ITWire

Polycom says installation of its video solutions have transformed Heineken’s London and Edinburgh offices into a virtual campus, reducing travel costs by over 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.

According to IT Innovation and Solution Development Manager for Heineken, Jem Anderton, 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.

“We have a distributed workforce across a number of different types of sites, head offices, call centres 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.

“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,” Anderton said.

Heineken is working with Polycom partner, Talk and Vision, to manage and maintain all of its systems globally, which includes over 11 video-enabled rooms in the UK to complement the company’s existing 160 units installed in over 50 countries, including the Netherlands, Mexico, Romania, Poland and the US.