Scripps Networks is a leader in lifestyle media, developing content available on television, the Internet and satellite radio, in books and magazines, and on today’s emerging media platforms. The company’s TV networks are complemented by companion Web sites created and supported by its SN Digital division. The Web sites attract a monthly average of 18.5 million unique visitors and are category leaders in the food, home and living space online. The focus of SN Digital’s team, led by John Funge, vice president of product management, is on user-generated content and community-related applications as well as software development. SN Digital is, in essence, a small-to-midsized software development organization with a number of clients with large-scale, high-visibility Web sites.
The Problem:
Scripps Networks is headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. The SN Digital division has multiple office locations across the country and around the world, including employees or partners in Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom and India. These parties needed to coordinate daily on the various projects that Funge’s team was developing. The company needed a conferencing solution that would allow it to be responsive and nimble with consultants who might be working together on the same project from opposite sides of the world. The company therefore required a high-quality and highly scalable voice-conferencing solution that could easily be integrated with SN Digital’s regular use of Skype for conferencing, voice communications and instant messaging.
The Solution:
SN Digital turned to Vapps Inc. to provide the company with voice conferencing that offers high-definition audio quality using Skype as the connection method.
For some time, internal conferencing using Skype alone met the company’s needs. But as the division grew along with the complexity of the company’s projects, Skype’s conferencing capabilities alone could not keep the company’s growing demand for instant conferencing in check. SN Digital now uses Vapps Hi-Definition Conferencing, which allows calls from mobile, PSTN and Skype.
“The solution is definitely a big part of our ability to operate with the level of agility we need in order to support what is oftentimes a dynamic and creative environment,” said Funge. “We’re relatively straightforward with our use of the service but we are very intense in our use. It is truly a part of the fabric of our day.”
