International business communications software supplier, New Media Software (NMS), has announced that Dimension Data has deployed its managed videoconferencing service and reduced its business travel expenses by £84,000 per year.
Using video, NMS was able to cut its field-based sales team and pass on some of the savings in product pricing with customers that in turn led to significant domestic growth as well as international expansion.
Phill McGowan, managing director at NMS explains: “We have a team of 12, based in Pakistan, the UK and USA as well as a 4,000-strong reseller network worldwide, so we need to communicate and sell across five different time zones. We also wanted to be able to leverage our existing videoconferencing hardware, but immediately faced issues such as bandwidth, interoperability, cost, skills and support.”
NMS opted for a managed video conferencing service from Dimension Data, where everything is managed on a monthly fixed cost basis. This includes a dedicated video network and supporting services such as a concierge facility, directory of contacts and 24/7 helpdesk. Since moving away from field-based sales, NMS estimates monthly savings of £7,000 per month on business travel alone. McGowan has personally saved 45,000 miles, 16-18 flights and 10 hotel stays per year.
Says Terry Dwyer, director of visual communications at Dimension Data: “The pressure to keep pace with the business community by entering the videoconferencing age has created a significant skills challenge for many large and small organisations. The resourcing headache is that these specialised skills must be sustained for the life of the implementation phase and then significantly reduced once the transition is completed; leaving in place just enough expertise to support and maintain the video network. NMS has overcome this with our managed service. They now have dedicated 24 hour user support with our helpdesk and a virtual meeting room provides a quick and easy meeting method that can be used at any time of the day.”
One Amsterdam-based NMS business partner has lowered its travel expenses dramatically by replacing one flight and two hotel stays a month with video meetings. That partner has passed that advantage by lowering its sale price to NMS by 15 percent.
Its managed videoconferencing initiative helped NMS win a British Excellence in Sales and Marketing Award. The company now plans to extend the use of room-based videoconferencing systems through its supply chain, and deploy it at the desktop for every sales person.
