In our Coping with COVID-19 series, AVNetwork is interviewing manufacturers to discover how they’re handling the COVID-19 crisis and how the pandemic has impacted their businesses.
Gina Sansivero, VP of marketing and corporate communications at AtlasIED discusses the company’s response to COVID-19.
AVN: Have you pivoted your business strategy in response to COVID-19? If so, how?
GINA SANSIVERO: Absolutely. I think most businesses are evaluating how to pivot right now. We are re-evaluating how to conduct virtual live and on-demand product demos as well as design assist meetings. We are developing strategies for virtual product launches that have us pushing our creativity and technology to places we’ve not yet been.
AtlasIED is reviewing production schedules and inventory levels to ensure that supply chain hiccups won’t affect filling our customer demand. We are working with our integrator partners and distributors to help plan for short-term and long-term project suspension. We’ve added capabilities like online returns request to help expedite processing for cancelled projects.
AtlasIED has also added support in the design assist department to help our integrators get designs completed quickly. Additionally, we have quickly increased the number of online webinar-based training courses for those who are focusing on professional development or more technical training, some available with BICSI, AIA and AVIXA accreditation.
AVN: How have your day-to-day operations changed during this time?
GS: Our day-to-day operations have changed in many ways, but the way we are most proud of impacts our Texas manufacturing facility the most. We reallocated production resources and assembly line employees to start manufacturing PPE face shields to donate to front line workers across the US who are battling COVID-19. Part of our core values is “Integrity” and each of our AtlasIED family exemplifies it every day. We are especially proud to be able to do our part for the community and country that has helped support us in our growth and success.
Read more about the company's PPE face shields here: avnetwork.com/news/atlasied-to-offer-face-shields-to-front-line-workers
AVN: Has COVID-19 had an impact on your supply chain? If so, how are you handling any delays?
GS: We are fully stocked in our domestic warehouses and in position to be a reliable business partner during these trying times. Our manufacturing capabilities enable us to do something many manufacturers cannot—if necessary, we have the production capability and bandwidth to increase domestic manufacturing to ensure sustained product availability. Right now, we are well stocked, with limited- to no-impact on our supply.
AVN: Have you implemented any virtual training/education resources for integrators?
GS: Yes! We have a variety of new virtual courses that we’ve added over the past four to six weeks. Demand for virtual education is higher than we’ve ever seen it, and we will continue to add sessions and new training moving forward. Our full course offering can be found at atlasied.com/training-and-education
AVN: What has been your largest leadership success during this time?
GS: When our AtlasIED leader, John Ivey, told the company that we would be investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into materials, time, and resources into developing, manufacturing, and donating the PPE face shields, everyone was energized. Even though many of use were working from home at that point, we were all connected by our motivation to help spread the word about this project. It was an emotional uplift and sense of gratitude that we all needed at this time.
John’s official statement is: “In these uncertain times, AtlasIED felt it necessary to do what it could to ensure the safety of the nation’s healthcare workers. Through the commitment of our employees, we were able to execute timely development and distribution of face shields to medical facilities throughout the country. At the same time, we are able to keep everyone at the manufacturing facility fully employed.”
But I will tell you, that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story about how it has impacted and pulled together the AtlasIED family.
AVN: How do you think business will change post-COVID-19?
GS: From our marketing viewpoint, we have already started re-evaluating what the success of large tradeshows looks like. How do we currently measure success versus how we should be measuring success moving forward? Are there options that would provide us with a better return that still allow for personal engagement?
We are rethinking a lot of spend and have committed to not just agreeing to participating in campaigns, sponsorships, and events because “it’s what we’ve always done”, but weighing what’s best for our company, our partners, our clients, and our industry. This is forcing us to take a much closer look at our activities and asking a lot more “Whys.”
One of the more positive results of this new clarity is that we have learned to be far more agile and creative as a team and as an organization. We are so proud of all our AtlasIED family—they have become a strong support system for each other and for our clients.
AVN: Anything else you'd like to add?
GS: AtlasIED is here to help. Please reach out to our team for your AV needs—or just to chat! We're listening.
To stay up to date with the impact of coronavirus on pro AV, subscribe to our enews.
