TechSmith
Innovative Solutions for Visual Communication

In an Internet-induced world where every piece of content created becomes globally available, it is crucial that the content itself is visually appealing and communicating an idea. Providing visual content creation software solutions since 1987, TechSmith leads the way among the competition. “TechSmith is the go-to company for visual communication,” says Tony Dunckel, Vice President, Market Solutions, TechSmith. “We deliver easy-to-use video and visual content creation tools for those who aren’t professional content creators.” TechSmith has an impressive customer base, with more than 30 million users worldwide, including all of the Fortune 500 companies and 97 of the top 100 universities in the U.S. using TechSmith products.

The exponential growth of video use in higher education and corporate environments springs up challenges for most CIOs, particularly in security, scale, and cost. Dunckel adds, “According to a report from Cisco, it is predicted that 80 percent of all internet traffic will be video by 2018. Most universities have already invested heavily in on premise networks and infrastructure, which can create a reluctance to shift to a cloud-driven technology culture. Our goal is to help institutions that are ready to move to a more cost-effective, scalable cloud-driven environment shrink their capital expenses.”

TechSmith Relay, the company’s most recent, enterprise-wide video creation, hosting, and sharing solution harnesses Microsoft Azure’s technology, which allows TechSmith to focus on “what is most important, which is delivering value to our customers,” states Dunckel. “Our relationship with Microsoft and how we leverage their Azure technology allows us to offer more to our clients than we could previously, helping institutions save hundreds of thousands in costs and expenses. Before, we had to dedicate time and resources to procuring and maintaining servers, which we no longer have to do. It enables us to cut costs significantly without compromising our customer.” Moreover, having undergone serious compliance testing in terms of security, “the Azure system helps provide greater trust in the solutions we bring to the market,” adds Dunckel.

Our ultimate goal is to empower everyone to create amazing videos, and building our offerings on top of Azure is helping us achieve that goal

With such a huge customer base, TechSmith was given the opportunity to work with “many fantastic institutions,” states Dunckel. “One in particular is Boise State University, which was challenged to consolidate a variety of different video and lecture capture solutions into a single offering that was easier to support and maintain. In doing so, they selected TechSmith Relay over other competitors, saving over $300,000 annually in software, hardware, and human resource costs. Additionally, Odessa Community College made a similar decision to choose TechSmith Relay coming from a competitive product and witnessed an adoption growth of 10x their previous solution at nearly one-third the cost.”

Differentiating themselves from the competition, TechSmith’s strategies focus on keeping their solutions easy to use. “We spend a lot of time observing our customers’ workflow because we want them to be able to make content with our solutions, that looks extremely professional, but can be made with a one-button, drag-and-drop simplicity that anyone can do without previous video creation experience.”

TechSmith’s future growth plans revolve around increasing the value delivered to their growing customer base with the use of Microsoft Azure, the synergy of which has really benefited TechSmith’s entire portfolio of products and services.“Microsoft’s growth in the Azure Media Services also presents a significant opportunity for TechSmith to refine our approach to a number of customer facing services. Our ultimate goal is to empower everyone to create amazing videos, and building our offerings on the strength of Azure is helping us achieve that goal across our entire TechSmith portfolio,” concludes Dunckel.