Sample description
Professionals employed and working in control room environments
In the mission critical environment of control rooms, understanding what drives success and operational efficiency is crucial. Our recent survey, among more than 2000 control room professionals, has shed a light on indicators for success that matter across various roles. Results reveal not only top priorities, but also significant differences faced by professionals in different operational contexts. This is the first part in a series of insights taken from this survey.
The definition of success in control rooms
The top KPIs for control room professionals
"How is success currently measured in your control room?". That was the question we asked our pool of professionals. "By correct actions taken by operators" and "By response time to alarms or incidents" emerged as the top priorities for control room professionals. Having a closer look at the data reveals significant variations between different roles. This gives an excellent insight into what matters most for their specific job functions.
Different people have different expectations
Although all professionals prioritize 'Correct actions taken by operators', there is a differing emphasis on key problems. We list the most striking differences per job function.
Operators
41%: By response time to alarms or incidents
Supervisors
49%: By correct actions taken by operators
IT managers
42%: By impact level of critical incidents
C-level management
32%: By accuracy and completeness of documentation
The difference between working in highly efficient and less efficient control rooms
Q: How would you rate the operational efficiency in your contol room?
The graph shows that 21% of respondants work in environments of 'Improving efficiency' (0-6), 56% in 'Optimizing efficiency' (7-8) control rooms and 23% in 'Advanced effiency' control rooms. Results show that the level of operational efficiency in the contol room impacts the perceived personal productivity, job satisfaction, and root causes of control room problems.
Personal productivity increases in more efficient control rooms
Q: How would you rate your personal productivity?
In efficient control rooms, 91% of professionals are content
Q: All things considered, how satisfied are you with your work?
A contrasting view on problems
When categorizing the key problems of today, there is a remarkable difference between professionals, depending on the efficiency score they give their control room. 'Workflow complexity' and 'Reactive decision making' are the most prominent issues for all control room professionals. The third problem, however, differs depending on the level of operational efficiency. The figure shows the fixed top 2, and highlights the number 3 for the different levels of efficiency (0-6, 7-8, 9-10).
NOTE: Click on the arrow to slide to the next table
Conclusion
Success and operational efficiency in a control room are not objective concepts. They are subject to a person's job function, experiences, and environment. Operators, for example, focus more on operational tasks, while C-level management prioritizes organizational objectives.
Interestingly, the current challenges in control rooms differ based on operational efficiency in that environment. In less efficient control rooms, a significant problem is lack of knowledge transfer (so, internal issues). Conversely, in highly efficient environments, professionals worry most about cybersecurity threats (external challenges).
Professionals in highly efficient control rooms spend less time on monitoring and relatively more time on optimizing. In contrast, staff of environments with less operational efficiency spend more time monitoring, analyzing, responding and documenting, leaving almost no time for optimizations. This means that low efficiency is a vicious circle.
We will continue to bring you more insights from our control room survey, so stay tuned to our site!
If you want to discuss the efficiency of your control room and explore how Barco can help you improve, please don't hesitate to contact us!
About this research
Target group
54% users: Operators and supervisors
46% decision makers: IT managers and C-level management
Reach
2144 control room professionals
Geography
Global spread, multi-country, across 6 verticals
- Americas: 41%
- EMEA: 40%
- APAC: 19%
Data collection
Online survey, in collaboration with an external agency
Goal
Insights in today's work in a control room and the perceived future of control rooms
Sample description
Professionals employed and working in control room environments
Target group
54% users: Operators and supervisors
46% decision makers: IT managers and C-level management
Reach
2144 control room professionals
Geography
Global spread, multi-country, across 6 verticals
- Americas: 41%
- EMEA: 40%
- APAC: 19%
Data collection
Online survey, in collaboration with an external agency
Goal
Insights in today's work in a control room and the perceived future of control rooms
Talk to us
Don't hesitate to contact us with your questions. Our team will gladly point you in the right direction.