“At AOL, we’re in the business of making the Internet better – period.”

That’s quite a company mission. But when you’re the Internet pioneer who introduced “You’ve got mail!” to the world and allow 250 million visitors to access the best collection of media (The Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, Advertising.com, to name a few) on the web, “making the Internet better” sounds like a part of AOL’s DNA.

To do so, AOL’s 5,000 employees (affectionately known as AOLers) need to work together creatively, regardless of where they are on the globe. “The culture at AOL is one big family,” says Jimmy Appleby, network engineer for Unified Communications at AOL. “We need to optimize, innovate and collaborate on a daily basis.” Real-time video collaboration makes that possible.

The company started with room-based video conferencing systems that required advanced scheduling and evolved to video conferencing directly from desks and mobile devices anytime, anywhere. “Scheduling is now a thing of the past,” explains Appleby. “Ad-hoc conferences are now the only way to conference here at AOL.”

Worldwide, AOLers can now collaborate face-to-face with each other. They use an average of 2.4 million minutes every month (the equivalent of 2,000 hours a day, to put things in perspective) and this widespread use is credited to the top-down support from executives.

For AOL, Polycom collaboration is one of the top three mission-critical tools for the business that will “propel our business to the next level.” It gives them the flexibility to defy distance and build the workplace of the future, now.

Learn more about AOL and their culture of collaboration by watching the video below.

For more customer stories, visit the Polycom customer page.

[image credit: AOL]