November 2008

Here is the next in our series of Skype for Business case studies. This time it is the world famous surf and fashion brand Rip Curl. Watch the video and read below to see how Rip Curl have adopted Skype as their key business communications tool. Skype video calling is used to help with the creative design process and all staff members have a Skype account which they use as their main form of communication across the company.

Company background

Rip Curl is a highly popular international surfing equipment and fashion manufacturer, with over 3,000 employees across the world. The company was founded in 1969 by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer in Torquay, Australia, where the company still has its head office. Doug and Brian were keen surfers who wanted to support their lifestyle, and decided the best way to do so was producing surfboards. Nearly 40 years on, the company is an international success story.

International organisation bringing people closer

As Rip Curl grew across the world, it became increasingly more difficult to get hold of people from different continents and time zones. Brian Singer discovered Skype, and introduced a global company initiative for all employees to communicate using Skype for all text, voice and video communications. Standard Skype IDs were created as a matter of course for all staff, and now Skype is the sole internal communication vehicle, be it from across a room, across a beach or across the world.

Sharing and showing

Rip Curl's designers and manufacturers are often located in different parts of the world (Australia, Asia, California, France...) meaning different time zones and different languages. Skype's free video calling facility is regularly used to show designs, corrections, suggestions, patterns and ideas. Dummies and drawings are placed in front of web cams to show off new designs and to request changes, leaving no room for misinterpretation, while saving on international travel or lengthy written and verbal explanations.

Also, fast file sharing means everyone on a conference call can be sure to have the right document in front of them at the same time - and again, it's all free.

Mobility

Skype is used "on the go" by Rip Curl. Staff members attending surfing events and competitions can keep in touch with the office for free from their laptop, immediately updating their colleagues by sharing files, images and video.

Presence

As previously mentioned, Rip Curl straddles different time zones. Skype's presence means everyone can immediately see when their colleagues are logged on to their computer, meaning no wasted calls or lengthy voicemails to people who are in bed.

Creativity

Rip Curl is all about "The Search" - for the next big wave, the next cool surfing hot-spot and the newest and best way of doing things. Skype means Rip Curl can take advantage of their teams' creativity and immediacy without having to worry about complicated processes and systems.

This is the first of a series of short case study videos I will be featuring on this blog over the coming weeks. This is one of my personal favourites. It tells the story of Park Manager Luca Natale who runs the Cinque Terra National Park in eastern Liguria, Italy. Luca is somewhat of a local celebrity by the looks of it. He is a forward thinking environmentalist who has adopted Skype to help him communicate with his contacts around the world. Here he shares some profound comments on the benefits of technology to society and how it has helped his business. Watch the video, or read below to find out more.

Company background

Cinque Terre National Park is five miles of rocky coast in eastern Liguria, Italy. Recognised as a national park in 1999, Cinque Terre is visited by 2.5 million people every year and the park's tourism board employs over 250 staff.

Internal communications

The employees at Cinque Terre National Park rely heavily on Skype for their internal communications, checking their Skype messages every morning before they open their e-mails. It is standard practice for the team to start the day with a virtual meeting on Skype, and these meetings continue throughout the working day. Those working from home or away from the office can participate by simply logging on to Skype.

Bringing people closer

With 30-40 important contacts based around the world, Skype has helped to enhance Cinque Terre's global communications. Park Manager Luca Natale says: "Nowadays, geographical isolation is far less important than technological isolation. If we had to choose between building a motorway and getting broadband, we should opt for the latter."

File transfer

The staff at the national park use Skype to send files to their contacts, finding it easier and quicker than sending by e-mail. Luca Natale says: "It's definitely better to send files over Skype as you are sure to receive the information, and the person sending it can be sure than you've got it."

Mobility

Skype allows Cinque Terre employees to work from home and away from the office, offering them the ability to be part of the daily discussions and meetings even when they're not there. As Skype can be downloaded onto any computer and accessed from wherever they are, employees can be in constant contact with the Cinque Terre offices throughout the day. "That you can be at home and have a window open onto the world is of priceless value", says Luca.

Cost and time saving

By making use of Skype's free audio and video calling, Cinque Terre has saved money on its communications costs. It has also allowed staff be more productive as they spend less time sending and reading e-mails, opting to talk over Skype or use instant messaging to converse. Luca says: "Skype has become an essential tool for our work. It's an immediate way to optimise our costs and time."

One of our partners making great products for small business is called Onstate. Today they announced a new virtual PBX solution for Skype. What this basically means is you can use Skype just like a normal switchboard within your company. Because it is a software based solution, it can reduce your set-up costs and remove the need for expensive PBX equipment.

The Virtual PBX for Skype includes the following features:

• No Hardware - 100% web-based, you do not need to install anything
• Device Independent - utilize any mix of Skype, mobile or traditional phone lines
• Local and Toll-Free - numbers available from 40+ countries
• Direct Numbers and Extension Dialing - combine DID/DDI dialing with auto-attendant
• Intelligent Call Routing - Presence-based routing sends calls to where you are
• VeMail - voicemail messages are sent to your integrated email inbox
• Personal Call Queue - callers can wait in your personal queue if you are busy - no more callbacks!
• CRM Integration - works with Salesforce.com, Google, and other applications
• Reporting - complete reporting on all routed calls.
• Call Recording - calls can be recorded and stored on our centralized servers.
• Video and Chat Support - works with Skype video and chat capabilities.
• Call Center -easily add call center features.

The Virtual PBX for Skype is available immediately. Pricing and details can be found at www.on-state.com

Salesforce.com is an easy-to-use Web-based CRM solution for sales, service, marketing, and call centre operations. It is used by thousands of small and medium businesses, as well as larger enterprises. Now you can easily use Skype to click-to-call all your contacts from directly within salesforce.com. This can save lots of time and make your life a whole lot easier. See the image below for an example of how this works.

To see a more detailed demonstration of Skype and salesforce.com, watch this short video tutorial.

If you are an existing salesforce.com user and already using Skype, you should automatically be able to use this feature. It works in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

For those who are not using Salesforce.com and would like to find out more, visit the salesforce.com app exchange

The announcement was made today at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.