Digital workplace solutions provider RICOH Europe PLC, a conglomerate of several operating companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), had been struggling to bring consistency amongst its subsidiaries. According to RICOH Europe, all were acting independently and using different unstandardized tools and software for AV system design until they found XTEN-AV.
RICOH Europe adopted the Union City, Calif-based cloud software platform that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop an AV system design based on AVIXA standards and design guidelines.
“We realized that XTEN-AV had a platform that we could use that would help us harmonize and create synergies between our operating companies. We were able to quickly establish a platform, working closely with XTEN-AV, to come up with a mechanism that allowed us a consistent platform that we could share across our group of companies,” says Jon Alessi, RICOH’s technical director, EMEA for its communications services line of business.
The team was using many other applications and platforms, such as AutoCAD, Corel Draw, StarDraw, Oracle, Excel spreadsheets, etc. “What we found from our research both internally and externally, was that there was no central, single tool that could do everything we needed. That’s where XTEN-AV was very unique,” adds Alessi.
RICOH Europe’s Software Headache
With multiple tools being used by different subsidiaries of RICOH Europe, the company had an issue with the collation of data from multiple tools being used for the same step of an AV project. In addition, there were multiple licensing costs across several unconnected platforms. RICOH needed a conclusive tool that could support all stages of an AV product from design to documentation to CRM.
With RICOH Europe having subsidiaries being spread across the continent, finding a single or multiple tools that offer licenses in each and every country was difficult. Thus, creating the need to buy different software in every country. Multiple licenses and tools, being run across different companies, incur increasing bills as well. Tutorials for each tool, hiring technical resources to support the tools was an added cost to the company.
Creating Streamlined, Structured Workflows
XTEN-AV created a consistent platform across RICOH Europe and its subsidiaries that now houses design, documentation, CRM, tracking and data preservation. Alessi’s team now has structured workflows when it comes to design, documentation, CRM, collaboration, tracking and reporting, saving the team time and efficiency.
XTEN-AV not only helped Alessi’s team create structured workflows, but also integrated seamlessly into their existing workflows. The numerous features and tools offered by XTEN-AV, like X-DRAW, reporting, My Library, etc., made XTEN-AV the center of all their processes.
With the help of the XTEN-AV platform, Alessi’s team has managed to propagate AV standards at RICOH to streamline workflows, create structure, follow industry standards, reduce costs and save time; resulting in increased efficiency, productivity, revenues, profits and overall user satisfaction.
