My role has always involved connecting with external partners and suppliers. Not knowing what platforms they used for video conferencing created a challenge, and often resulted in using an audio-only bridge. This meant I couldn't see the people I was meeting with, and there was no opportunity to share content, such as presentations and ideas.

When I joined Acano, it was refreshing to use tools that broke down these barriers and enabled every participant to join on video.

For businesses like BW Offshore, it is important that people can easily work with teams and clients across geographies. BW Offshore is a leading global provider of floating-production services for the oil and gas industry. Its global operations and projects cross continents and time zones. As a consequence, video collaboration tools are key.

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BW Offshore had deployed Cisco video conferencing in its main conference rooms and Microsoft Lync on employee desktops. To simplify communication between employees, BW Offshore deployed an Acano solution to seamlessly connect Lync and Cisco whilst retaining a great video experience.

Adopting Acano not only provided advanced interoperability, but it also gave employees access to team spaces. Each department and vessel has its own dedicated virtual meeting rooms. In these rooms, employees can hold audio and video meetings, chat with each other, and share their work. Each space has a unique video address, audio dial-in and web link, along with a persistent chat wall. This has been an effective way for BW Offshore's global teams to collaborate.

Equally, the solution simplified communicating with clients outside of the company. External participants can join a meeting in a web browser via one link, regardless of device. Anyone inside or outside of BW Offshore can join meetings using:

• Any standards-based video system, client, or application
• Web browsers on desktops or smart phones
• Microsoft Lync or Skype clients and apps
• Regular telephony systems

BW Offshore decided to deploy Acano on-premises, which enabled it to remain fully integrated with its own network and retain control for future upgrades. Every organisation is different and has unique IT requirements. For those that want more control over the video infrastructure, Acano provides this either on an Acano server or a VM hosted on a standard server.

Learn more about how Cisco Acano solutions can help you use video in more meetings.