Lithys 2018: Cambium Networks - B2B Community Innovator

Lithys 2018: Cambium Networks - B2B Community Innovator

Our mission is to "connect the unconnected" with wireless communications technology. Our customers, who are network operators from around the world, are engaged in this initiative and share their successes on the Cambium Networks community.

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Company: Cambium Networks

Company background: Cambium Networks develops and markets wireless networking infrastructure – a “wireless fabric” – providing indoor and outdoor networking solutions covering distances from a few meters to more than 100 kilometers and providing throughput capacity from kilobytes to gigabytes per second. Solutions include Wi-Fi access points, narrowband internet of things (IoT) links, point-to-point and point-to-multipoint radio devices — all managed with a cloud-based management system called cnMaestro. Millions of Cambium Networks radios are deployed in more than 10,000 customer networks in over 145 countries — primarily used by businesses, governments and internet service providers to provide wireless connectivity from the core of the network to the edge.

Entry Submitted by: Ray Savich, Marketing Director

Community: Cambium Networks Community

Lithy category: B2B Community Innovator

Cambium Networks: Responding to the Needs of a Large Number of Small Network Operators Around the World
Cambium Networks provides equipment to more than 10,000 small entrepreneurial Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) operators in 147 countries around the world. These small WISPs needed access to information to provide reliable service to rural and remote locations to bridge the digital divide. Many of these network operators have 10-20 employees supporting thousands of business and residential customers. While they seek to optimize network performance, they do not have the time to send technicians to training classes, but need the information to build their reputation as a reliable service provider.

Key Initiative 1: Design a Community that Enables Network Operators to Grow
Based on customer requests, we have moved our documentation, training and Tier 1 support to the Community. This helps our customers share and implement best practices and get the best leverage from their technicians. We found that network operators wanted to share their stories of the connectivity that they created and provide best practices tips to other operators.

Content on the community is promoted on social media channels including LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, WhatsApp and Instagram. Posts are published multiple times a day to build awareness of new and useful content on the community.

Easy Access to Training Webinars

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Key Initiative 2: Enable Customers to Share their Ideas for Development

Network operators can also submit ideas to our community. Other community members can vote for individual requests to raise the priority. Product managers review the relevant customer requests as they plan each round of software and/or hardware development. As ideas are integrated into the development plan, we loop back with the submitting member to refine the development.

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Key Initiative 3: Extend Education on Wireless Broadband Connectivity

Many network operators reported that the public in general did not know about wireless broadband . Cambium launched the Cambium College program for young people or people new to the industry to understand the basics of wireless broadband connectivity. This program had 100 participants in the first year and 688 in the second year (700% growth).

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Key Initiative 4: Recognize Connectivity Heroes Around the World

Network operators and the work they do to close the digital divide are not known for the problems they solve. For example, they provide rapid connectivity to assist disaster recovery efforts, and connect remote locations where no major service providers can provide access. We created the Connectivity Heroes Award program to raise visibility of these heroes, and use the community to  discuss the innovative connectivity solutions that these people provide.

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 Key Initiative 5: Foster the Sharing of Best Practices

Members can view recorded webinars, training sessions, and have access to searchable technical content on the community. By having this educational information at their fingertips, this saves our customers time and money to have their technicians trained to be experts and ready to respond to connectivity opportunities as they arise. This has provided information on many interesting applications including:

  • WiFi connectivity at the Thai Cave Rescue
  • Connecting Soccer Fans in Sophia, to watch the World Cup
  • Providing WiFi for the thousands of refugees in Greece
  • Business and residential connectivity in Australia
  • Disaster recovery connectivity in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
  • Puerto Rico recovery efforts
  • WiFi at the summit of Mount Everest

 

 

RESULTS

Community

  • 54% growth in Community membership over a 12 month period.
  • 39% increase in Community unique members
  • 700% growth in people registered for Cambium College
  • 50% increase in nominations for Connectivity Hero awards

Social

  • 82% increase in LinkedIn page views
  • 41% increase in YouTube video views