The audiovisual equipment installed in the expansion has been extremely well received. While there have been tweaks to the systems to optimize them for unanticipated uses, there have been no issues relative to systems or equipment performance. Workflow has improved, and teamwork is at an all time high. Employees can now communicate and collaborate more efficiently and effectively. Productivity has increased and the resulting growth in creativity and motivation continues to drive the business.

InfoCor brought West Bend Mutual a truly needs driven approach to adding technical