The DITAM Framework: The Five-Step Fix for Meeting Room Technology That Actually Works
- Chris Gore
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
The DITAM framework is the five-step fix for workplace technology that does not work. Design, Integrate, Train, Asset Manage, Monitor — explained by Chris Gore of SPOR Group.
No matter how many colourful beanbags you have in your office, work will not work if you get the technology wrong. That is the central argument of Work Isnt Working, the book by Chris Gore, co-founder of SPOR Group. The book grew out of a pattern Chris saw repeating itself across every office move, fit-out and hybrid working rollout he encountered, organisations spending significant money on workplace strategy and almost none thinking about the technology that makes it function.
The DITAM framework is the five-step fix. Design. Integrate. Train. Asset Manage. Monitor. Five things, done in order, that are the difference between a workplace where the technology works and one that haemorrhages complaints to HR every Monday morning.
Why the DITAM Framework Exists
COVID accelerated hybrid working. When organisations started bringing people back to the office, senior leaders and real estate professionals got deeply focused on strategy. Return to office policies. Desk ratios. Collaboration spaces. Floor plans. Branding. Colour of carpets.
The bit most of them got wrong was technology. Not because technology is difficult, but because it was treated as an afterthought. Something to be sorted at the end of the project rather than designed in from the beginning.
The consequence is predictable. An employee spends two hours commuting with their head in someone's armpit. They walk into a meeting room at 9am and the technology does not work. Immediately the thought is: I could have done this on a Zoom call from my kitchen. That is the moment the return to office policy fails. Not because the policy was wrong. Because the technology was not ready.
D — Design the Technology In From the Start
The first letter of DITAM stands for Design. The mistake most organisations make is finalising the interior design before anyone has thought seriously about the technology. Bean bags are ordered. Carpets are chosen. Curtains are specified. Branding is applied. And then, as an afterthought, someone asks: where do the screens go?
The technology needs to be incorporated into the design phase in collaboration with the interior designers. Not bolted on afterwards. What is the point of a meeting room? It is there for people to collaborate and have meetings. Every design decision, ceiling height, acoustic treatment, lighting, room dimensions, furniture layout, affects what the technology can and cannot do in that space.
Incorporating technology into the design phase is the single most cost-effective decision in any fit-out. Fixing a technology specification after walls are built and ceilings are finished costs significantly more than getting it right at the design stage.
I — Integrate Properly
The second letter stands for Integrate. This is where most projects go wrong, not in the design phase, but in who is chosen to execute it.
The honest truth is that the price at the bottom of an AV quote tells you almost nothing useful. It does not tell you whether the company has experience integrating the specific platforms and hardware the brief requires. It does not tell you whether there is a project manager, a commissioning engineer and a support function behind the quote, or whether it is one person with a van.
"Gary in a van can come along, hang a screen on a wall, and say goodbye. You are never hearing from Gary in a van again. Have you ever tried to get a plumber back to your house? Same experience. No project management. No process. No strategy. Just a bunch of guys hanging screens."
The right question is not what does this cost. It is what are the capabilities of the integrator. Do they hold manufacturer certifications? Do they have a commissioning process? Do they provide training at handover? Do they operate a monitoring platform? Those are the things that determine whether the room works on day one and continues to work.
T — Train the People Who Will Use It
The third letter stands for Train. This is the step that gets skipped most often after commissioning.
An organisation invests £100,000 in meeting room technology. On go-live day, users are told there is a bunch of kit in the rooms and to crack on. The result is a £100,000 investment being used as an expensive second display on a wall. Nobody knows how to use the advanced functions. Nobody knows what the room is capable of. The technology gets the blame for failures that are actually caused by a lack of training.
A proper training session at handover covers the basic use case and the advanced use case. Who needs to be trained and to what level. What happens when something does not work. SPOR Group runs a formal training module at the end of every integration project. It is not optional and it is not charged as an extra. It is part of what the installation means.
A — Asset Manage Everything
The fourth letter stands for Asset Manage. Here is the scenario that plays out across organisations that skip this step.
Three years after installation, a device fails. An engineer arrives on site the next business day. The display comes off the wall. The display is out of warranty. The room is now offline. A quote for a new display is issued. New labour costs are added. The room is offline for three weeks while the replacement is sourced. The CEO is asking why the room is still down.
Then comes the budget conversation. Fifty thousand pounds of kit is out of warranty. The budget holder has not planned for it. Nobody has planned for it. Because nobody was tracking it.
Asset management is the discipline that prevents this. Every device tracked in a central register. make, model, serial number, installation date, warranty expiry, firmware version. SPORTrack tracks every device across every SPOR Group deployment. Every quarter, clients receive a report showing which devices are going out of warranty in the next six months and the next twelve months. Budget approvals are sought eighteen months in advance. No surprises. No offline rooms. No awkward conversations with the finance team.
M — Monitor Proactively
The fifth letter stands for Monitor. This is the final step and, in Chris's view, the most important one for keeping a meeting room estate working reliably over time.
Before SPORTrack existed, SPOR Group managed fifteen European sites on a reactive SLA. Something goes wrong in Paris, the client calls, an engineer travels to site the next business day. They arrive. The camera is out of warranty. The room has been offline for three weeks. Nobody knew until someone tried to use it.
"That is when we created SPORTrack. We now monitor every device completely proactively, completely remotely. We see an issue in that Paris boardroom way before the client starts raising any issues.
A device that goes offline at 2am on a Thursday generates an automatic alert to the SPOR helpdesk. A call is made to the client's office manager. The fault is diagnosed remotely. If it cannot be fixed remotely, an engineer is on site the next business day. The room is back online five days before the board meeting that would have exposed the fault. The board never knows anything was wrong.
Want to See the DITAM Framework in Action? Book a SPORTrack demo to see proactive monitoring working across a live estate — the M in DITAM, applied. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the DITAM framework?
DITAM stands for Design, Integrate, Train, Asset Manage and Monitor. It is a five-step operating model for workplace technology introduced by Chris Gore in his book Work Isnt Working. It covers the full lifecycle of a meeting room technology deployment from initial design through to proactive monitoring and asset management.
Why do workplace technology projects fail?
Most failures come from treating technology as an afterthought at the design stage, choosing an integrator based on price rather than capability, skipping training at handover, not tracking device warranty and firmware status, and managing the estate reactively rather than proactively.
What does Design mean in the DITAM framework?
Design means incorporating technology into the fit-out design phase in collaboration with interior designers, before walls are built and ceilings are finished. The acoustic properties, ceiling height, lighting and room dimensions all affect what the technology can do in the space. Fixing technology decisions after the build is complete costs significantly more than getting them right at the design stage.
What is proactive AV monitoring?
Proactive monitoring watches every device in every room in real time and flags faults before they affect meetings. SPORTrack monitors every SPOR Group deployment globally, alerting the helpdesk when a device goes offline so the fault can be investigated and resolved before anyone arrives for their Monday morning meeting.
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