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How 'survivor' Ciena is using video to change its culture

How 'survivor' Ciena is using video to change its culture

A roll-out of video conferencing tools has been transformational says CIO Craig Williams

We're all human

The adoption of video conferencing among Ciena’s 6,000 employees worldwide – included those at its Australian headquarters in Macquarie Park – has been “staggering”, Williams says. More than 85 per cent of employees are using the new tools, clocking up a combined 350,000 minutes each day.

The push towards face to face video conferencing has brought with it a change in culture, Williams says.

“I don't care if your dog is in the background, I don’t care if your kid runs screaming by, you know what, we're are human beings, we all have our own ways of where we have to work, when we have to work. Some of that drama got let go when some of us would literally just take a call in the car parking lot or at home and the spouse would pass by or something like that. It just got to be less of a dramatic event,” he explains.

Although the business benefits are somewhat intangible and difficult to measure – although the effect on travel costs is being looked at – staff feedback has been hugely positive. The CEO and his direct reports use video conferencing daily.

I don't care if your dog is in the background, I don’t care if your kid runs screaming by

The success of the roll-out has also given the IT team the kudos and goodwill for the next stage of their collaboration tool effort, rolling out Office 365 globally.   

“Now that we've gotten some of the attention this will be a little easier,” Williams adds.

The support strategy is also changing to a modern, self-help style.

“You don't have to open a ticket all the time or track it or wonder if someone will get back to you,” Williams says. “The employees just want to get back to work, they don't want to have to deal with IT. So let's figure out ways of getting out of the middle and making that experience better.”

Although there has been a lot of new tools and processes for employees to get to grips with, adoption will be swift, Williams says.

“It's kind of like if you have a new Android or new iPhone – you'll get it you just need to sit down and take a deep breath and try a few times and then over time you go oh my gosh now I can see how I can do this much better than before,” he explains.

The key is working through any initial resistance to new ways of working, is stamina and a thick skin, Williams says.

“You have to have a thick skin to be in IT. You talk about these collaboration tools – everyone knows better: ‘That culture won’t survive here’ or ‘these technologies should be something different’. This is how IT is,” he says.

“If you’re going to survive long term you have to have thick skin and figure out that maybe you’re going to lose a couple of battles but you’re going to win the war overall. That’s how we have to view IT.”

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Tags change managementNetworkingTelcovideosoftwaretelecommunicationchangefibre opticcollaboration toolsCienavideo conferencezoom

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