Unified Collaboration Aids in Zero Hunger Mission

Welthungerhilfe, based in Bonn, Germany, has been serving the world’s most impoverished areas since 1962 with clean water, food, education, and governmental policy guidance. The non-profit has a goal of “Zero hunger wherever we work” by 2030 and relies on unified collaboration to help them get there.

Situation

Much like any large, global organization, WHH conducts business operations by collaborating with many satellite offices around the world. The experienced team had become accustomed to regular communications to plan and execute their usual projects, but wanted a more holistic UC strategy that went beyond their current video installation.

The goals WHH had were to update the user workflow so that it required little or no training, and to improve the speed at which video calls were connected – no matter where the users were or what solution they were using.

Solution

“An important part of the UC strategy was to engage the staff at all levels to identify exactly what solutions would best to suit their needs.” Dietmar Kraume, Director UC Technology & Presales, SoftwareOne.

The staff related they were happy with using Microsoft Outlook to schedule meetings with peers in the office or remote. With Polycom’s Microsoft integration it was a natural fit to add ‘one-touch-dial’ capabilities to the normal meeting workflow.

“We’ve had such great success with the approach that we rarely get help calls, which frees me up to tend to other IT services.” – Andraes Dahmen, IT Referent.

The easy meeting entry has been so well accepted that WHH IT staff have added more meeting automation in the rooms with EagleEye Director. The camera technology for framing each active speaker has added to the demand so much that it’s rare to see conference rooms go unused during the day.

With the WHH office setting going well, it was time to set their sights on enabling remote, and often temporary outposts with communication and collaboration.

“Especially in times of crisis, our teams require flexible solutions that can reliably connect from some of the most technologically challenged parts of the world. When disaster hits, we are often the first organizations ‘on the ground’. This means that we may have limited network capabilities, and limited onsite technical expertise.” – Josef Frei, Sr. Advisor Safety and Security Management

Building on this successful implementation, SoftwareOne recommended expanding the solution with Polycom RealConnect to connect remote teams through Skype for Business. The flexible solution allowed the current video conferencing investment in Group Series to easily and reliably extend UC into the most technically challenged areas of the world, bringing everyone together to solve the most critical human needs.

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