Consulting Group Uses Web Conferencing Solution to Improve Staff Efficiency and Productivity

Challenge

AvenueA Razorfish comprises more than 900 consultants across 16 offices in North America and Europe. Their geographic disparity coupled with the collaborative nature of their projects required a total conferencing solution that would allow the team to join forces on projects, as well as offer an effective method for presenting the end result to clients. Prior to deploying Raindance Meeting Edition, the company relied on e-mail, phone conversations or sub-standard conferencing solutions. The result was inefficient, complicated and sometimes redundant review cycles or client presentations that lacked impact.

The Raindance Solution

AvenueA Razorfish, the interactive consulting team within SBI Group, first deployed the Beta version of Raindance Meeting Edition in September 2003. Depending on specific job responsibilities, each division of the Razorfish team utilized the integrated capabilities of Raindance Meeting Edition to overcome a variety of challenges.

The Project Manager

As a project manager at AvenueA Razorfish, David Katz is responsible for overseeing a design and development team that is distributed across the U.S. Before implementing Raindance Meeting Edition, the team relied on either e-mail or a web conferencing solution from WebEx to communicate changes on key client deliverables. Neither solution addressed the team's biggest pain points, namely the ability to work collaboratively on documents as problems and issues arose.

The problem with the first approach is inherent in the 'together-but-separate' nature of e-mail communication—each person independently making edits to a document and then an editor struggling to incorporate everyone's suggestions into the final product. "We could never be sure that everyone was working off of the latest version of the document or that Person A's changes reflected the input of Person B. We ended up spinning a lot of unnecessary cycles. It's far more efficient to join a Raindance meeting space and iron out the details so everyone is able to weigh in real-time," said Katz.

Solutions from conferencing provider WebEx alleviated a number of challenges posed by e-mail, but the platform's rigid structure made it challenging and cumbersome to call meetings without first setting up a reservation. It could be done, but the extra steps often prevented the staff from really taking advantage of it. "WebEx's solution is less than ideal for a number of reasons, but mostly because the collaboration and application-sharing features are far less flexible and easy to use versus Raindance Meeting Edition. When my team gets started on something and an issue comes up that we want other people to weigh in on, we want to be able to address that immediately."

With Raindance Meeting Edition, meetings can be started with three simple clicks of a mouse requiring zero advance notice, and once in a meeting room, participants and moderators alike can benefit from the application sharing and whiteboarding features.

The Business Strategist

Tommy Stinson and his team are responsible for developing marketing strategies and materials for AvenueA Razorfish. While the collaborative nature of Raindance Meeting Edition is a key benefit for Stinson, it is the platform's unique integrated audio, desktop video and web functionality that has had the most impact on his team's proficiency.

"Our biggest challenges were how to build stronger relationships with our clients and effectively show our work," said Stinson. "The video component helped us add that face-to-face element, even when we weren't able to meet in person."

Raindance Meeting Edition is an ideal solution for Stinson's team because the integrated desktop video makes it easy to present material and gives participants a visual focal point. It allows Stinson to read body language and control the pace of presentations, ensuring that viewers are getting the information in the appropriate context. Furthermore, by using Raindance to share documents, Stinson is able to ensure visual consistency regardless of file format.

The Vice President

As one of the company's senior executives, Bob Lord is responsible for overseeing a number of different client engagements and projects at AvenueA Razorfish. Raindance Meeting Edition is an ideal solution for Lord as it allows him to assemble a team and put the right people on the right jobs without worrying about geography. Raindance Meeting Edition also gives him the ability to play a more hands-on role across client projects.

"For me, Raindance functions like a cockpit—I can collaborate with my teams, easily jump from meeting to meeting, and I never have to spend my time tracking people down and getting them to join the call. Raindance Meeting Edition takes care of all that for me."

Raindance Meeting Edition is more than just an adequate alternative when face-to-face meetings are not possible; in many cases, it is a more preferable option. "I have as many as 10 meetings a day with 10 different teams or groups of people. Even if I had unlimited resources to bring the groups together for in-person meetings, the hassle and wasted time would far outweigh the benefits," said Lord.

Benefits

By using Raindance Meeting Edition, the entire AvenueA Razorfish team was able to witness significant monetary benefits, as well as considerable time savings in their everyday meeting practices.

David Katz, who is located in Boston, noted, "Most of my team is in New York. Since deploying Raindance Meeting Edition I go to New York about once a month, whereas before I was going every week." At $200 per airplane ticket, that's a cost savings of $600 a month on airfare alone. Factor in hotel and associated travel expenses, and that figure jumps to approximately $2000/month for just one person. If the solution is rolled out company-wide, annual savings on all travel related expenses will near $2.7 million annually.

Tommy Stinson found the biggest value for him was offered by the platform's flexible nature. "I call meetings at least twice a day. The fact that I don't have to take time out to schedule meetings in advance saves me at least 20-30 minutes a day."

The most important benefits, however, have been improved quality assurance and overall staff efficiency. By creating an environment where team members are empowered to make decisions and changes on the spot, review processes are streamlined and everyone has the opportunity to weigh in with feedback.

"You don't really understand the power of Raindance Meeting Edition until you start using it. When you move from audio or e-mail to a truly integrated web, video and audio solution, you start to wonder how you ever had the time and patience to do things any other way," said Lord.