Columbia Distributing
Enhances Video Collaboration
with Synergy SKY CONNECT

Columbia Distributing, the largest Total Beverage distributor in the Pacific Northwest, operates from 15 distribution facilities in Oregon and Washington. Serving top brands like Miller, Coors, and Red Bull, Columbia ensures efficient operations and strong customer relationships. With 70 Cisco Room series video conference rooms, Columbia made a significant shift by migrating their collaboration platform from Webex to Microsoft Teams, bringing new challenges to their video conferencing environment.

The Challenge

Despite the advanced Cisco video conferencing systems, Columbia faced several hurdles:

• Inconsistent User Experience: Team members experienced a lack of uniformity in their video meetings, leading to frustration across different departments.

• Complicated Meeting Start Process: Without a simple one-click solution, initiating meetings became cumbersome, especially for employees working remotely or external partners.

• Need for a Universal Solution: Whether employees were at home, on the road, or in the office, they needed a solution that was intuitive, consistent, and reliable across all platforms—Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet.

The Solution

CDW, a trusted partner of Synergy SKY, proposed Synergy SKY CONNECT as the ideal solution to Columbia’s video conferencing challenges.

This technology offered several key benefits:

• Unified Scheduling: Synergy SKY enabled all Cisco video conference rooms to schedule and join Teams, Zoom, and Google meetings in a consistent manner.

• One-Click Meeting Start: With one simple click, meetings could be launched across any of the 70 video-enabled rooms.

• Microsoft Outlook Integration: From a user perspective, managing video meetings was simplified through Microsoft Outlook, making it as easy as scheduling any other meeting.

The Result

By implementing Synergy SKY CONNECT, Columbia experienced transformative results:

• Reduced IT Support Requests: With an easier-to-use system, the IT team experienced fewer troubleshooting requests from employees.

• Increased Room Utilization: Video conferencing became a more efficient tool for collaboration, leading to higher usage rates in conference rooms.

• Executive Engagement: Senior management has become increasingly comfortable and confident in using the video conference systems regularly, contributing to more effective communication and collaboration across the company

• Seamless Connectivity: Employees could now connect to any meeting platform—whether the invitation came via Teams, Zoom, or Google—making collaboration across teams and external parties frictionless.

Customer Testimonial

Joel Maag, Director of IT Infrastructure at Columbia Distributing, praised Synergy SKY CONNECT, saying:

"Synergy SKY has been a game changer. The ease of use and fewer problems have transformed how we handle video conferencing."