Military Organization Trials Zello Work

NOTE: Due to the sensitive nature of this organization’s operations, the actual name and location is not being disclosed here. Please contact us for further details.

This military organization conducts operations to protect their citizens domestically and abroad. As part of ongoing modernization, 2 groups within the organization are trialing ZelloWork for communications between team members, as well as between team members and their headquarters. If significant gains are realized during these trials, a full roll-out will be implemented and is expected to take 2 years to complete. At the end of the roll-out, an estimated 500 to 1000 team members will be using ZelloWork.

Prior to ZelloWork, the organization’s teams communicated using land mobile radios (LMRs) and some civilian two-way radios. There were several inherent problems with using the two-way radios, a technology dating back to the 1930s. Radios could only be used within certain distances, and any physical obstacles between radios, such as tall buildings or mountains, could affect transmissions. To overcome these obstacles, radio repeaters could be installed, but these would require additional expense and manpower to install. Due to these issues, the teams started looking for more state-of-the-art communication options.

The organization chose ZelloWork as a proof of concept (POC) trial. ZelloWork offered many features that their team operations required, such as:

* Centralized management

* End-to-end encryption

* No distance limitations

* History with instant replay

* Recorder with archival option

* Presence indicator

* One-to-one and one-to-many communications

* Ability to run on most smart devices and Windows PCs using data or Wi-Fi

* Live voice with asynchronous capability

* Ability to link to legacy LMRs using a gateway.

Most importantly, ZelloWork offered a self-hosted Enterprise Server solution which allowed teams to host ZelloWork on their own closed-loop networks. This self-hosted solution afforded them the highest level of privacy and security, at a reasonable cost.

The teams conducted short POC trials using ZelloWork on On-premise Servers. The networks consisted primarily of Android devices with a few Windows PCs, and a gateway linking to their legacy LMRs. The POC trials were successful, and no issues with installation or usage were noted. If ongoing field testing continues to be successful, the organization hopes to eventually transition some teams from LMRs to ZelloWork as their primary means of communications.

In evaluating various communication solutions, the organization determined the main benefits of using Zello for Work were its:

* Ease of use and intuitive design

* Security and privacy features

* Cost effectiveness