case study Simplifying the Stack: How The Motley Fool Streamlined Its Communica琀椀ons with Zoom The Motley Fool Founded: 1993 Headquarters: Alexandria, What started as an investment newsle琀琀er wri琀琀en by Virginia brothers David and Tom Gardner in 1993 has grown into Industry: Financial services an interna琀椀onally-recognized 昀椀nancial services company with a fana琀椀cal group of followers known as “Fools.” Challenges: Disparate Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, The Motley Fool technology stack, complex on-premises infrastructure has o昀케ces in Denver, Colorado, and Sydney, Australia, and also serves customers in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, and management, geo-dispersed workforce Germany with regional news and market analysis. Driven by the purpose to make the world smarter, happier, and Solu琀椀on: Zoom Mee琀椀ngs, richer, The Motley Fool has built its success on providing Zoom Rooms, Zoom Phone Business Bene昀椀ts: its customers with insigh琀昀ul analysis and clever takes on Consolidated technology inves琀椀ng and the stock market. This requires a robust stack, less on-premises communica琀椀ons infrastructure that allows for constant management of collabora琀椀on and communica琀椀on among o昀케ces and infrastructure, more employees around the world. connected remote workforce, Challenge improved global collabora琀椀on The Motley Fool has almost 400 employees working “People love the fact across its o昀케ces in the United States and abroad, and that we can share its success relies on these employees working together our screens without closely to provide relevant and accurate stock analysis to any cables. And it’s various markets. Although The Motley Fool had a legacy consistent between communica琀椀ons solu琀椀on in place, it had become too every room. Our di昀케cult to manage, and the teams at The Motley Fool employees walk in, they were using a collec琀椀on of disparate tools to communicate. see the control panel on “Previously we were using Cisco, which worked, and the desk, and they know for the most part we liked it,” said Lawrence Morrisson, what to expect. It’s just Head of IT at The Motley Fool. “However, it was pre琀琀y been hugely successful expensive and di昀케cult to manage. We also had other employees using solu琀椀ons like Skype and GoToMee琀椀ng, for us.” which led to people using di昀昀erent hardware and devices. – Lawrence Morrisson There was no consistency, which was a real headache.” Head of IT, The Motley Fool