NIIT is one of India’s largest technology institutes with centers spread across India and a global presence in 40 countries. The institute provides technical education not only through its 500 centers but also through tie-ups with various schools, colleges, governments and even enterprises.

Given the vast reach of its centers, teaching staff are often required to shuttle between locations for training sessions. The time and money spent to travel to these locations created a major cost issue for the organization. The organization hence decided to adopt a UC solution to address these challenges.

Why A UC Solution Worked
“Four years ago, we saw a demonstration of Microsoft’s UC solution—then known as Live Communication Server—at a partner conference. Since we had people spread across different locations—either traveling extensively or working from home—it made sense for us to adopt such a solution. Leveraging on Internet connectivity, a UC solution allows us to communicate through simple text, audio, video, or to share resources such as presentations and files,” explains Pankaj Dikshit, GM, IT and Strategic Alliances, NIIT.

Since the organization shifted its corporate office from Delhi to Gurgaon, employees residing in Delhi now needed to extensively commute between both locations. NIIT wanted to ensure effective use of time, such that the availability or the lack of availability of an employee at a particular location would not hamper their work.

The organization had channel partners spread across various cities. The UC solution facilitated better communication with partners who had previously depended on telephone connections to contact NIIT.

Extending Education Through UC
NIIT has a district learning center in a remote village called Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, where subject experts from the IT industry train underprivileged students.

NIIT set up Office Communication Server (OCS) in all the classrooms in this village. The institute now regularly conducts sessions for students via video conferencing. Subject experts from the NIIT University (a not-for-profit insitute started by NIIT) panel and trainers now conduct sessions for students via their desktops or notebooks through video conferencing.