Accessible, integrated video solution
Shell chose Stream over other video platforms because it offered a more secure way to use video with an intuitive user interface and built-in intelligent capabilities that unlock video content for viewers. These capabilities include autogenerated speech-to-text audio transcriptions, deep search across transcripts, and closed captioning. Shell created a new intranet solution called the Hub, which takes advantage of the interoperability between Stream and other Office 365 apps such as Yammer and SharePoint Online, so employees can add video into the context of every conversation or digital workspace.
“It’s really great to see how all the Microsoft tools that we have work together,” says Vosselman. “On our new home page, we embedded Yammer and Stream. At one glance, people can see their Yammer feed and their videos, which is a great solution to improve our productivity.”
“It only takes a couple of clicks to embed Stream videos in SharePoint sites and Yammer conversations,” adds Forde. “And when people realized that you can easily publish recorded presentations and slides directly to Stream from Microsoft PowerPoint, they got really excited about how much faster and easier they can create ‘how to’ and best practice videos.”
Because closed captions are automatically generated and editable in Stream, Shell no longer has to send the work out or pay external agencies to create them. When Forde and Vosselman provided a Stream demo for a colleague who is hard of hearing, he was thrilled with the built-in audio transcription feature and closed captioning functionality. “Normally, we would have had to request the transcription service, but when we saw it in action right there on the screen, we knew this feature would be a win with employees—and help us meet accessibility guidelines,” says Forde.
For a global corporation where employees speak different languages and use a lot of corporate lingo, the ability to easily edit video captions saves the company time and money. Shell used to rely on a third-party provider to capture and edit captions, but now it can be handled within the Stream interface, minimizing the risk of error. “We are very particular about our corporate terminology, for example, the business area “Downstream” is always capitalized,” says Forde. “Our professional in-house Shell video team is very happy that they can write or edit the captions themselves. It’s important to get it right when you are producing content that represents the company.”
Employees also like the better performance they experience with Stream, along with the opportunity to use a variety of file formats. Today, everyone can upload files without worrying about size, speed rate, or quality. And thanks to the ability to easily navigate video content and set up custom groups or channels, employees can easily find videos that are most important to them.