Roam Wasn't Built in a Day
As the Zero Latency deployment team flies out to deploy our 23rd Free Roam VR location, it has given me pause to look back at the journey we’ve been on over the last 2 years.
When I joined this company it was in that classic start-up phase, the exhilarating point when the product had been proven and the first clients were signing up. Beginning as a project manager I’ve led the deployment of new Zero Latency venues from number 4 right through the current deployment.
Zero Latency’s deployment team is made up of diverse professional backgrounds, united by the work and a focus on our goals. The culture and vibe of this team is crucial and has held us together through many 80 hour weeks, when days and time zones seem to blend into each other.
Driving an international project from Australia brings its challenges - the late night calls and the early morning starts. No one blinks at the hours. We’ve got one of those excellent and rare teams that just gets it done.
I believe it is this ‘back against the wall’ approach to our projects that has caused us to adapt becoming more efficient, polishing our processes and procedures. What was once a 42 day handcrafted deployment by Kyel Smith (co-founder & COO) is now performed in 5 days with 2 staff, followed by a week of retail training conducted by our training team.
Our dedicated Hardware and IT Build teams have continuously improved our methodology, documentation and processes, drastically reducing the time taken to manufacture and ship a new Zero Latency system.
There have certainly been bumps and dramas along the way. The deployment team has lived in casinos, slept in airports and eaten thanksgiving dinner by the side of a road. We’ve dodged hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes. Most importantly, we’ve learnt what works in location based entertainment.
What works for a Family Entertainment Centre might not work for a Casino, or in a shopping centre or in a theme park. Each country and each client brings their own set of challenges from logistics, installation and into retail operations. What culturally might work in Japan might not work in Portugal, the US or the Middle East.
The strength of this deployment team is that from learning and improving on the run we've built a flexible best practice that we bring to each and every Zero Latency deployment. Each new client benefits from what we've learnt from the sites that have come before. This has become the key contributor to our success. Many of our clients have become great friends and have honoured us by coming back and committing to a second, third or fourth Zero Latency system.
As our 22nd site prepares for opening in a few short days, we don’t have long to celebrate. We’ve got a lot of excited clients eager to open before Christmas, each one in a new country.
Ryan Hamlet
Head of Deployment
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