LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that HEINEKEN, the world's most international brewer, is using Polycom® RealPresence® video collaboration solutions to reduce the amount of travel its field sales people do across the UK, to increase communication between the London office and the head office in Edinburgh, and also to increase communication between manufacturing sites. Polycom video has transformed HEINEKEN London and Edinburgh offices into a virtual campus, reducing travel costs by over £250,000 (US$388,000), while also saving 160 tons of CO2 in just 12 months – the equivalent of 1,270 car journeys between Edinburgh and London or 752 return flights between Edinburgh and London.
With a distributed workforce across a number of different sites, HEINEKEN wanted to increase communication between the UK head office in Edinburgh and its offices and manufacturing sites situated throughout the UK, while reducing the amount of travel its field sales force of over 500 people undertake. Working with Polycom partner Talk and Vision to manage and maintain all of the systems globally, HEINEKEN has over 11 video-enabled rooms in the UK to complement the existing 160 units installed in over 50 countries across the world including the Netherlands, Mexico, Romania, Poland, and the U.S. The new UK solutions include Polycom® RealPresence® Immersive video suites (Polycom® OTX™ series) and Polycom® RealPresence® Room video solutions (HDX® 7000), powered by the RealPresence Platform, the most comprehensive software infrastructure for universal video collaboration. In addition, with Polycom CMA™ Desktop, HEINEKEN’S workforce can use the concierge service from Talk and Vision to participate in any of over 8,000 video conferences held across HEINEKEN globally every year. The Polycom OTX Room video solutions are being utilized for a wide variety of meetings – from board meetings to interdepartmental meetings and HR interviews. Additionally, people in Edinburgh can easily assess individuals in London without the need for travelling.
“The high-definition quality, ease-of-use, and the almost life-like realism of people at the other end of the Polycom video conferencing system has led to larger usage demand for video conferences, with people booking repeat meetings much more frequently,” said Brendan Rafferty, IT Architect for HEINEKEN. “We haven’t even had to launch it internally; it’s been word of mouth that has carried the solution into the live operating environment.”
As a 24-hour company, efficiently sharing information is very important for the brewery’s operations. HEINEKEN’S field based sales force now enjoy a better work/life balance by reducing their travel across the UK while increasing their ability to share information in real-time throughout the organization. Through the use of the Polycom RealPresence Platform, HEINEKEN has a unified video conferencing collaboration solution that combines multi-party voice, video, and content collaboration sessions together. And they are looking to continue to promote video conferencing through virtual meeting rooms, whether voice or video. As usage continues to grow, HEINEKEN is investigating Polycom RealPresence Mobile software running on iPad’s to enable staff to make video calls and conduct face-to-face meetings into the video collaboration suites easily in the future.
“We have a distributed workforce across a number of different types of sites, head offices, call centers, and manufacturing facilities. I think it will be powerful when all employees can from their PC simply look to see who’s available, invite them into a voice call, or even bring them straight into a video call or room system all at the click of a button,” said Jem Anderton, IT Innovation and Solution Development Manager for HEINEKEN. “Moving forward, HEINEKEN will be investing heavily in mobile and tablet technology in the UK. Our vision is that our sales force will use personal video to stay in touch with each other and customers, cutting down the time required for one-to-ones and also keeping them in real-time contact with colleagues in the office.”
About HEINEKEN
HEINEKEN was formed in April 2008 when HEINEKEN N.V. acquired the UK business of Scottish & Newcastle PLC and integrated with HEINEKEN’S existing UK business. HEINEKEN is the UK’s leading beer and cider business. Employing over 2,400 people in diverse roles across the UK, HEINEKEN produces some of the UK’s favorite beer and cider brands, including Foster’s, Heineken®, Strongbow, Kronenbourg 1664, John Smith’s and Bulmers. As well as a brewer and cider maker, HEINEKEN owns 1,400 pubs through the S&N Pub Company business.
About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for telepresence, video, and voice powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform. The RealPresence Platform interoperates with the broadest range of business, mobile, and social applications and devices. More than 400,000 organizations trust Polycom solutions to collaborate and meet face-to-face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners, customers, specialists, and prospects. Polycom, together with its broad partner ecosystem, provides customers with the best total cost of ownership, interoperability, scalability, and security for video collaboration, whether on-premises, hosted, or cloud-delivered. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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