A Customer Success Story
Oldest Spanish Language Daily Newspaper Chooses
LifeSize for HD Video Communications
Chile’s paper-of-record, El Mercurio, saves money,
reduces travel and increases communication between
offices with HD video from LifeSize
Organization
Empresa El Mercurio SAP, Santiago, Chile, Latin America
El Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and
Santiago, Chile. Its Santiago edition is considered the country’s paper-of-record and
the Valparaíso edition, founded in 1827, is the oldest daily in the Spanish language
currently in circulation.
El Mercurio is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P. (Sociedad Anónima Periodística,
“Journalistic joint stock company”), which operates a network of 19 regional dailies
and 32 radio stations across the country.
The Valparaíso edition of El Mercurio was founded by Pedro Félix Vicuña and was
later acquired by Agustín Edwards Ross in 1880. The Santiago edition was founded
by Agustín Edwards Mac Clure, son of Edwards Ross in 1900. In 1942 ,Edwards
Mac Clure died and his son Agustín Edwards Budge took over as president. When
Edwards Budge died in 1956, his son, Agustín Edwards Eastman, took control of the
company.
CHALLENGE
Travel between offices was costing El
Mercurio valuable time and money.
New to video communications, they
needed a solution that would provide
superior quality, user simplicity and
unprecedented price-performance.
El Mercurio is Latin America’s oldest running
Spanish language daily newspaper.
SOLUTION
R E S U LT S
More than 12 LifeSize® Express™
and LifeSize® Team™ HD video
communications systems were
implemented in the main office in
Santiago and regional offices around
the country.
El Mercurio has seen a significant
reduction in travel costs and time
out of the office, which has led to
better communication among offices,
an increase in productivity and
improved employee morale.
Challenge
As a company, El Mercurio has newspapers in Santiago and regional offices in Iquique,
Antofagasta, Temuco, Concepcion, Puerto Monto and Valparaíso and each regional newspaper
has local offices with a central administration. With a heavily dispersed team in multiple
locations, distance between offices was forcing company managers to travel a significant
amount of time each week.
El Mercurio needed a video communications tool that provided high quality audio and video
that was easy to operate and implement at an unprecedented price-performance ratio.
Dedicated local support was also an important deciding factor.
El Mercurio’s headquarters in Vitacura.
Solution
After evaluating other video communications products on the market, El Mercurio selected LifeSize as the best solution to meet
their needs. More than 12 LifeSize® Express™ and LifeSize® Team™ HD video communications systems were implemented in the
main office in Santiago and regional offices around the country.
“We selected Lifesize for its high quality video, the total cost of ownership and great local support in Chile,” said Ramon Ribas,
Communications Manager for El Mercurio. “Before selection, we had the opportunity to set up a test site. The system was easy
to set up and the quality is fantastic. The price-performance was also better than the other products on the market that we
evaluated.”
Results
El Mercurio is seeing great benefit from implementing LifeSize.
“Before the LifeSize video implementation, the managers of our office in Santiago traveled a lot, expending time and money,”
Ribas continued. “Principally in this time, with the economic crisis, it is very important to use human resources in efficient ways,
not using valuable time to fly from one city to another. Now with the video conference system, the people must attack the
problems from his office.”
As for their competitive advantage now that the company is using video, Ribas says that El Mercurio is quite pleased with the
LifeSize implementation. “The video quality is exceptional, the operation is easy, and the end users can now conduct meetings
over video anytime, so response time is quicker. Also, they now have more work/life balance. Improved employee morale helps
people just work smarter.”
In terms of ROI, the company doesn’t have hard numbers, but has seen a significant reduction in travel across the organization
as well as increased efficiency in operations and improved productivity among all departments. As for the future, Ribas hopes to
expand the solution to all regional newspapers in Chile and also to journalist’s offices, both at main locations and at home.
Experience Communication in High Definition
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. March 2009. Information contained in this document is preliminary and subject to change without notice.
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