Liberating boarderless collaboration

The nature of the business demands a high level of collaboration, but for a long time Envato was dependent on communication and collaboration solutions that lacked opportunities for innovation and flexibility.

Based on the idea of establishing a ‘community of creatives’, Envato began their journey in 2006. The company aims to help customers fulfill their creative projects, offering digital content sourcing, access to freelancers and a platform to enhance their own creative skill sets. With the help of over 200 employees from around the world, the Melbourne based company now supports over 4 million global customers.

With the addition of more markets and the growth of the teams around the world, it became apparent that the business needed a better solution to hold online meetings on a larger scale. Scenarios such as entire teams huddling around one microphone to talk in online meetings or technical glitches that resulted in multiple rounds of follow up emails, were too common.

Objectives

The team at Envato envisioned an online meeting platform that was easy to use, scalable and accessible at any time. The platform also needed to integrate with existing solutions to allow for an uninterrupted meeting set up and follow up process. Vahid Ta’eed, IT Director atEnvato said,

“Collaboration is everything at Envato. Google Chromebox is another element in our technology mix that prepares us for further growth while maintaining close, scalable team collaboration.”

Liberation Strategy

In February 2014, Google announced the release of their Google Chromeboxfor Meetings. At the time, Envato was trialing various online meeting products but had little success.

Envato began researching the features and benefits of Google Chromeboxfor Meetings and saw its potential. Since Envato was already using Google’s other applications, Chromebox was the perfect addition. Envato was one of the first companies in Australia to decide on Google Chromebox for Meetings when they placed their order through Fronde, six months in advance of its release.

Google Chromebox allows online meetings with up to 15 participants, on any device, anywhere in the world and on any device – from the conference room, at home or on the road. The in-built web-based management console allows for seamless communication between various stakeholders around the world. In addition employees can walk into a room and join a meeting in an instant, with the elimination of dial-in codes, pins and passwords.

Craig Traub, Operations Manager at Fronde Australia said,

“Envato came to Fronde looking for an innovative solution to hold online meetings on a larger scale and to engage with their teams around the world.”

Outcomes

Implementing Google Chromebox for Meetings, in conjunction with the existing Google Apps for Work, revealed immediate gains for Envato. The team was no longer hindered by limited meeting capacity and difficult dial-in processes.

The use of Google Chromebox for Meetings meant that the team could now freely communicate with each other as frequently as they needed, without losing valuable time. The integration of the solution with Google Apps for Work saw productivity gains throughout the day-to-day operations of the organisation, and an improved collaborative approach to tasks at hand. Additionally, the new solution enabled better work from home options as it broke down any restrictions for the individual to participate in the day-to-day activities of the business.

"With the cloud based systems we have in place now, Envato now have the capacity to grow from hundreds to thousands."

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What does workforce collaboration mean?

Work as one in the cloud! Take your workforce to the cloud and liberate your business from the cost, complexity and service burden of traditional solutions.

• Enables organisations to easily adopt and integrate cloud and new technologies.
• Frees dollars from legacy investments to innovation
• Mobilises workers to be productive anyplace, anytime on any device.
• Secures and frees data to be at your service rather than in your silos.
• Delivers agility and flexibility to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs.
• Moves fixed CAPEX and OPEX to be flexible.
• Assures IT that it can embrace both revolutionary and evolutionary strategies.