IAC Group Reduces Audio Spend by 50% Using Zoom

With more than 160 years of experience in designing automotive interiors solutions, IAC Group has become synonymous with performance and innovation. Formed out of the former global interiors divisions of Collins & Aikman and Lear, Luxembourg-based IAC Group was founded in 2006 with four core principles in mind: quality, value, technology, and stability.

IAC’s 19,000 employees produce instrument panels, console systems, overhead systems, and more from innovation centers in 17 countries across the planet while coordinating those efforts from regional headquarters in the U.S., Germany, and China. IAC is dedicated to seamlessly integrating technology into automobile interiors to create unique designs and an unrivaled experience for passengers and drivers.

Audio conferencing challenges

Real-time communications are critical for a globally dispersed and agile company like IAC, but its legacy solution was a revolving door of issues. The provider offered both audio and video conferencing, but the unreliability and complexity of both solutions thoroughly frustrated users.

“At the time, everyone was looking for an easy video conferencing solution, but no one was delivering it, whether it was Cisco or other providers,” said Kevin Parliament, IAC’s IT Director. “So we really took our foot off the gas with that because it wasn’t easy to use, it frustrated our users, and we couldn’t deliver on the promise of cost and time savings.”

But even the audio conferencing aspect was not without challenges, according to Parliament. The legacy interface was difficult to navigate, which led to wasted time and frustration among users and required constant support from IT.

“The user experience was horrible,” Parliament said. “It would work once we got into the application, but with loading plugins and frequent updates, I had to log in 30 minutes before a meeting started to make sure that everything worked.”

IAC’s employees also frequently experienced issues with reliability and stability. To achieve the reliability employees needed to make calls, the IT team had to provide constant support. “Every time we wanted to have a high-level meeting, we needed IT support there,” Parliament said. “We needed them to start the call, we needed them to troubleshoot the call, and if we didn’t have somebody there, inevitably something would go wrong.”

‘Zoom just works’

IAC sought a reliable, easy-to-use audio conferencing solution and decided to try Zoom based on recommendations from executives. IAC piloted Zoom with a handful of IT members around the world and received unanimously positive feedback, cementing the decision to implement the solution for audio conferencing.

Parliament and the IT teams at IAC set up training through Zoom to show their employees how to effectively use the solution for audio, and they quickly had everyone in the organization buying into the adoption.

“We reached out to Zoom’s services teams to help with scheduling our training sessions,” Parliament said. “We did a couple training sessions a day, and within a week or two we had everyone trained on Zoom.”

With Zoom, IAC was able to consolidate its multiple tools for conferencing into one solution, which resulted in a better user experience and huge cost savings.

“Zoom just works. I don’t have to support it, apart from trainings and small things like that,” Parliament said. “From a technology standpoint, Zoom has been a huge stress reliever. We were also able to consolidate our Webex and audio conferencing, and from a monetary standpoint, we were able to cut the amount we were spending by more than half.”

Significant impact on operations, efficiency

By switching to Zoom, IAC consolidated its conferencing solution onto a single platform, which reduced the burden on its IT teams and significantly reduced costs. Zoom was also able to eliminate user frustrations through its intuitive solution.

“Being able to show people this technology and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t like it used to be,’ ” Parliament said. “All you have to do is press a button and you can speak to anyone in the world. It’s awesome.”

Parliament and his colleagues also have noticed the impact that Zoom has had on operations as well as IT’s reputation within the organization.

“Very rarely do I get thank-you notes for being in IT,” Parliament said. “But I have more people commenting, stopping me in the hall, sending me messages telling me how much they like Zoom more than any other product that I’ve rolled out. And that, to me, is a huge statement on the technology. Frankly, it just works.”

Parliament also plans to explore additional Zoom products to improve communication and drive efficiency.

“I was at Zoomtopia [2019], and that was the first time I realized just how much Zoom can do,” Parliament said. “I’m really excited about looking into Zoom video conferencing, Zoom Webinars, and [Zoom Rooms] Digital Signage, and we’re already evaluating Zoom Phone.”