Case Study: Invacare
Invacare, a home medical equipment provider, delivers better training experiences and enhances remote collaboration
About our customer
Invacare Canada is a home medical equipment provider that supplies its Canada-wide partner network with a full line of rehab, homecare, and respiratory products. Invacare strives to make life happen for their end users while championing their motto “Yes, you can,” in everything they do.
“When we saw the IFPDs, we knew they would be the right fit for us. We wanted to improve our service offerings to our partner network across the country, and this was the answer.”
Rick Alves
Technical Education and Services Manager
Invacare
Challenge
Significant travel time and costs to provide on-site partner education across Canada
Travel time for education sessions reduces focus on other crucial tasks and core responsibilities
The technical education team needed an effective way to convey complex information remotely
With a partner network across Canada, Invacare is responsible for providing support and education in all provinces and territories. While their technical education team was successfully teaching their partners how to service, repair, and maintain their products, the associated costs and travel time were becoming excessive.
“We have customers all across Canada, from downtown Toronto to Alberta to the Northwest Territories,” said Rick Alves, Technical Education and Services Manager at Invacare. “Explaining complex components or demonstrating how products work is difficult if you’re not directly onsite with the partner, so we had to set up regular in-person demonstrations.”
While Invacare did attempt to minimize travel expenses by hosting education sessions at central locations for the surrounding partners, some would inevitably be unable to attend or would need an additional one-on-one session. This meant that the flights, hotel rooms, conference rooms, rental cars and other expenses could quickly get out of hand.
For Alves personally, the travel time would often conflict with or prevent him from focusing on his second responsibility: managing the Invacare IT department.
Solution
“With the IFPD and built-in camera, we can now effortlessly host a remote training session and do a high-level introduction of a product or troubleshoot with a partner."
Rick Alves
Technical Education and Services Manager
Invacare
The Ricoh team introduced the IFPD meeting room and remote communication capabilities
Utilized Ricoh’s mid-size meeting bundle consisting of an IFPD, audiovisual equipment, controllers, and Unified Communication licenses
With the partner education issue at the back of their minds, the Invacare team visited Ricoh’s Customer Experience Centre (CEC) in North Toronto — not initially to address challenges faced, but instead to view the upgraded printer models they had recently purchased from Ricoh as part of a separate agreement.
During their tour of the CEC, Invacare was introduced to the New World of Work and Executive Board Room demo rooms. They were immediately impressed with the Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs) and saw the potential for improving their partner education with this cutting-edge technology.
“When we saw the IFPDs, we knew they would be the right fit for us,” explained Alves. “We wanted to improve our service offerings to our partner network across the country, and this was the answer.”
After some additional visits to the CEC, Invacare signed on for Ricoh’s mid-size meeting bundle: an IFPD, Logitech® Meet Up Camera, LG™ Microphone, Windows® 10 Controller, and 25 Ricoh Unified Communication System (UCS) licenses.
Acting essentially as a large touchscreen, the IFPD’s ability to provide remote collaboration, display complex graphics and important documents, and show precise details via remote conferencing addressed Invacare’s desire to improve the experience for their partners while ultimately cutting travel costs.
“We were impressed with the CEC,” said Alves. “It has a little bit of everything. We saw different incarnations of the IFPDs, some as fixed units on the wall and others with portability that ended up being the right solution for us. It was helpful seeing all the products set up and in use.
Results
Reduced travel time and expenses
Improved partner education experience
Ability to conduct engaging remote training sessions for their partner network
Enhanced and simplified employee meeting experience due to IFPDs portability and ease of use
Future use at tradeshows to drive audience engagement
Now, the meeting experience at Invacare’s headquarters and its partner locations across Canada is more seamlessly connected. Employees and partners can communicate more efficiently, and travel costs are significantly reduced.
“With the IFPD and built-in camera, we can now effortlessly host a remote training session and do a high-level introduction of a product or troubleshoot with a partner,” explained Alves. “It is also helpful that we can blow up the screen if the partner has a camera, so we can see what they’re doing and help with a specific issue. This has really cut down on our travel time.”
The company is also experimenting with using the IFPD to record and upload videos for their partners who lack high-speed internet access. At Invacare’s headquarters, the IFPD has also made a significant impact on the day-to-day experience of employees and managers.
“It’s made some of our board meetings more interactive, while the touch and drag-and-drop capabilities mean they’re simpler as well,” said Alves. “Plus, I now have more time to devote to managing the IT department.”
“One of the features we use most is the mobile stand. It allows us to take a 75-inch screen and move it from one location to another. We’ve already used it in the lounge, showroom and boardroom. The portability is so convenient,” said Alves.
Invacare has hopes of using the IFPD on the road in the near future, as well. “We see the potential for using this at tradeshows soon,” says Alves. “We’d love to engage attendees by using the IFPD to showcase our website or high-definition videos of our products.”