A global leader in hearing aids solutions, Amplifon operates in 26 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, with over 9,500 shops worldwide. The company’s primary challenges include empowering people to rediscover all the emotions of sound and providing unparalleled services and customer journeys.
Overcoming the social stigma associated with wearing hearing aids, increasing awareness of noise pollution and addressing people’s exposure to excessive noise are also crucial aspects of their mission.
Amplifon X is the new agile business unit entirely dedicated to developing highly innovative digital solutions, aligned with their proactive attitude. Leveraging Slack, Amplifon X teams embrace a productivity environment that seamlessly aligns with the demands of their hybrid business and tech organisational model. This choice accelerates the go-to-market timeline within a fully agile perspective. With remote teams spanning Italy and beyond, the efficiency of Slack fosters organised alignment. Its user-friendly interface encourages asynchronous conversations, enabling teams to streamline planning, minimise lengthy video meetings, and prioritise innovation and customer service.
Amplifon X has revolutionised how its teams work by enhancing collaboration, improving internal knowledge management and automating many internal processes, all within the Slack platform. Amplifon X experiences deep collaboration across over 60 channels, sharing files, making decisions and integrating with an average of 12 applications per user. This helps Amplifon X to:
- Deliver highly innovative digital products and services, especially in the complex context of the Silver Age, and continuously evolve.
- Shorten the go-to-market timeline, enabling a fully agile process across teams.
- Empower technical talent attraction and retention within the developer community due to the high adoption of Slack and its users’ loyalty.
Slack’s use is immediate, easy and well-organised.
Amplifon X teams use Slack in organised channels divided by products. Antonio says, ‘Using those channels by team, by product or for any other business need, we can be aligned and coordinated even when working remotely. Everyone in the channel is immediately aware of what is going on. Whenever there is an issue or a question, we invite people to use the right Slack channels to address it.’ Some of the main channels that Amplifon X runs are corporate communications, digital product and services development projects, and incident resolution.
The use of channels is not limited to work. At Amplifon X, they create and use channels related to cinema, entertainment, food and especially football, with a big community of fans among different offices. Antonio points out, ‘All these channels allow people to bond as a team. Remember that we are all working remotely. The fact that we share channels that are also not work-related creates a very positive vibe. You can tell because even during the weekend, these not-work channels remain very active!’
Amplifon X teams get work done much faster compared to using email because Slack is immediate, easy to use and well-organised. People are more aware and informed and can avoid the annoying use of emails, which do not allow for real-time action. Especially when working on a product, if you have any questions or issues, you can discuss them in real time. Antonio says, ‘This has helped us enormously. In the modern world, we tend to schedule meetings, and thanks to Slack, Amplifon X has cut down on the number of meetings. Slack allows us to solve everything or even prevent organising meetings. The conversation stays there, and you can use the search to find any subject. But even so, if there is a real conversation needed at the end of the day, we can use Slack huddles.’
Amplifon X teams use Slack huddles because they are very effective. Antonio declares, ‘It is my favourite function at Slack – besides its flexibility, it is even funny. It is one of the reasons we selected Slack. Huddles have great effects and make the conversation easy. We use huddles when we need to unblock a situation on product development, design or even planning. I love drawing on the screen, which is unique.’
The use of Slack canvas allows teams to be more aligned and move forwards quickly.
Amplifon X uses Slack canvas extensively to organise the huge volume of information that it manages, making it more accessible and shareable. Canvas is the key feature that teams use to capture vital details on projects and brainstorming sessions, adding every type of text, file and visual element. Antonio explains, ‘We use some kind of whiteboard where it all stays, even after the session is over. It all stays there on the canvas. We have noticed the more we use canvas, the more aligned we are in our main direction. We can easily transform a brainstorming session into an actual plan. This makes it all go faster.’ Since canvas can be very modular and flexible, Amplifon X’s teams can move forwards easily. Antonio adds, ‘Before, we had to use very different tools to achieve the same result, but now it is all easy and centralised on canvas. This has made a difference in our day-to-day jobs.’
Slack Connect accelerates Amplifon X projects with external agencies worldwide.
‘We use Slack Connect with external agencies, especially abroad, and this has been a game-changer in terms of engagement and speed.’
For example, via Slack Connect, Amplifon X is working with external partners and agencies in the Americas to launch new products and updates. This helps to avoid annoying meetings due to time-zone differences or ineffective emails.
Everyday processes are transformed into automated workflows in Workflow Builder.
Amplifon X supports the acceleration of the Group’s digital innovation strategy. Its velocity and high productivity are key to achieving business goals. It has experienced a profound surge in productivity, thanks to the strategic adoption of workflows through Workflow Builder. This transformative approach involves automating repetitive tasks in the team’s daily operations, particularly in product development projects and internal incident management. Despite the predominantly technical composition of the team, the true strength and simplicity of this tool lie in its unique ability to streamline processes without any manual code writing. Amplifon X professionals have found unprecedented efficiency and ease in their operations, signalling a significant leap forwards in research and development practices.
Amplifon X has been able to improve quality and has established the perfect arena for collaboration thanks to Slack. The more the Italian company uses Slack internally and externally, the more they get rid of idle time and jump forwards in shaping the future.
