Mercedes-Benz USA Stays Ahead With Audio-Integrated Virtual Training

Transcription

1 Mercedes-Benz USA Stays Ahead With Audio-Integrated Virtual Training 1

2 MERCEDES-BENZ USA STAYS AHEAD WITH AUDIO-INTEGRATED VIRTUAL TRAINING For 50 years, Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) has successfully sustained a leading position as a luxury brand in the automotive industry. The U.S. company distributes and markets Mercedes- Benz, smart and Sprinter products across the country, requiring prompt and efficient overseas collaboration and nationwide communication with hundreds of local dealerships. For MBUSA, fast information sharing is crucial in keeping up with the digitization of car buying. To build their information highway, the company uses audio-integrated webinars and operator assisted audio conferencing to keep employees abreast with the most up-to-date details on the company s products, services and campaigns. FASTER INFORMATION SHARING MATTERS MORE THAN EVER In 2014, the Mercedes-Benz brand was named one of the best global, most valuable brands, valued at more than $34 billion at the time. To manage their reputation in a digital world, the automotive giant balances an evolving marketing and sales strategy with consistent branding to fulfill their promise to deliver the best or nothing. Before a consumer even steps into a dealership, they visit a website, chat online with a representative or post a question to a social media page. With extended contact before, during and after the car buying experience, employees must know the latest information to better serve the informed consumer and ensure every point of contact is consistent. 2

3 How can instant, widespread information sharing happen among a geographically dispersed workforce of over 1,600 employees nationwide and the associated dealerships that employ more than 22,000 additional employees? EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION THROUGH VIRTUAL TRAINING With a 25-year tenure at MBUSA, Learning Architect Surya Boonphadung s current role is running the company s intranet and implementing virtual training to employees from MBUSA headquarters in Montvale, N.J. Boonphadung utilizes virtual webinars to effectively communicate with the 362 dealerships across the U.S. and corporate participants from both the U.S. and Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Germany. The company s web events serve a range of audiences and functions, from training participants on monthly engineering services calls to hosting shop foremen and service managers across the country in a single webinar. To meet his large-scale event needs, Boonphadung hosts periodic operator assisted events to announce new marketing initiatives to the dealership owners and sales managers across the country. With 1,000 invitees and over 500 participants attending live, Boonphadung offers guests a warm welcome from an experienced operator and receives pre- and postevent reporting on attendee participation. The main goal for everything that we do is information sharing. If there s a new car, if there s a new policy, if there s a new feature, we like to get it out there in a timely manner, and this helps us do that. One Provider for All Collaboration Needs Although Boonphadung uses GlobalMeet Audio for webinars, he also periodically uses it as a traditional conference line. In addition, the company hosted large, operator assisted conference calls to present marketing initiatives to over 500 dealership managers and owners. Operator assisted conference calls incorporate a moderator that furthers productivity by making introductions, facilitating Q&A discussions and handling all technical tasks. PGi s extensive portfolio of collaboration solutions offers the flexibility and scalability to evolve and innovate with information sharing. PGi S INTEGRATED AUDIO SOLUTION To quickly communicate the company s inventive new campaigns, Boonphadung uses reservationless GlobalMeet Audio, fully integrated with web for virtual trainings. GlobalMeet Audio integration makes audio conferencing seamless for both the host and guests. Tasks like calling a number to connect or finding and muting a noisy line are eliminated with automatic dial-in for guests and active talker features. With PGi s best-in-class audio, joining webinars is quick and effortless, no matter how attendees go about it. A connect me option lets guests join from any device in one click. The system calls attendees and connects them right into the conference. Surya Boonphadung, Learning Architect 3

4 The whole process is smooth, and it s a seamless experience for the user. We know what we re using, but for the attendees, it s just another live conference they are dialed into, and it works flawlessly. It s pretty intuitive. Surya Boonphadung SEAMLESS AUDIO INTEGRATION The GlobalMeet Audio integration with the existing web conferencing interface allows the host to use native controls to manage all aspects of the audio conference without any additional training. The host can easily mute, unmute and dismiss attendees. From the attendee perspective, they simply click to join the web link, enter in their phone number and they are automatically connected. If hosts or guests experience glitches or holdups, 24/7 operator assistance and live, in-conference support is available. Boonphadung said, Each time I ve called the help line, service has been prompt and issues have been resolved quickly. GlobalMeet Audio integration produces a single, streaming archive with synchronized web and voice recordings. Since the majority of Boonphadung s audiences watch the recording after the live event, that simplicity yields a high value for his on-demand viewers needs. More Benefits of Advanced Telephony for Web Events Increased Productivity: However guests join the event, the host fully controls audio. Hosts can manage everything on an easy-to-use, visual interface, including dialing out to web or audio participants, identifying active talkers and creating breakout rooms. Unlike many other providers, PGi even supports the ability to control volume on both an individual and group level, as well as mute or unmute the entire conference. Better Attendance: Audio integration rewards users with more options to join a live web event. Attendees can choose whatever is most convenient and comfortable, which means less technical difficulties, less confusion and increased access to the audience for the host. Enhanced Engagement: Advanced telephony enables users to select the technology most accessible for them to join, respond to all other participants via VoIP or telephone and access a recording that includes responses from all participants. This means users can listen and respond to anyone, from virtually any device, increasing their capacity and flexibility to interact and stay engaged. More Reliability: Regardless of the number in attendance or the bandwidth, everyone experiences high-quality conferencing with PGi s fully redundant, enterprise-grade, hybrid IP audio network. 4

5 MORE USER-FRIENDLY, PRODUCTIVE WEB EVENTS PGi s innovative hybrid audio conferencing integration provides MBUSA with: Polished, Professional Conferencing: The complexity of connecting telephone and VoIP users all over the country from multiple types of devices never shows during webinars. Boonphadung said, The system works great so we can t complain about that. Enterprise Security: Audio-integrated webinars allow Boonphadung to control access to sensitive information with extra layers of protection. PGi s secure, industry-leading audio conferencing capabilities include SSL encryption as well as a conference lock option to control access and participation. He also analyzes post-event reports. I always check the reporting to track how many people accessed the event live and on-demand. Cost Savings: It saves us a whole lot of money, Boonphadung said. Travel expenses would simply be too extravagant to connect corporate with the hundreds of geographically dispersed employees they need to frequently communicate with. Scalability: Working with PGi gives MBUSA easy access to other audio conferencing options, like operator assisted conferencing, to support larger audiences over 300 attendees. Mobility: Along with the ability to join webinars any way they want, audio integration lets users join anywhere, from any device. We see people at the company using it more and more because of an increase in traveling. In fact, we ve hosted a session where the actual presenter was at a rest area, got on their Wi-Fi and did the presentation there. Surya Boonphadung MBUSA Success Challenge To communicate effectively with employees and maintain consistent branding, Mercedes-Benz USA needed a solution for faster information sharing with a geographically dispersed employee base. Solution GlobalMeet Audio integration with web offers visual, large-capacity presentation capabilities with professional, secure, user-friendly audio conferencing options. Results PGi s audio integration provides a seamless, simple meeting experience; saves the company money; increases productivity and helps users easily access and engage in webinars from anywhere, on any device. ABOUT PGi PGi is the world s largest pure-play provider of collaboration software and services. PGi s unified collaboration platform empowers business users and teams to connect, share ideas and manage projects with the simplicity and everywhere-access of the latest cloud technologies. PGi has a global presence in 25 countries, and its award-winning solutions provide a collaborative advantage to nearly 50,000 enterprise customers, including 75% of the Fortune 100. In the last five years, PGi has helped over a billion people worldwide connect, collaborate and get work done in teams, large groups and one-on-one. For more information, visit PGi at pgi.com. 5

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