Top Collaboration Secrets from IT Industry Leaders

I pulled together four of my favorite secrets from organizations that are optimizing their video networks and making a company-wide impact with collaboration.

From IT / infrastructure to collaboration professionals, these guys are taking it to the next level with video and web conferencing, so I thought it might be appropriate to unveil their secrets to the world.

Secret # 1 – Mass Customization

Cimpress is a global leader in mass customization and web-to-print. The swag powerhouse generated $1.3 billion (USD) in revenue last year, holds operations in 17 countries and serves more than 16 million customers a year.

The company’s dominion over the mass customization market is no secret, but they do hold a secret that is the key ingredient to their collaboration success.

Here’s the situation at Cimpress: Two IT team members monitor the performance of the entire Cimpress global video network, which supports over 20 thousand calls and almost a million video minutes each month across 23 locations. Explosive growth in video bridge usage as video meeting rooms rolled out to all employees created a need to optimize and manage their video network quality more quickly and efficiently.

How did they handle it?

• Used historical data to optimize network capacity planning
• Used real time monitoring – allowing the IT team to avert outages during unusual spikes in traversal call usage
• Generated quarterly network performance report for senior management in 5 minutes as opposed to 5 hours

Secret # 2 – Teleheath Video Blitz

Specialists on Call is a leader in telehealth services providing innovative, cost-effective answers for hospitals nationwide seeking immediate 24/7/365 access to experienced, board certified specialists.

The situation at Specialists on Call (SOC): Delivering high-quality service required constant monitoring of telehealth carts at over 300 hospitals all with unique IT environments. One Director of IT, one UC Engineer, and Support team are overseeing 500+ endpoints at customer sites (e.g., hospitals, clinics) across the United States.

How did they handle it?

Specialists on Call took an already high level of service to another level through more proactive video network management with data and insights.

• Used real-time monitoring and alerts for more effective endpoint management prior to client use which resulted in higher availability of endpoints and improved quality of service
• Used alerts for faster time to identify and resolve issues

Secret # 3 – Web Conferencing for Non-Profits

World Vision International is a global charity organization, working within communities and helping groups improve the well-being of children and overcome poverty. They have more than 40,000 employees located in nearly 100 countries.

The situation at World Vision is simple – they need a user-friendly video meeting solution to reach employees, volunteers, and community members anywhere in the world.

How did they handle it?

Web conferencing was the best collaboration solution for two reasons: quick and intuitive integration into global operations and easy deployment.

• The entire organization now has access to web and video conferencing in remote global areas with no technology infrastructure
• Used WebEx™ to share screens, files, schedule video meetings and multiple video streams for effective team communication across the world
• Streamlined communications to improve collaboration for time-sensitive projects

Secret # 4 – Efficient Remote Sales Team

CEV Multimedia specializes in producing educational resources for students at high schools and colleges across the United States. With a library of more than 1800 titles, CEV is the largest producer of career and technical multimedia for students in the country.

The challenges facing CEV’s remote sales teams include: difficulty scheduling product demonstration meetings with teachers in person and insufficient end-user communication with sales team members spread throughout the country.

How did they handle it?

• They quickly integrated a web conferencing solution for file sharing and customer engagement from anywhere in the country.
• Enabled CEV to grow new opportunities and allocate more budget to sales resources.

Data and Insights for Collaboration Tools

These are just a few of my favorite examples of organizations solving problems with collaboration solutions and kicking butt within their respective industries.

One thing I would like to add about the last two companies using WebEx™ as a web conferencing solution. This tool is a prefered web conferencing platform for good reason, but it’s only as effective as the IT personnell who manage it.

Large WebEx deployments take a lot of work, but with the insights and data – you can optimize costs, drive usage and adoption of WebEx for even better results throughout your organization