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case study

Worlds second largest quoted tobacco


group replaces telepresence in
25 international sites; first in Europe
with a Cisco Active Collaboration Room
industry:
Manufacturing

country:
Worldwide

business challenge:
Dispersed geographical spread,
yet a culture of face-to-face
collaboration, created the need
to reduce travel costs and boost
productivity.
Existing videoconferencing systems
werent open standard and
couldnt interoperate with internal
and external systems.
BAT became the first company
in Europe to install Ciscos Active
Collaboration Room (ACR).

solution:
Converged communications insight,
experience and project management,
coupled with global supply
chain management.

services:
Professional services, consulting,
supply chain management

results:
Videoconferencing infrastructure
was replaced at 25 BAT sites across
five continents in only six months;
reducing cost, risk, and business
disruption.
Videoconferencing options
included meeting room systems
and audio visual functionality.
The speed and precision with
which the range of technologies
was deployed to locations around
the world reduced the risk of
replacing BATs entire estate in one
project.
Simultaneous deployment of
multiple technologies throughout
BATs organisation also ensured
that the collaborative workstyle
wasnt disrupted, but pro-actively
enhanced.
Project management skills and
experience of videoconferencing
implementations ensured that
Ciscos ACR was implemented
without difficulty.

Executive Summary
With 120 subsidiaries around the
world, British American Tobacco
(BAT) moved quickly to exploit
videoconferencing when it first
became generally available,
reinforcing its culture of close
collaboration across BATs many
international offices. However,
early technology was not designed
to open standards and, over time,
users became frustrated by the
technologys inability to interoperate
with BATs other videoconferencing
systems. Also, BAT wished to
extend its videoconferencing
options beyond telepresence
rooms in order to give
individual employees access
to videoconferencing from
their desks or their homes.
An incremental replacement
of the technology in existing
conference rooms would neither
alleviate user resistance, nor
expand BATs videoconferencing
capability. At the same time,
simultaneous replacement of
existing videoconferencing
technologies and implementing
new technologies 25 sites across
five continents posed a significant
risk to BATs business continuity
and performance. Dimension
Data has extensive experience
in videoconferencing and
telepresence implementations.
This, together with the global
reach and in-country regulatory

knowledge and insight of


Dimension Data Supply Chain
Services, enabled the rapid and
precise deployment of multiple
types of videoconferencing
technologies. It was possible,
therefore, for BATs entire
international Telepresence estate
to be replaced within six months.
In addition, Dimension
Datas project management
experience enabled the smooth
implementation of Ciscos Active
Collaboration Room (ACR). The
first in Europe, The ACR is designed
to support highly interactive
teams that contain both local and
remote participants. It consists
of coffee tables surrounded by
caf-height furniture and a large
digital whiteboard, integrated with
Cisco WebEx. The format enables
participants to stand up and
move around the room while
still being captured by video.
Remote participants can join
with virtually any technology
including other telepresence
rooms, high-definition video
systems, or desktop webcams.
Both remote and local
participants can share, annotate
and create documents with ease.
BATs initial objective for the ACR
was to enable collaboration among
the IT teams tasked with a companywide SAP roll-out.

case study

BAT Video Conferencing

Because of its global stature, Dimension Data enables us to be as


effective with our technology deployments in far flung places as we
are at head office, Cunningham says. Were probably not going to
deploy too many more fully immersive telepresence rooms, because recent
videoconferencing developments make it both easy and logical to
deploy smaller, individual video devices, particularly on the desktop.
This enables us to extend our use of video to more offices and to
people on the move.
Dimension Datas enormous flexibility and the fact that it has people
everywhere assures us that it can pull off the more frequent, ad hoc,
rapid roll-outs that our more individualised approach will call for.
Client Overview

Business Challenge

Having sustained a significant global


presence for over 100 years, British
American Tobacco (BAT) is the worlds
second-largest quoted tobacco group by
global market share. It sells more than
200 brands in some 180 markets, with
one in eighth of the worlds one billion
adult smokers choosing a BAT brand. BAT
is the leader in more than 50 markets. In
2011, its subsidiary companies sold 705
billion cigarettes and enabled governments
worldwide to collect more than USD 30
billion in taxes, including exise duty on BAT
products. The company has 46 cigarette
factories in 39 countries and employs more
than 55,000 people worldwide. Its also
the only international tobacco group with
a significant interest in tobacco leaf
growing, helping some 200,000 farmers
in 19 countries remain sustainable and
annually buying 440,000 tonnes of the
leaf they produce. BAT uses a devolved
corporate structure to manage such a
federated organisation, allowing each
local company wide freedom of action
and responsibility for its actions. Within
a framework of principles, standards,
policies, strategies, and delegated
authorities, decisions are made as close as
possible to the local stakeholders of each
business. However, close collaboration
among the businesses is mandatory and
BAT recruitment policies are focused on
attracting and retaining employees of a
social and collaborative nature.

Telepresence isnt just a means of


saving BAT the significant executive
travel costs incurred by any highly
federated organisation. Its also the key
to the companys ability to maintain
and enhance the collaborative work
culture that underpins its success. BATs
original telepresence platform lacked
the interoperability to connect to other
videoconferencing systems within BAT,
and with their suppliers and partners. So,
BAT looked for a way to replace it with a
platform that was both future-proofed and
diversified enough to enable the company
to expand beyond telepresence and give
individual employees access to high-quality
videoconferencing. However, replacing in a
single project a core part of its operations
posed a threat to BATs business continuity
and performance. Once BAT decided to
choose Ciscos holistic videoconferencing
platform, the challenge was to ensure that
the relevant Cisco technologies would
be delivered to their specific sites at 25
different locations around the world in
time for a globally co-ordinated installation
process by Cisco to run to plan.
In addition, BAT was embarking on
a company-wide roll-out of SAP. In
order to reduce the risk and cost of the
implementation, BAT wanted to ensure
high levels of collaboration among its
implementation teams located around
the world. A decision was made to install
Ciscos ACR at BATs London headquarters.
This would be the first such installation

in Europe. However, the ACR is a new


concept. It would be a challenge for BAT
to find implementation partners with both
insight into the ACRs role in converged
communications and the certification
needed to implement it, so as to achieve
maximum positive effect on BATs
collaboration capabilities.

The Way Forward


Dimension Data had installed an IP
telephony system as well as an IP contact
centre for BAT in the UK. The efficiency
and ease with which Dimension Data
managed the project, together with a
recommendation from Cisco, with whom
Dimension Data has had strong business
partnership for many years, persuaded BAT
to make use of Dimension Data Supply
Chain Services.
We had originally intended our WAN
provider to manage the international
shipping of the Cisco equipment, says
Andrew Cunningham, BATs Head of
Technology and Security. However,
it very quickly became clear that
Dimension Data Supply Chain Services
has an exceptional ability to operate
effectively across all sorts of regulatory
environments. Also, its extraordinarily
flexible and responsive to client needs
and able to put resources on the ground
in places where other companies cant.
Our decision to go with Dimension
Data on this project was more than
vindicated by the fact that our extremely
stringent timelines were met, without
a fuss.

case study

BAT Video Conferencing

Solution Delivered
For the telepresence replacement project,
all the systems needed in 25 BAT locations
were delivered to site, ready for installation
by the Cisco team, within six months.
One of the advantages we offer a global
organisation such as BAT is that we are
ourselves a global organisation, says
Ian Kempsell, Dimension Datas BAT
Account Manager. We understand the
challenges of managing projects
across borders.
Crucial to being able to do that
successfully is having a single point of
accountability, and having visibility into
all aspects of a project that, like BATs
telepresence one, is absolutely seminal
to the way you operate. Dimension
Data Supply Chain Services specialises in
doing just that from a procurement and
logistics point of view, reducing clients
risk and cost.
For the Cisco ACR implementation,
Dimension Data project-managed the
installation, working closely with furniture
companies, audio visual providers
and other suppliers to ensure that all
components of the room were correctly
planned, appropriately sourced and
delivered in the correct sequence so as not
to hold up installation.

Services Provided
In ongoing client liaison, following its
implemetation of IP telephony and an
IP contact centre in BATs Southampton
offices, Dimension Data assisted BAT with
its consideration of videoconferencing
options. It then worked closely with Cisco,
a long-standing Dimension Data business
partner, to ensure that Cisco equipment
reached the right sites at the right time.

provides consulting services related to the


future of videoconferencing (in general)
and the relevance of its evolution (in terms
of available products and services) to
BATs operations.

Value Derived
BAT now has future-proofed means to
fully exploit its collaborative work culture
as a differentiator in the market. With the
choice of a full range of videoconferencing
technologies, from fully immersive
telepresence rooms, to executive desktop
and remote worker mobile solutions, BAT
employees can easily communicate face to
face, no matter where theyre located.
With the ACR, BAT business and IT
specialists all over the world can brainstorm
easily and naturally and co-ordinate the
company-wide SAP roll-out in real time.
BAT executive travel costs can also be
easily contained, and BAT business
performance and productivity can be
continuously improved.

Differentiators
Dimension Data is that rare thing:
a global organisation with all the
necessary best practice and standards
that ensure consistency of service
wherever its clients are located, yet
also enormously adaptable, Kempsell
says. As the BAT projects demonstrate,
were equally efficient and
cost-effective, whether were
working on big, multi-country,
multi-technology projects, or small,
once-off implementations.

Dimension Data also undertook the project


management of the installation of BATs
ACR, the first of its kind in Europe.
Dimension Data continues to assist BAT
with ad hoc telepresence implementations,
as the organisation expands its
videoconferencing footprint. It also

CS / 03/13 Copyright Dimension Data 2012

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com/solutions

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