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Case Study -- Sierra Wireless

Using LifeSize, Global Wireless Solutions Company Improves Productivity, Breaks Cultural Barriers and Reduces Corporate Expenses

Organization

Sierra Wireless, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Founded in 1993, Sierra Wireless has become a world leader in wireless solutions for mobile computing and machine-to-machine communications. The company has a proven track record of developing new wireless technologies and innovative solutions.

Sierra Wireless Logo

With a primary focus on cellular wireless devices and applications, Sierra Wireless boasts a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that make it easy to connect people, products, and applications over cellular networks worldwide.

Sierra Wireless helps its customers succeed with innovative, reliable, high-performing solutions and early access to new wireless technologies. With sales, engineering, and research and development teams located in offices in multiple countries, the company employs a network of experts in mobile broadband and machine-to-machine communications to support customers globally.

Challenge

With headquarters based in Canada, offices in the USA, China, and France, and a number of remote sales and technical teams, Sierra Wireless’s nearly 1,000 employees are spread across the globe. Multiple time zones made coordinating phone conferences very challenging. The company needed a more efficient and effective way to communicate, conduct meetings, and exchange information. It also needed to tightly manage travel expenses, to improve the organization’s bottom line.

Person-shaped cut-outs holding hands on a globe

The challenge became apparent when Sierra Wireless bought a Paris-based company called Wavecom, also a leader in wireless solutions and similar in size to Sierra Wireless. The acquisition was pivotal for Sierra Wireless, but cultural differences, language barriers, and multiple time zones introduced significant meeting and communications challenges.

It was clear that the company needed to improve its communications infrastructure to facilitate a successful integration with Wavecom. “Early integration meetings were painful,” said Jason Cohenour, chief executive officer of Sierra Wireless. “Comprehension was low and frustration levels were high.”

Solution

Being on the cutting edge of technological advances, Sierra Wireless knew precisely what steps were needed to improve the communications experience, not only for its employees but for its customers as well. So the IT department started to look into video conferencing technology and, after thoroughly evaluating several options, Sierra Wireless determined that LifeSize was clearly the best choice.

“We knew intuitively that LifeSize was going to help us. We evaluated our priorities, which were price performance and ease-of-use,” said Cohenour. Another key factor was integration with Sierra Wireless’s existing systems. The solutions had to be simple to implement and easy to operate.

The company now has 11 systems deployed in offices around the world, including the LifeSize Room 200 and LifeSize Room 220 solutions. Both endpoints deliver crystal-clear quality in Full HD (1080p30), as well as content sharing, dual display support, and multipoint capability. Using these two Room series products from LifeSize, Sierra Wireless can effectively collaborate in true-to-life quality across the street or across the globe.

Results

Man using a laptop

After implementing LifeSize technology, meetings at Sierra Wireless became immediately more productive. LifeSize quickly became an invaluable, multifunctional tool for employees at all levels in the company. “We’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs and meeting productivity has improved considerably,” noted Cohenour.

Specifically, Monday morning management meetings with senior executives on three separate continents are now far more efficient and productive. “At 7:00 AM Pacific time, we’ll fire up LifeSize video conferencing and have a meeting with teams in Hong Kong, California, and France,” Cohenour explained.

Monthly operations review meetings run more smoothly, as do research and development collaborations. “Being able to see a colleague’s facial expressions and body language helps with language barriers,” stated Cohenour.

Now, employees that develop Sierra Wireless products can interact with each other as though they are in the same room. If time zone constraints interfere with schedules, meetings can easily be recorded and played back at any time with LifeSize Video Center. This intuitive infrastructure product is the most powerful one-button streaming, recording and auto-publishing solution on the market. Sierra Wireless employees can now experience meetings with such lifelike quality it is as if they attended the presentation in person.

Additionally, travel expenses were significantly reduced. Teams can now use video conferencing for meetings instead of purchasing flights. The desktop solutions have improved efficiency for traveling sales professionals and executives alike.

When asked to sum up his experience with LifeSize, Cohenour said simply, “LifeSize is an essential, indispensible tool for our business.”

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