Fortune 500, Global
As one of the leaders in imaging technology, this LifeSize customer is well-known not only in its home country of the Netherlands, but across the world.
Since the 1960’s, the company has been expanding to all corners of the world including the UK, Germany, the Middle East, Russia, Africa and Japan. With products ranging from printers, scanners, desktop computers, projectors, large home televisions, robots, laptops and LCD components, net sales are continually reported in the billions and trillions.
As the organization increased its global presence year after year, it needed a communications tool to enable its geographically-dispersed workforce to collaborate efficiently. The company had previously used ISDN-based systems, but it was time for an upgrade.
Simultaneously in 2008, the president of the company put forth a challenge to his employees. His goal was to reduce enterprise-wide travel costs by 10 percent, as well as reduce the global organization’s carbon footprint by 5 percent. On a longer timeline, the president aimed to reduce the company’s carbon emissions by 90 percent by the year 2050.
The need for a new and improved alternative to business travel quickly arose and the company began investigating various video communication systems. They needed a standards-based video tool that provided high-definition quality and unmatched price performance, but most importantly, they needed a system that was so lifelike that it could enable the same genuine human interaction as in-person meetings.
The global leader in imaging technology called for an official RFP process in order to ensure that their selection process was as thorough as possible. The company tested a number of offerings from various video manufacturers with the senior manager for IT infrastructure leading the charge.
“I have been in the IT business for a long time and am quite familiar with video conferencing,” he said. “I’d never heard of LifeSize. But, once the system was set up on our network and I saw the product in action, LifeSize was the clear winner.”
The superior, crystal-clear quality of LifeSize audio and video technology coupled with the lowest total cost of ownership when compared to other solutions on the market, made believers out of the IT manager and his team. Since 1080p screen resolution had become the industry standard in Europe, LifeSize® 200™ endpoints were a perfect fit, offering full HD at 1080p30.
Soon after the decision was made, the company implemented the technology across its offices in EMEA, covering a vast geographical range. LifeSize Room 200 and LifeSize Express 200 systems replaced 100 legacy systems in locations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia. The EMEA teams noticed a vast improvement from the previous systems and soon, HD video communications became a daily tool for managing global operations. In addition to the endpoints, the IT manager and his selection committee purchased a variety of infrastructure solutions to help manage the entire video enterprise network, including LifeSize Transit for seamless firewall traversal and LifeSize Control for scheduling, workflow and provisioning.
Since implementing LifeSize HD video systems, the organization has experienced significant benefits.
Primarily, global collaboration had never been easier. Teams across EMEA quickly became accustomed to the new technology and began using it on a daily basis. In fact, video-enabled conference rooms were so popular, they were often weeks in advance. As a result, teams are now able to be more productive and efficient during meetings and business travel is obsolete. After recognizing the success of the technology, the president issued a company-wide hold on travel, encouraging all employees to conduct their international business via LifeSize instead. Now, the systems are being used over 30 hours per week. The company experienced ROI quickly and reported that LifeSize paid for itself within only six months.
In December 2009, employees anxiously awaited the results of their sustainability efforts to measure their performance against the president’s aggressive goals from the previous year. The results were astonishing. Because of LifeSize, the company’s carbon emissions were down 12 percent since the last fiscal year, vastly exceeding the president’s original goal of 5 percent. Chemical emissions were also reduced by 45 percent and emissions from Volatile Organic Compounds were down 22 percent compared with the fiscal year 2005. Furthermore, the company boosted its recycling efforts with an increase of 340 tons from the previous year.
Almost a year and a half after the environmental results were announced, LifeSize commissioned analyst firm Forrester to conduct a study to evaluate company’s success. The firm’s researchers were able to uncover numerous results including a 392 percent five-year, risk-adjusted ROI and a nine-month payback period.
LifeSize was able to successfully address all of the issues that the company brought forth – reducing business travel, enhancing collaboration across international teams and cutting carbon emissions.
The senior manager of IT infrastructure of the company believes in the value of HD video collaboration, especially the value of LifeSize. “LifeSize is a challenger in the market – not a follower, but an innovator, leading the pack in features and functionality.”
Click here to download a PDF of this case study.
Click here to download the PDF of this case study.
In a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of LifeSize, video conferencing reduced CO2 emissions while increasing ROI. Click here to read the full press release.