Brewer Heineken is using videoconferencing from Polycom to improve communications between its London and Edinburgh offices and reduce travel.

The Polycom RealPresence video collaboration product is being used to increase communication between the London office and the head office in Edinburgh and between manufacturing sites. 

Heineken said videoconferencing will also reduce the amount of travel for its field sales people across the UK. 

The London and Edinburgh offices now operate as a virtual campus, reducing travel costs by pound 250,000, according to Heineken.

Heineken is running over 11 video-enabled rooms in the UK to complement the existing 160 units installed in over 50 countries across the world.

“We have a distributed workforce across a number of different types of sites, head offices, call centres and manufacturing facilities,” said Jem Anderton, IT innovation and solution development manager for Heineken.

"I think it will be powerful when all employees can simply look from their PC to see who’s available, invite them into a voice call or even bring them straight into a video call or room system-all at the click of a button.”

“Heineken will be investing heavily in mobile and tablet technology in the UK. Our vision is that our sales force will use personal video to stay in touch with each other and customers, cutting down the time required for one-to-ones and also keeping them in real-time contact with colleagues in the office.”

Heineken said the videoconferencing system has saved the company 160 tons of CO2 in a year.