Visualizing New Frontiers

The need arose from the

constant travel requirement of the senior management and non-availability

of dates and time to travel. It was becoming difficult for the mangers to

be at a location in time for troubleshooting.

The Need

• Internal and external
  
  communication

• Travelling expense

• Non-availability of
  
  common dates, increased number of meetings

• Bandwith and network

Challenges in Deployment

• Availability of stable
  
  bandwidth

• Robust and efficient
  
  network to run the application

• Availability of leased
  
  lines for connectivity

• Availability of VSAT
  
  links in remote locations

The primary driver was the

business benefits which were achieved in a short time of deployment. Also,

for plants in remote locations which needed to be constantly in touch with

the city office VCS served the much needed connect between them.

As the company had a success

story on the business front, it went on to leverage the solution and

started using it in other operations like management, training, human

resources, etc.

The Benefits

• The tangible effect was
  
  on cost incurred on travelling, and coordinating on date availability
  
  for meetings

• Intangible were like the
  
  increase in the number of meetings conducted at all levels in the
  
  organization

• Better productivity,
  
  higher operational efficiency, better interaction between management
  
  and the teams, and inter departmental interaction

Now that the company has stabilized and

is making a productive and extensive use of the solution, they are looking

at further updating and innovating the solution. As the technology needs

grow, and with newer version and features entering the market, the company

will continue to evaluate the updation required.

With 250 leased lines and

above 100 VSATs and 50 links getting added, the network is robust and well

structured. With the business locations dispersed to the remotest of

locations in the country, videoconferencing solutions have been able to

provide the connect between managers and the staff at these various

locations.

Challenges

• Infrastructure for
  
  running the solution in remote locations where there is no
  
  connectivity

• Developing proficiency
  
  to use such a solution and educating the other locations

• Understanding and
  
  embracing the visual mode of communications

• There was resistance and
  
  hesitation to adopt a solution

• Educating the people
  
  about the benefits and comforts of using a visual communication
  
  solution

• The group ushered in the
  
  required cultural change among people to adopt the latest technology
  
  and use it to their benefit

Applications Being Run

• Human resource functions
  
  like recruitment, training, appraisals are done through it

• Conducting interviews-The
  
  interviewee is called to the nearest branch office for a
  
  videoconference interview

• Blended learning:
  
  Training courses in the organization are conducted on these solutions

• Business users: Senior
  
  management meetings are held across multiple locations

• IT users: Incident and
  
  problem management

• The group's annual
  
  award ceremony is broadcast over it

Benefits

• There is significant
  
  control on the cost in terms of travel, time and lodging-boarding

• Better management levels
  
  are achieved for heterogeneous environment

• Involvement of
  
  management and staff from all levels at regular intervals

• The group companies are
  
  able to align people, processes and technology to meet the core
  
  business objective

Road Ahead

• Plan to extend coverage
  
  on employee training

• Extend to residential
  
  complexes at units across the country

• Reduce the TCO by leveraging
  
  infrastructure in more effective and innovative ways