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Paulaner and Lifesize Cloud Conferencing

Overview

Paulaner is renowned for being the finest brewery in Munich, and its products are seen worldwide as the embodiment of Bavarian beer and culinary tradition. The Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier Naturtru??b is the most popular beer of its kind and an important flagship product for Munich’s way of life, exported to over 70 countries and ranked number six among Germany’s best-selling beers.

Challenge

Since 2015, the brewery’s production facility and management o ices have been in different locations. The beer is brewed in Munich’s Langwied area, whereas the management is based in the city’s Au district. In order to save commuting time and still ensure efficient communication between the two sites, Paulaner’s management decided to pursue a video conferencing solution.

Paulaner Logo

“Our staff would have wasted far too much time in Munich traffic traveling between the two sites. A video conferencing solution seemed to be an ideal alternative.”

— Nikola Parlov, System and Applications Developer, Paulaner

Solution

With the help of a Lifesize channel partner, the team at Paulaner started looking for a suitable video conferencing provider to replace the existing teleconferencing equipment in their meeting rooms. The choice would be made from among the established industry players, which were all carefully scrutinized based on selected criteria. Some legacy contenders had to be excluded from the running extremely early because Paulaner was specifically looking for a cloud-based solution.

Ultimately, Lifesize® Icon™ video conferencing systems were installed in meeting rooms at all sites. Small conference rooms received a single 75” screen, while larger rooms were outfitted with two 60” screens to complete the installation. The team even went above and beyond to enhance the meeting experiences by painting the meeting rooms different colors to accentuate the way employees were seen on camera.

“With Lifesize on these screen sizes, the caller looks the same size as if you were talking face to face and presentations are always easy to read.”

Alongside the conference room systems, Paulaner started off with 10 user licenses for use on personal devices, later expanding to 25 and then 50 as demand grew. The Lifesize app is used on laptops and mobile devices and gives employees the ability to connect face to face from virtually anywhere.

“The flexible scalability perfectly meets our needs. One of the most popular features is the ability to invite guest callers to the meetings, who can then join the conversation with a simple click in their browser. This works especially well with partners in China.”

Outcome

“The unanimous view is that our meeting culture has vastly improved,” Parlov concludes of the company’s experience with Lifesize. There have been no reports of connection issues, and the satisfaction with regard to quality is sky-high. In addition, the implementation costs have been recouped within weeks, as the travel costs have been so drastically reduced. The Paulaner team’s response to the conference room systems has also been extremely positive.

“Our meeting rooms are generally always booked. If we expand our capacity even further, we will definitely come back to Lifesize.”