Streaming pundits have long touted the merits of using online video to make a personal, compelling connection with globally dispersed employees.  So once an organization has invested in a visual communications infrastructure, how does the management team take the next step and use those streaming webcasts to make an even more powerful connection?  If you're Merck & Co., Inc., you do it by offering as many as five audio tracks with real-time translation that enable your employees to hear the latest from headquarters in their native tongue.

Merck & Co., Inc. was recently honored by research firm Interactive Media Strategies with an Excellence in Enterprise Video Award for their efforts to push the limits of webcasting with the integration of multiple, live translation language tracks.

With 55,000 employees in 80 countries, and a business that depends on all of them embracing a common, research-driven culture, Merck's management team knew the best way to extend mutli-lingual communications was via their global webcasting infrastructure.  Merck also leverages its visual communications platform to emphasize a unified management team by switching in camera feeds from executives located all over the world so that they come together in the same,  online forum.

Merck does about six webcasts per month using interpreters, as well as more than 650 other live webcasts reaching audiences of as many as 11,000 employees. Merck also reaches much larger employee audiences by making on-demand versions of the webcasts available online via a central media portal.

Since the Merck team has seen how visual communications technology can be used in innovative ways to achieve "borderless" collaboration between its employees and partners, their ultimate goal is to integrate video and webcast services across all desktops, laptops and ultimate into small mobile and handheld devices to enable collaboration from any location, at any time, through any device.