Conagra Manufacturers dares to ship inclusive experiences with Webex

Conagra Manufacturers is one among North America’s main branded meals corporations and combines a 100-year historical past of constructing high quality meals with agility and a relentless give attention to collaboration and innovation. The corporate’s portfolio is repeatedly evolving to fulfill customers’ ever-changing meals preferences with manufacturers like Birds Eye®, Duncan Hines®, Wholesome Selection®, Marie Callender’s®, Reddi-wip®, Slim Jim®, Angie’s® BOOMCHICKAPOP®, and plenty of extra.

Headquartered in Chicago with a number of company places of work, together with roughly 1,200 staff in Omaha, and greater than 40 manufacturing amenities throughout North America, efficient communication is crucial to holding groups aligned and operations working easily. Conagra acknowledged that updating its know-how and collaborative environments would unlock new alternatives for creativity, problem-solving, and effectivity. By totally equipping a redesigned house for IT workers in its Omaha, Nebraska, location with Cisco gadgets, Conagra modernized its in-person workspaces, enabling seamless collaboration and an improved crew expertise.

On the lookout for versatile in-person work options

Up to now, Conagra’s convention rooms and places of work various in know-how, counting on projectors, speakerphones, ISDN, and varied different video models. Whereas the techniques supported the crew’s work, their complexity may result in delays, highlighting the worth of options which can be easy and dependable. Conagra has been utilizing Cisco for over a decade to allow collaboration by connecting individuals who couldn’t be in the identical location.

As they continued refining their course of, Conagra switched from laptops and BYOD webcams that required setups to standardizing on Cisco Room Methods throughout each room.

When the worldwide pandemic struck, the corporate already had hybrid techniques in place, however a number of assembly platforms presenting new challenges. When staff returned to the workplace in 2021, conferences typically happened on platforms from completely different suppliers, whereas Cisco powered Conagra’s convention rooms. As soon as Cisco established partnerships with these platforms, the expertise turned rather more seamless.

Whereas Conagra’s inside and consumer communications had been more and more enhancing utilizing Cisco gadgets, there have been nonetheless areas that may very well be improved. In 2024, Conagra management hosted a summit for all the IT group with the theme Dream Large, Ship Large. Strategizing on how finest to attain these objectives, IT Management acknowledged {that a} devoted surroundings for folks to do their finest work was required. 

“To empower our Conagra IT crew to dream massive and ship massive, we got down to create the house that will make it doable,” stated Jeff Heldt, Options Architect — Collaboration at Conagra Manufacturers.

A renovation undertaking got here out of this dialog. Conagra determined to revamp an workplace in Omaha that will home all IT operations, giving groups precisely what they should succeed now and lengthy into the long run.

“We’d like methods to work together and talk and do one of the best work with know-how that’s innovative, trendy, and permits that to occur seamlessly,” stated Tracy Schaefer, Senior Vice President and Chief Data Officer at Conagra Manufacturers. “One of many ways in which materialized for us is in our working surroundings.”

Omaha Workplace Reimagined

The renovated Omaha workplace is the primary house designed particularly to carry all of Conagra’s IT workers collectively.

The updates embody a welcoming predominant entryway with a Cisco Areas-powered Wayfinding display to assist guests simply navigate the constructing. The workplace now options greater than 20 reservable convention rooms and 10 extra video-enabled collaboration areas, every outfitted with the newest options to help clean conferences and shows. Cisco Board Professionals on motorized stands develop capabilities for workshops, whereas bigger areas use a number of Room Imaginative and prescient PTZ cameras, with cross-view enabled, and Ceiling Microphone Professionals to create an immersive, cinematic assembly expertise. Over the previous 4 years, Conagra has additionally standardized dual-screen setups wherever doable.

“With the ever present nature of hybrid work, it’s a lot extra vital now to see your distant colleague’s face alongside content material,” stated Heldt. 

 The Omaha workplace accommodates staff and purchasers visiting from Conagra’s headquarters in Chicago and different areas. Areas are arrange within the workplace to offer these folks with locations to settle in and collaborate.

How Cisco gadgets plus the Webex platform improves expertise

With the current renovation, the improved expertise in Omaha is already evident. IT crew members with entry to Webex Management Hub can see the utilization charges of Conagra’s rooms and make sure the areas with the very best utilization get essentially the most useful resource allocation, boosting funds and lowering guesswork.

“Having the room ecosystem mixture as much as Management Hub is a significant profit to me as a service proprietor,” stated Heldt. “I now have actual knowledge and never simply anecdotal consumer notion of utilization that helps me to be a great steward of Conagra’s investments in these applied sciences.”

Conagra has totally outfitted convention room workspaces with Cisco gadgets throughout its geographically-dispersed company places of work. The crew can now use real-time knowledge to make knowledgeable selections about which techniques are getting used most and which aren’t transferring the group towards its objectives.

“Now with our hybrid work setup, we’ve tried to provide essentially the most versatile expertise for crew members, no matter their work location,” stated Heldt. “That’s been one of many design rules for our areas. We now have an open idea neighborhood of cubes which can be clustered round or adjoining to rooms and collaboration areas to provide folks one of the best flexibility.” 

Crew members have been proud of the constructing changes and new applied sciences. Nonetheless, the success charge is highlighted by what they’re not saying.

“New areas typically include a studying curve, however right here the suggestions has been overwhelmingly constructive,” stated Heldt.

Dream massive, ship massive

With a newly optimized work surroundings, Conagra’s IT groups are actually higher outfitted to collaborate throughout the group – and with distributors, companions, and prospects – to drive larger creativity and productiveness.

“The concept is to advertise one of the best hybrid collaborative tradition that meets the calls for of the brand new world, not simply needing to have the ability to work wherever, however working in a manner that works for all events,” stated Heldt.

With Cisco as its know-how associate, Conagra will get precisely that. Conferences can begin on time, folks know methods to use the gadgets, and collaboration can occur when and the way it finest serves crew members.

Wish to see comparable success with your corporation communication? Contact our crew to be taught extra about Cisco gadgets.