TechSmith erases the barrier between on-site and remote employees with Zoom

As the famous saying goes, “seeing is believing” — TechSmith takes that saying to heart, providing solutions to help people share information visually via annotated screenshots and screen recordings, GIFs, videos, explainer images, and more.

However, as TechSmith embraced a hybrid work model and expanded its reach, the organization needed to provide more flexibility in its operations and help ensure that both its customers and employees had the solutions and features they needed to support complex collaboration.

That’s where Zoom came in.

Supporting dynamic collaboration for a hybrid workforce

As a technology organization focused on communication, TechSmith is constantly working to provide its employees and customers with solutions that enable intuitive, efficient, and flexible communication. However, as TechSmith implemented a hybrid work model for greater flexibility, the organization wanted to create an environment where employees could meaningfully contribute to conversations, no matter where they were. 

“We’ve been very focused on how we can get everyone contributing and feeling like they are a part of things from wherever they are,” said Sherri Powers, vice president of marketing at TechSmith. “Being in person for some things is really important, but there are other times where maybe that isn’t as important. One of the challenges we face is ensuring that everyone feels like they’re on the same page and that they all have equal stature within various meetings and discussions. We’re really trying to make the most out of our conversations.” 

This created another challenge for TechSmith — providing communication solutions that enabled complex communication and collaboration, but also provided a dynamic, equitable experience for its hybrid workforce. 

“In our old building, pre-2020, the conference room experience was unpredictable and really rough as a presenter,” said Daniel Foster, director of strategy at TechSmith. “When you tried to connect your laptop, you had to figure out which dongle to use, which was a nightmare. And if you were working remotely that day, God help you! You would hear somebody typing or reaching into their chip bag — the audio was terrible, and you just weren’t a full participant in the experience. So we needed to figure out a way to enable our employees to be more productive without the technology getting in the way.”

Transforming communication with intuitive solutions

The teams at TechSmith know just how important it is to have technology that is easy to use and adapts to the changing world, so they approached their search for a communications solution with those needs in mind. And with Zoom, they found exactly what they were looking for. 

“When we make a product at TechSmith, we try to make it as simple as possible,” said Jeremy Raleigh, software project manager at TechSmith. “Zoom feels the same way — all you have to do is click the join meeting button. It’s that easy to get started, there’s not a lot of complexity in it, and that was a key factor.”

The teams at TechSmith were also in the process of opening a new office. After implementing Zoom Meetings, TechSmith brought on Zoom Rooms as part of its effort to support its hybrid workforce with a frictionless conference room experience. The organization opted to use Zoom’s Professional Services team to streamline its deployment of Zoom Rooms and reduce downtime. 

“For our new building, we decided to build it out with Zoom Room technology,” Jeremy said. “Zoom’s Professional Services team worked with us to figure out our needs, created a detailed plan for us to review, and came in for the installation.”

Simplifying the hybrid work environment with Zoom

The teams at TechSmith were able to enhance and reinvigorate their hybrid collaboration with the use of Zoom Whiteboard by creating an ever-present space that supports spontaneous and flexible collaboration. 

“When I’m working with our leadership team, we use Zoom Whiteboard so that we can work asynchronously — we can pop it up in the room during a meeting, or on our screens at home when one of us is remote,” Jeremy said. “It doesn’t matter. We can still be looking at the same thing, collaborating, and keeping that work going, which has been huge. We also use SnagIt, one of our screen recording solutions, to capture part of the whiteboard, record what we’re thinking, and share a link to that recording with other team members who can comment or share it with others.”

With the ability to create an environment where everyone could participate equally in conversations regardless of their location, TechSmith employees found they could greatly increase the flexibility of their operations.

“The first thing we do when we’re scheduling an in-person meeting is to add a Zoom meeting link,” said David Zink, director, shared services. “Because whether or not people are intending to be in the office, things happen, and someone might end up attending remotely. So from the start of the meeting, we are ready to support anyone that joins.”

TechSmith was able to easily take complex in-person meetings and activities virtual with Zoom Rooms, creating a collaboration-ready space for all attendees.  

“We’ve taken steps to recreate what used to be in-person events,” David said. “For example, our project increment planning process used to involve having different teams in different rooms in the office, and when we needed to speak to another team, we just walked over to their room. With Zoom Rooms, I can still support that on-site experience, but we can also create breakout rooms with different teams where our remote participants can hop in and out of conversations. So if a product manager needs a certain person, they can ping them and invite them to join their breakout room, and after the conversation is done, that person can rejoin the main conversation at will.”

“We’ve been really excited about workspace reservation as well,” Jeremy added. “It’s so easy to just hop on your phone, find the right space, and book it. It also makes it really easy to find where your team members are working for the day or see who’s in the office and book spaces near them if you need to work together.” 

As TechSmith looks to the future, Zoom will continue to serve as a critical solution for enabling collaboration, both in person and remotely. 

“At TechSmith, we work hard to make technology easy, and Zoom does the same thing,” Jeremy said. “When we need to do things in real time, Zoom is there with Meetings and Rooms, and when we need to do things asynchronously, we have Zoom Whiteboard. Whenever we have an issue, Zoom is ready to help. The Zoom team is always ready to help us move forward.”