Woolworths Holdings Limited, South African-based retail group that operates locally and internationally, is bringing its 'people' together in a productive manner via state-of-the-art Sony video conferencing solutions supplied by Avicom.
According to Woolworths operations manager, Shaheed Hendricks, the company opted to go the video conferencing route to facilitate improved communications in terms of convenience, accessibility and speed. Video conferencing allows users to participate in national and international multi-party conferences, as if they were face-to-face in the same room.
The Sony solution is user-friendly, reliable and delivers high quality video-, audio- and document-conferencing.
Video conferencing reduces costs (travelling, accommodation and entertainment), improves productivity and enables resources to be utilised more effectively. It also allows for faster decision-making, time to market and stimulates customer responsiveness.
"Video conferences come extremely close to physical meetings in their characteristics: users have both visual and auditory factors, which are important for quality business meetings," he notes.
Hendricks says that as digital video technology evolved, Woolworths decided to move beyond teleconferencing, installing the first systems at its head office in Cape Town and regional offices in Centurion, Parow, Durban and Port Elizabeth. "Meetings can now be conducted between head office and all the regions or inter-regional simultaneously without anyone having to leave their offices."
Woolworths has also implemented a Sony system at its training facility in Rivonia and is installing a system in Bloemfontein. Skills development and transfer is extremely important to Woolworths and video conferencing is the ideal vehicle to improve training while simultaneously cutting travelling expenses and time.
"Typical applications include weekly sales, financial, marketing and HR meetings between business units and buyer meetings as well as product discussions and launches. In the near future franchise and suppliers conferencing will also take place," he comments.
Sony Broadcast & Professional SA product manager, Dave Schultz, comments that specialists in the field of video conferencing, Cape Town-based Sony authorised dealer Avicom, implemented the multimedia Sony Contact 6000 VC systems and is providing national maintenance and support services.
"Offering the convenience of six-way 'multipoint' video conferencing, the Sony Contact 6000 makes collaborative working a reality for 'virtual' project teams wishing to share voice, video and office documents across scattered sites," he says.
For even more effective collaboration between work groups, the Contact 6000 offers white-boarding facilities, and with the use of the innovative document camera PCS-DS150, which allows a standard laptop or PC to be connected, thus allowing standard Excel, Word and PowerPoint, and also hardcopy paper documents to be reviewed by all participants.
"Delivering video quality pictures at 30 frames per second, the system is ideal even for reviewing critical images. A complementary product is Sony's 'Smart Management Solutions' software (SMS), an innovation that dramatically simplifies management, scheduling and address book functions via a Web browser," explains Avicom MD, Michael Scholtz. "With SMS 'Walk & Talk' technology, the system starts up automatically and calls the other participating video conferencing devices.
"Avicom is confident that its relationship with Sony and the Woolworths Group will extend beyond video conferencing to incorporate a wide range of other integrated multi-media business tools, forging a new competitive advantage."
Share