2. Customer stories

DSM cuts travel costs and increases productivity

Issues and challenges

DSM is a global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company with headquarters in the Netherlands. DSM operates from 200 sites in 49 countries on five continents, achieved annual sales of €8B in 2009 and employs some 22,700 people worldwide.

The company’s focus is on “sustainable innovations” and “providing solutions to global societal issues by manufacturing and selling sustainable products ... that create energy efficiency and help our customers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and/or waste.” As a testimony to its commitment in this area, DSM has regained its leading position in the chemical industry sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

DSM has focused on increasing business agility, reducing time to market and building its presence in emerging markets. Improving global communication and collaboration is a priority as part of a drive to raise productivity and reduce costs. A number of business units had independently installed video endpoints that were unmanaged and not integrated into the DSM global network.

"We are acting in a quickly evolving business, with a continuous need to innovate, to become more agile and to reduce our time to market. IT needs to enable these needs and goals, and the solution Orange offers does exactly that by allowing our business units to focus on their core activities."

Aloys Kregting, Chief Information Officer, DSM

The objective

Reduce travel costs and enhance global communication and collaboration to increase business agility and reduce time to market.

Solutions
  • Fully managed global videoconferencing solution – audio/video/streaming content service – on the Orange Telepresence-enabled network
  • Hosted state-of-the-art bridge to support high-definition environment
  • Range of TANDBERG systems – high-definition group systems and desktop video units
  • ITIL-based service management
  • Program and partner management – TANDBERG, VisionsConnected and Dutchview
Benefits

The deployment of a global, centralized, managed videoconferencing solution has made a significant contribution to DSM meeting its sustainability objectives, particularly by facilitating the world’s largest ever global virtual meeting for 400 top managers: five locations, three continents, one virtual meeting.

  • Substantial reduction in travel costs
  • Integrating existing endpoints into the managed service avoiding equipment write-down
  • Lower incidence of equipment damage and loss
  • Employee time saved through not traveling and better work/life balance
  • Reduced carbon footprint
  • Reduced opportunity for personal accidents and sickness
  • Very positive feedback that the high-definition team meeting solution aids global communication and collaboration
  • IT now seen as a “value creation center”
Results
  • Significant savings in worldwide travel budget and managers' conference
  • Increased productivity through less employee travel time
  • Sustainability commitment supported with reduced carbon footprint
  • Positive feedback from virtual meeting attendees around the world

DSM is a global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company with headquarters in the Netherlands

  • 200 sites in 49 countries on five continents
  • annual sales of €8B in 2009
  • employs some 22,700 people worldwide