The Quick Pivot to Online: Chamber Board
We reached out to our 2020 Board of Directors, all of whom represent a wide variety of different business sectors, to gather their unique perspectives on how each of their respective fields has “gone online” more or for the first time in response to the pandemic. We received responses from Oregon Insurance Company, Lane Community College, Bicoastal Media, Jazzercise Eugene, and Mereté Hotel Management. See their responses to our questions below!
1. What new digital services and/or technology has your business implemented in response to the coronavirus crisis, both internally for employees and outward-facing services for clients?
Lane Community College (LCC): Continuing to serve our students and adapting to their needs while caring for the health and safety of Lane employees was our highest priority. First, LCC vastly expanded the technology available to our students. We provided laptops and Chromebooks for any student in need and checked them out for the entire spring term. We will continue this for the duration of the pandemic. For our employees, we moved all operations to remote access as quickly as possible and provided them with technology to be able to work remotely. The LCC Academic Technology Center and Student Help Desk swung into action to provide training and support for online and remote teaching and learning.
Oregon Insurance Company (OIC): We implemented a remote login so that if people wanted to work from home they could. We started using our digital signature and file sharing programs almost exclusively when this all happened.
Bicoastal Media: We’ve been communicating more often in zoom meetings and accessing internal documents and tools via the web.We’ve found that using technology and our own heightened communication skills we have been able to fulfill the needs of clients, partners and audiences.
Jazzercise Eugene: Change and innovation is a constant in business operations but it has been heightened since March.
The standard Jazzercise business model had been to provide services to our memberships through scheduled, in-person classes. Our limits had been center capacity for any one class. In order to continue to serve our members while adopting the CDC distancing guidelines in response to COVID-19, we quickly began to research options to provide virtual classes to our membership. With help from a tech expert, the purchase of some tech accessories, and by troubleshooting the use of different virtual platforms, we began delivering live stream classes to our customers within a couple of weeks.
Mereté Hotel Management: Mereté Hotel Management had just started exploring MS365 capabilities including MS Teams which allows for messaging, virtual meetings, etc. Our usage has increased 100% since the crisis as we have the majority of corporate staff working from home and not traveling to our hotel markets on a regular basis.
2. How long did it take to roll out these new methods/services, and what was that process like?
LCC: We transitioned over a two-week period and were entirely remote after March 13th without having to close for business.
OIC: The hardest thing was to get the new router and VPN Client set up so that it worked with all our devices. We did it mostly ourselves as to try to save money. The other programs we already had in place.
Bicoastal: We estimate it took about a week to get all the online tools in place and then it took a few more weeks to get comfortable with the online aspect of communicating.
Jazzercise: Working towards a virtual solution took daily attention for several hours per day. We intentionally kept our membership community engaged in the process and consider their support and feedback instrumental in the success of our virtual launch. Liz and I benefitted in skills growth from working towards a solution and realizing a strengthened business partnership. We have returned to the studio with limited in-class attendance to allow distancing but are offering a hybrid by livestreaming all classes. At some class times we are able to serve more members in one class than we could without the livestreaming capabilities.
3. How do you ensure your organization stands apart from competitors, or has collaboration within sectors been key in navigating the new digital landscape?
LCC: LCC is in the business of collaborating with others. Early on, we donated PPE and cleaning supplies to Lane County, and we have continued with all critical Health Professions instruction, including providing child care for the children of Health Professions students through the pandemic. We have surveyed our faculty and students and responded to meet their needs.
OIC: We never closed during this time. Many other insurance agents unless they work for a big agency probably dont have the same program uses that we have. I did talk to a lot of independent agents and they had result primarily on the USPS to send documents back and forth.
Bicoastal: The ability to stand head and shoulders above our competitors started long before the lockdown changed the current business model. Our company culture and connectivity with our clients and listeners gave us the foundation to effectively stay connected and deliver timely information on our stations to our community. The ability to work remotely with our online tools were not unfamiliar to us as we had prepared for events like this, albeit we had thought it would be more weather related, snowstorms, then health related.
Mereté: We are working with local company Nulia (the work started late 2019) to implement training on MS 365 to our corporate employees.
4. What are some unexpected benefits and/or challenges in this new mode of operation?
LCC: One of the great benefits of this new landscape is the increase in access to online and remote instruction for students who may otherwise experience hardship in attending LCC. Our challenges lie in the support of our faculty and students who have been unfamiliar with remote learning. LCC has made great strides and will continue to innovate, adapt, and overcome. We are also learning how to effectively engage students outside of their classwork, and to connect them to the campus communities and services.
OIC: We have realized that we really dont need to have as large of a store front and that because of technology we can actually work remotely and it wouldn’t really hinder our day to day work or service to our clients.
Bicoastal: So much of what we do is based on relationships and how we cultivate new business opportunities is predicated on being able to meet with clients and determine how to tailor an advertising campaign to meet their needs and solve their pain. As the whole landscape has changed the ability to meet and help our partners has become a much harder process than ever before and has at times hamstrung our efforts.
Mereté: The utilization of MS Teams will result in less travel costs and a reduction in office space that will likely continue past the crisis.
5. What lessons will create lasting technology-led change in your organization?
LCC: We have learned the inherent value of online and remote work via technology. LCC plans to keep streaming board meetings and other meetings to continue engaging with our wider constituency, and to offer more online and remote instruction in the future. We are so grateful to have a community that has adapted to this new world. It has underscored our need for connection as a college and as a community.
OIC: We always will need the ability to help clients without them coming into the office. Eventually things will open back up and people will go about doing what they were before, but we will still have a very strong technological presence. This will make it possible that we can market more in remote areas of Oregon that we really did not have easier access to in the past.
Bicoastal: Above all else, this new dynamic has proved that our team is dedicated to provide the best service and products to our community. We have become much more nimble and adaptable than anyone had ever thought possible, and that is terrific byproduct of this new normal work environment.
Jazzercise: We will continue to take advantage of options to serve our membership by offering diversified services to meet individual needs.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this article!
Jason Stubbs, Oregon Insurance Company
Mindie Dieu, Lane Community College
Jeff Gaulton, Bicoastal Media
Nancy Bigley, Jazzercise Eugene
Liz Dahlager, Mereté Hotel Management
