Enterprise Communications Case Study

Current Situation:

The CEO of a large multinational company likes to stay in touch with his employees that are spread throughout the world.  While face-to-face meetings would be ideal, time constraints and geography keep him from meeting with individual offices on a regular basis.  To combat this, the idea of a quarterly email newsletter was mentioned, but the CEO quickly dismissed the idea as too impersonal.  After all, the purpose of meeting was to share important strategic visions for the company and keep the staff motivated as changes happen throughout the organization.

The CEO decided that a quarterly video newsletter would be more personable and better serve his purpose.  This would allow him to talk to employees on a regular basis, while saving the time of traveling to each location.  The communications department started recording the CEO with traditional equipment and uploading the finished video to the company’s servers where it could then be accessed through an intranet portal.  A company-wide email was sent out to employees to let them know the video was available.

The new videos were well received by employees, but problems soon became apparent.  Using traditional recording methods meant the CEO had to be in the same location each quarter to record the newsletters – often making last minute schedule changes to accommodate the recording.  The process was also costly and time consuming for the communications staff as it took weeks to edit and get the video ready for release.  This process often required staff from IT, development and human resources to complete.

For the employees, the videos were a great way to hear from the CEO, but they had no way to ask questions or give important feedback.  Many employees began calling and emailing the communications staff with their questions, taking up valuable time.  To make matters worse, the excessive time commitment needed to respond was only increased by the amount of redundant questions asked by the staff.  A new solution was needed if the video newsletter was to succeed.

KZO Business Video Suite

To solve the video issues, the company began using the KZO Business Video Suite.  Soon after making the change, the communications department was able to streamline the production process, creating and distributing the CEO’s videos quickly and efficiently.

Since the CEO’s laptop already had a webcam and microphone built-in, he was able to use the KZO Virtual Studio to record the video each quarter no matter where he was located – adding much needed flexibility back into his schedule.  The CEO was able to record the video in one take since the communications department had used KZO’s chapters and a short PowerPoint presentation to keep him organized.  Once the video was created, the CEO was able to send it to the communications department for editing.

The communications department was able to quickly make edits and add a PowerPoint presentation that accompanied the video.  On occasion, other files were added to help employees understand upcoming changes.  Most importantly, the production process went from weeks to a couple of days using KZO, saving the communications team valuable time.

The video was then uploaded straight to the company’s KZO Video Library directly from the Virtual Studio, eliminating the need for help from IT and the development team. Distribution was easy, as employees could find the video through the company’s intranet portal, as well as through a direct link to the video.  Using KZO’s detailed metrics, the communications department could now see which employees had watched the video and for what time period – something that was not possible before.

The new solution gave employees with relevant questions or comments the capability to leave their questions directly in the video. The CEO and his team could then be notified when discussions were posted to the video, giving the team the chance to review and answer the questions at their convenience. In addition, the questions and comments were available for everyone to see and respond to, creating a positive feedback loop of collaboration that kept everyone up-to-date and eliminated redundant questions.

Client Results

Using the KZO Business Video Suite, the company could get the video produced, uploaded and ready for viewing in much less time than before.  This not only saved money, but also employee hours since far fewer people needed to be involved in the process.  The KZO solution also gave the CEO a more personal approach to reach employees without the need for regular travel to each office.  The collaboration features created a two-way conversation between the employees and senior management, giving staff more confidence in the company’s direction and building trust in company leadership.