Barco control room report (4/5): Collaboration is the hidden performance booster

Welcome to the fourth instalment in our control room blog series! Today, we're diving into some eye-opening findings about collaboration practices from our survey of 2,000+ control room professionals worldwide.

It's no surprise that control room professionals collaborate most frequently with those closest to them—64% regularly engage with control room managers or supervisors and the same percentage collaborate with colleagues in the same control room. Technical staff responsible for equipment maintenance are close behind at 57%.

But here's where it gets interesting: nearly half of all control rooms actively engage with stakeholders outside their immediate environment. This external collaboration is proving to be a game-changer!

Our data revealed something fascinating: there's a direct correlation between operational efficiency and collaboration frequency. The most efficient control rooms don't just collaborate more internally—they engage significantly more with external stakeholders too.

Check out these numbers:

• High-efficiency control rooms are more than twice as likely to collaborate with external services and agencies (67%) compared to low-efficiency rooms (30%)
   
• Top performers collaborate across different operational sites at nearly double the rate (68% vs. 38%)
   
• Even internal collaboration shows massive gaps, with highly efficient control rooms collaborating with management at 79% compared to just 47% in less efficient environments

The pandemic accelerated remote working trends in control rooms, though we've seen some stabilization since our 2022 survey. While 31% of professionals report being both willing and able to work remotely (down from 49% in 2022), we're seeing more consistent regular remote work (29%, up from 26%).

Interestingly, administrative tasks remain the sweet spot for remote efficiency, with 60% of professionals agreeing these can be handled effectively from afar.