FTSE 250 Group Diploma PLC Strengthens Global Executive Decision-Making with SCC AVS and StarLeaf
“The solution is extremely easy to use…”
As an international group of businesses operating through a decentralised management structure with senior management teams based principally in Europe, North America and Australia, effective and regular communication with senior management is important to be agile and responsive to changes in local markets and the competitive environment.
With a successful acquisition strategy which has contributed to the increase in size and complexity of the group across these geographies, the company wanted a collaboration solution for meeting rooms and personal devices, which could facilitate decision-making and drive better conversations with its senior management teams operating in its overseas businesses. Conversations and decisions that could derive measurable business value.
Nigel Lingwood, Group Financial Director at Diploma PLC explained: “We are an international group with operations across a number of geographies so it was important that we found a solution that could complement how we do business – while we still value in-person meetings, we recognised that our group would benefit considerably with a competent visual communications solution.”
Challenge
One of the challenges for SCC AVS was overcoming the organisation’s previous experience with visual communications and convincing key stakeholders of the business outcomes that would be possible with the StarLeaf cloud video conferencing and calling solution, as Nigel Lingwood explained:
“We had used a first generation video conferencing solution before in the past, but it was very clunky, took a long time to set up and as such management lost confidence in using it on a regular basis. We were therefore quite sceptical this time around; however SCC AVS made a strong business case as to the ways video conferencing has advanced. We are glad we listened to them, the StarLeaf solution is extremely easy to use.”
Solution
The solution deployed and managed by SCC AVS was StarLeaf’s cloud video conferencing solution which is highly intuitive, simple to manage and always ready to go. This was accompanied by numerous dedicated room-based video conferencing opportunities.
Irrespective of where management are located, they simply open the StarLeaf application, choose who they want to call and begin collaborating face-to-face. This can be on desktop, on mobile or in more formal meeting environments such as the boardroom, where one touch calling is possible through StarLeaf’s touchscreen controller.
For other users, the collaboration process is the same. StarLeaf’s interoperability means users simply download the free software with any browser or use any existing video end-point their business has.
Nigel Lingwood continued, “SCC AVS guided us through the whole process and they deployed a solution that fits our business requirements perfectly. StarLeaf has proved to be a great solution and local management use it at their desks, in the boardroom and on their mobile. We find it valuable being able to see how people respond to what is being discussed.”
Results
Diploma PLC’s senior management team is increasingly using StarLeaf and the business is gradually extending the solution to other geographic operations and areas of the business. The Group plans to increase the number of facilities using StarLeaf by the end of the year. Results and benefits include:
- Stronger decision-making and more effective team collaboration
- Reduced operating costs compared to the legacy solution and from less travel
- Extremely high level of user adoption thanks to ease-of-use and flexibility
- A cloud solution that scales in line with business growth
- Effortless IT management through a central management dashboard
- No complex infrastructure to navigate or maintain
Nigel Lingwood concluded: “We are very pleased with the application and it has been taken up enthusiastically by senior management across our businesses. Nothing about StarLeaf is intimidating and SCC AVS’s project management of the entire process has been excellent. A highly recommended solution.”
