Far-flung teams can slow product development at a time when the company's increasing focus on consumer products makes time to market paramount. CTC installed a Cisco 2600 router and T1 line at each location. The routers, which provide 10 times the performance of traditional small and medium-sized office platforms, enable the Frame Relay network to be used for the company's intranet applications and a Polycom videoconferencing system, both of which are in constant use. CTC also installed a Cisco 1700 router and T1 at iRobot headquarters for Internet access. The network is improving coordination, teamwork, and organizational responsiveness and competitiveness.
Project teams accomplish more because they can exchange information faster.
From any location, engineers also can easily access product parts inventory and bill of materials information. Videoconferencing allows project teams to call impromptu meetings as needed, enabling employees to resolve issues on the spot and make decisions without delay. Once a week, the entire company gathers in a virtual conference room to review all projects. Using videoconferencing, product teams go beyond simply discussing their progress to showing what they're working on and demonstrating product prototypes. They can present their ideas and design problems fully so that remote colleagues can offer suggestions and solutions.