IN2 Innovation Case Study

IN2 Innovation, Inc.

IN2 Innovation designs a collaborative culture based on GoToMeeting with HDFaces

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GoToMeeting with HDFaces makes it easy to interact with end users in their homes or workspaces to show and discuss a concept or in2innovation.com prototype. This qualitative approach not only provides extremely valuable, specific feedback, it also saves time and money.

Brian Roderman Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer

IN2 Innovation is a strategic new product design and development firm offering comprehensive services ranging from idea generation to production manufacturing. Co-founders Brian Roderman, chief innovation officer, and Ken Buras, chief integration officer, created a turnkey process that combines equal portions of creativity and technical operations to move clients’ ideas from the concept stage through engineering and testing to commercialization. These clients range from single entrepreneurs to very large corporations in industries such as consumer goods, electronics, medical devices and industrial products. IN2 Innovation is based in Dallas, Texas, operates locations in Houston and Austin, Texas, and Dongguan and Wuxi, China, and employs about 20 people.

The challenge: accelerating time to market for new products IN2 Innovation is dedicated to helping clients achieve success in the marketplace. Speed is a critical factor: the faster a new product can be commercialized, the sooner it can generate revenues and establish a competitive advantage. “We recognized that traditional in-person meetings with clients, with all the logistical arrangements that are required, stretched out the timeline and led to delays in launch,” said Roderman. IN2 Innovation’s global scope made on-site meetings even more challenging.

There were other reasons why the company needed a better way to collaborate. “One of our core principles is called ‘BTU’ — indicating a balance of business, technology and user,” said Roderman. “It’s very important to keep a product’s end user in mind throughout the design and development process. Instead of running focus groups, we wanted an efficient way to meet with users in their homes or businesses to see how they would actually use a product prototype or react to a sketch.”

Regarding the technology aspect of BTU, the key challenge was working effectively with factories in China, where many of the products are manufactured. “Simply talking on the phone wasn’t sufficient because it’s easy to miss things — our designers needed a way to show three-dimensional CAD drawings and point out details or describe changes,” said Roderman. “Conversely, they wanted to see exactly what the factory was producing.”

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Adopting GoToMeeting for collaboration at all levels Key benefits When Roderman participated in his first web collaboration session, he immediately • Compresses the go-to-market saw tremendous possibilities. “It was a life-changing experience and I immediately process for new started researching available tools. We ultimately selected GoToMeeting, and one products of the main reasons was the ability to launch a session regardless of the firewall • Supports all- digital, flexible work situation,” he said. “We decided against WebEx, for example, because frequently environment it would take 30 minutes just to work through the connectivity issues.” Another • Delivers ROI through important feature is integrated Voice over IP calling (VoIP), which has enabled the ongoing client participation company to save a significant amount previously spent on conference-calling fees. • Saves money on travel and GoToMeeting quickly became the basis for IN2 Innovation’s globally distributed conference calls organization and flexible work policy. “It enables us to work with clients, vendors, end users and our own internal teams from anywhere,” said Roderman. “GoToMeeting is always live. It’s how we communicate. If someone calls me, I immediately suggest launching a session. It reduces errors, risk and misunderstandings that arise when you’re just talking about something.” The entire company meets virtually on Monday morning to discuss timelines, schedules and goals, and project managers meet on Friday for a status update. The Citrix service is also used on the fly. “As one of the partners, I get calls at any time of day and sometimes at night from an employee who says, ‘You’ve got to see this!’ We all know that it means ‘Let’s start a GoToMeeting session,’” said Roderman.

GoToMeeting also supports IN2 Innovation’s digital mindset: This highly graphical organization uses no paper and relies solely on what Roderman calls “low-cost, high-tech tools.” These include Apple iPad and iPhone devices, which are provided to all team members and are supported by GoToMeeting. Roderman particularly likes the iPad for web collaborations involving CAD models because of the ease of zooming in on details.

Enhancing collaboration with HDFaces video conferencing The addition of free, integrated HDFaces video conferencing has made GoToMeeting even more valuable. “Previously, we used another video conferencing product along with GoToMeeting, but that meant we had to switch between two separate tools,” Roderman said. “Now it’s seamless.”

The ability to show a product using HDFaces has enhanced the collaborative process in many ways. For example, product designers and factory staff can now share comprehensive views of a part in real time and even capture screen shots for future reference.

Video conferencing combined with screen sharing has also enabled the company to move beyond quantitative market research methodology involving hundreds of focus group participants. “GoToMeeting with HDFaces makes it easy to interact with a few end users — typically about 20 people — in their homes or workspaces to show and discuss a concept or prototype. This qualitative approach not only provides extremely valuable, specific feedback, it also saves time and money,” said Roderman.

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Speeding the process with web collaboration GoToMeeting has optimized the way IN2 Innovation works with clients, helping to compress the entire go-to-market process. A typical project involves only a handful of in-person meetings. The vast majority of work is conducted using GoToMeeting.

In one case, a major client asked IN2 Innovation to design and develop six new products in just eight months, a process that would require 12 to 18 months using traditional in-person meetings. By gaining the client’s commitment to work virtually using GoToMeeting, Roderman was able to slash four months from the timeline. Faster completion resulted in big cost advantages for the client because they could start generating revenues earlier than anticipated.

“Arranging on-site meetings takes time and focus away from the project itself,” said Roderman. “Instead of spending a full day on a client visit every few weeks, we hold a one-hour collaboration each week. Not only is this a more efficient use of everyone’s time, it allows us to stay in closer communication and address issues right away.” Also, money that would be spent on travel can be applied to design and development work, potentially leading to a better result.

GoToMeeting delivers a significant return on investment to IN2 Innovation through enhanced client participation. According to Roderman, “We want our services to be seamlessly integrated. The product is their ‘baby,’ yet they rely heavily on us for the design and development. How do they retain ownership? The answer is frequent collaboration with GoToMeeting. Working with the client in real time to get feedback and buy-in leads to a natural transition at the end of the project. The client is involved throughout the process, so we don’t have to spend hours educating them on the back end. That’s a huge ROI for us.”

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