Meet Navistar. They are an international company headquartered in the Chicago area and they are a leading manufacturer of commercial trucks, buses, defense vehicles and engines. Like so many of us during the coronavirus lockdown, the team members at Navistar have become adept at videoconferencing from home. But recently, their team started returning to the office. They needed a solution that would allow them to continue to host video conferences that go beyond a single laptop and that includes the active participation of everyone in the room as well as of external participants.
Hybrid solutions for hybrid offices
Navistar required solutions to turn a number of their traditional conference rooms into full video conference rooms right away. With about 35% of their workforce back in the office, they still needed to connect those in the office with those working remotely. And while the laptop was a great tool for participating in video conferences, its camera and audio are designed for one person at a time. Using ClickShare Conference to connect instantly and wirelessly to all the speakers, mics, and cameras in existing conference rooms, employees were able to still run the meeting from their laptop (and video conferencing software of choice), while capturing all the participants in the room on video with the room camera.
An immediate need
In addition to the hybrid workplace challenges many are facing today, Navistar had an added layer of urgency in getting video conference rooms set up. They were in merger talks with Volkswagen. This meant a lot of communication was required between department heads and within individual departments as well. Communication that couldn’t to be sent over email or handled over the phone. These meetings needed to be conducted in a way that expressions could be read, and non-verbal communication could be utilized. ClickShare Conference not only met these needs, but because Barco is a large government contractor operating within the requirements of being a GCC (Govt Community Cloud) Tenant, we also provided them with an option that met the requirements for collaboration in the most secure communications on government contracts.
Room friendly and user friendly
In order for video conferencing to be effective, it needs to be easy to use. Because ClickShare Conference instantly and wirelessly connects to cameras, speakers, and mics from just about any manufacturer, Navistar made it easy for all team members to set up a video conference within seconds. The fact that it’s an open system with no need for cables and adapters, makes hybrid meetings as intuitive and straightforward as face-to-face. Users can seamlessly mix and match between Microsoft Teams, Webex, Zoom and many more. No additional software needed, no touch panels to control, no settings to be managed. Navistar could enjoy the same, one-click user experience in all rooms.
Worked so well, they expanded it
For Navistar, there was only about a two-week turnaround from inception of the idea to the first of 20 installations. The video conference rooms they created worked so well and were so intuitive to use, they expanded their scope and created another 30. These video conference rooms have been helpful in connecting team members as they navigate the new normal of hybrid office as well as their merger talks. On October 19th, it was announced that Navistar International accepted a new merger offer from The Volkswagen Group, adding to the number of remote participants on each video conference.
