Swedish property management company Familjebostäder uses Neat and Zoom to strip away complexity, streamlining its meetings while boosting its company culture.

Familjebostäder has 23 rooms equipped with Neat devices. It uses a mix of Neat Bar and Neat Bar Pro with Neat Pad and Neat Board.

Familjebostäder is a property management company that rents apartments to people living in Stockholm, Sweden. It has four office locations throughout the city, housing 360 hybrid employees with its central “hub,” including 130. Familjebostäder’s employees typically work two to three days at the office and two to three days at home, so around 50/60% work from Familjebostäder’s central office on any given day.

Before discovering Neat, Familjebostäder’s employees used a mixture of videoconferencing methods, which created a lot of complexity. It primarily involved people Skyping on their laptops with various peripheral devices and cables. For example, when entering one of the company’s conference rooms, no one knew what to expect, often resulting in delayed meetings because of connectivity issues. Internally, this caused Familjebostäder’s company culture to feel disjointed as people struggled to feel close to their fellow employees. 

With the Neat devices, you enter the room, and the screen immediately comes to life. Then, you’re straight into a meeting and can easily click and wirelessly share your computer screen. Everything’s smooth and simple. It’s time and money-saving, which is everything to us. 

Tommy Riseborn, Team Leader DU, Familjebostäder

Besides internal meetings, Familjebostäder conducts many external meetings, from discussions with city planners and building constructors to people at its building locations, so a simpler, more reliable video conferencing setup was vital. Tommy Riseborn, Team Leader DU at Familjebostäder, was introduced to Neat on Zoom Rooms by certified Neat Partner Visualised (Nordic system integrator for digital meeting and collaboration services company). Tommy was immediately impressed and worked with Simon Axtelius, Account Manager at Visualised, to make Familjebostäder’s meetings Neat.

Quick and easy setup to swiftly jump into meetings

Familjebostäder quickly learned how easy it is to use Neat devices upon deploying our powerful video conferencing bars, Neat Bar and Neat Bar Pro with Neat Pad and our 65-inch touchscreen device, Neat Board, on a floor stand with wheels throughout its 23 rooms. Whereas before, it could take up to 10 to 15 minutes to start a meeting, nowadays, Familjebostäder’s in-office employees can walk into one of the company’s office spaces, and the device switches itself on immediately, ready for action. Better yet, employees no longer have to fumble around trying to locate a remote for the screen. 

Another noticeable difference from how things previously were is the lack of cables strewn across a table or the room. Being all-in-one systems, Neat Bar, Neat Bar Pro, and Neat Board only have power and Ethernet cables. Also, these dynamic devices enable Familjebostäder’s employees to enjoy wireless content sharing. So, they only need to attend a meeting with their laptops or mobile devices without worrying about having a USB or HDMI cable.

For those working remotely or on the “far end,” the difference has been huge, too, thanks to Neat’s superior-quality audio and video capabilities. Whereas there would often be a delay with the connection or signal on Skype or Familjebostäder’s earlier tech, now people can see and hear everyone crystal clear, with no awkward echoey effects or double-talk issues, where two people talk simultaneously, and everything sounds jumbled up. Neat Audio Processing ensures everyone is always heard. Zoom’s auto-generated text captions, which have the capacity to translate different languages, have also been of immense benefit to Familjebostäder for clearer meetings. 

We love the audio and picture quality, especially how the camera follows you around the room. We’ve also started using Neat Sense and are very impressed with its ability to count the number of people in the room, which enables us to manage and monitor room usage.

Tommy Riseborn, Team Leader DU, Familjebostäder

Presenting everyone equally up close in meetings

Regarding some of Neat Bar, Neat Bar Pro, and Neat Board’s other cutting-edge capabilities, Familjebostäder relishes our patented, industry-leading Neat Symmetry feature. When we asked Tommy Riseborn what some of his favorite Neat features were, he said Neat Symmetry feels so familiar and intuitive that he almost doesn’t think of it as a feature, more like engaging with people as you naturally would when you’re all in a room together.

In brief, here’s how it works: Neat Symmetry focuses on everyone in a meeting room, regardless of how far apart people are sitting or how far back they are from the front-of-the-room device. It presents everyone equally on remote meeting participants’ screens. With lightning-fast image processing, Neat Symmetry detects, enlarges, and follows everyone in full close-up, resulting in more natural, lifelike engagement. Discover more about Neat Symmetry’s leading-edge capabilities. 

Neat Symmetry feels so familiar, intuitive and self-explanatory that you almost don’t think of it as a feature, more like just meeting people as you naturally would in a room.

Tommy Riseborn, Team Leader DU, Familjebostäder

Neat Sense is another feature Familjebostäder has started to use and loves because it enables Familjebostäder’s leadership to manage and monitor room occupancy for healthier, safer, more cost-effective meeting rooms. 

Flexibility to meet wherever the moment takes you 

As for the future, Familjebostäder has started rebuilding some of its office spaces to create more open-plan environments. One idea is to initiate more casual, cozier, ad-hoc “touch-down spaces” where those at the office can grab a coffee, then meet on the fly or socialize with their remote teammates or others in a less formal setting. The significant advantage of having a device like Neat Board on the wheeled floor stand is that you can quickly move it to wherever you need it next. Our Neat Boundary feature also truly comes into its own in open-plan areas like these. 

Neat Boundary allows people at Familjebostäder to establish a virtual meeting boundary where the audio and camera only capture and pick up the people within it, cutting out any distracting activity outside of that. See how Neat Boundary works.

Finally, thanks to Neat’s swift and efficient technical support, Tommy no longer has to run around like a madman “putting out fires” when his teammates experience a glitch in their system and need a rapid response. Furthermore, because Familjebostäder leases its Neat devices through Visualised, it can upgrade them as often as it likes throughout its contract, extending their lifespan and thus aligning with the company’s core sustainability concerns. 

Familjebostäder, Visualised, Neat, Zoom. That’s what we call a strong foundation to build on!

If Neat were a car brand, it would be a Tesla because, in a similar way, it’s pushing technological boundaries. It’s a shining example of bold innovation done well.

Tommy Riseborn, Team Leader DU, Familjebostäder

Discover more about Neat’s pioneering devices or see them in action in our live Virtual Demo – Neat Devices and Experiences. Better yet, book a demo and experience them for yourself.