CHU Upgrades its Video Collaboration Capabilities with Ricoh
CHU benefits from an easy-to-use, integrated video conferencing platform that streamlines staff collaboration, improves productivity, and reduces the need for business travel.
An overview
Since opening its doors 44 years ago, CHU has grown to become a leading specialist in insurance underwriting. With policies in place covering almost a million properties, the company’s 240 staff service clients throughout the nation.
CHU has a comprehensive portfolio of products including landlord insurance, contents insurance, and both residential and commercial strata insurance. The company also offers a 24/7 claims and emergency assistance service.
With five offices across Australia, CHU needed to find a more effective, easy-to-use video collaboration platform to support virtual staff meetings. This case study shows how Ricoh helped the company achieve this goal.
The challenges
Cumbersome, difficult to use video conferencing system
With staff located around Australia, CHU relies heavily on video conferencing tools to support effective collaboration. These resources became particularly important during the protracted COVID lockdowns when many staff were required to work from home.
“Unfortunately, our existing Windows-based Logitech platform was not providing the level of support that we required,” says Paul Sassella, CHU Head of IT. “Staff found it difficult to operate without IT support and connecting with remote workers was unreliable.”
You really had to know the quirks of our legacy conferencing system. It was far from what you would call ‘plug-and-play’.
The Objectives
As staff began returning to offices in mid-2022, a decision was taken to find a replacement for the company’s existing video collaboration platform. Several options were evaluated to determine what would be the most effective fit for the organisation to support improved staff collaboration and productivity.
The Solution
After conducting a review, a decision was taken to deploy a solution offered by Ricoh. This involved creating Microsoft Teams Rooms equipped with hardware provided by Yealink in each company office.
Ricoh conducted an assessment of each meeting room to determine the best configuration of microphones, speakers, and video screens,” he says. “They then undertook the deployment before handing over the completed infrastructure. The level of support they provided to us was exceptional.
The Benefits
Improved staff collaboration and productivity
As a result of the successful deployment of the new Teams Rooms, CHU is now enjoying an easy-to-use, integrated video conferencing platform that streamlines staff collaboration, improves productivity, and reduces the need for business travel. At the same time, the collaboration platform has been integrated with Microsoft Outlook to allow easy booking of meeting rooms. This avoids double-ups and ensures staff have access to the collaboration tools as required during their workdays.
We no longer need to have support from our IT team to get collaboration sessions up and running. Everything just works! At the same time, It has made it much easier for staff to collaborate which helps to boost both efficiency and productivity. “Thanks to Ricoh, we now have in place a scalable, reliable, and easy-to-use collaboration platform,” he says. “At the end of the day, it just works, and that is what is most important for us."