The next time you’re stuck in traffic, chances are you won’t be thinking about the company that made the seat you are sitting in or the radio you are listening to. While automotive seats and electrical systems may not be on your mind, there is no doubt that the name Lear Corporation is well known to the global automotive industry—where Lear provides components and systems to some 400 name plates worldwide. When this company found itself stuck not in traffic, but in a plan to migrate to a new unified communications solution, it needed someone who could.
Founded in Detroit in 1917 as a supplier to the automotive and aircraft industries, today Lear employs more than 150,000 people at 243 locations in 37 countries. With sales of $18 billion, Lear ranks #154 on the Fortune 500 list, and is at the forefront of making vehicles more connected, electronic and software systems more secure, and seats more ergonomic.
With a goal to develop new automotive products and technologies, as well as to incubate non-automotive business opportunities, the company recently opened a world-class Innovation Center in the heart of downtown Detroit. There, Lear employees work in tandem with the College of Creative Studies on the next generation of automotive seating and vehicle interiors. Lear employees also work alongside students from Wayne State University’s School of Engineering to develop applications for connected cars and alternative energy vehicles.
Lear is a company always looking to move forward, but when it planned to transition to Microsoft Skype for Business, it found that it would take a bit longer than ideal. The company needed someone to support its Avaya and Nortel systems until the transition could be completed.
Luckily, Continuant was able to do this. Not only did Continuant provide support for Lear’s legacy systems, it also lent a hand in the transition to the new solution, utilizing its Microsoft certifications.
As Lear’s systems continue to run, it continues its path forward toward the new Microsoft UC solution it’s wanted all this time. Though it plans to carry this out with its own in-house engineers, Lear has extended its contract with Continuant, and continues to rely on this partner to keep it from getting stuck in a communication traffic jam.
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