Right Hemisphere Software Tools Enhance Visual Communication and Collaboration

By Nicole Zaro Stahl, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Whether Your Product is a Car or a Helicopter, Company's Platform Allows Integration of Engineering, Marketing, More

Communication and collaboration are highly prized assets in today's business culture. Companies that harness these strengths stand to reap a considerable advantage by speeding up product development and getting to market ahead of the competition. Yet it is not always easy getting all departments on the same page, or speaking the same language, especially when the data they rely on exists in highly proprietary digital file formats. New Hacienda tenant Right Hemisphere is a savvy software developer whose offerings help customers break down the silos that separate traditional corporate disciplines by putting all product data on a common platform that internal - and external - work teams can readily share.

"We build visual communication and collaboration solutions for large discrete manufacturers, the people who make things like airplanes, tanks, cars, and cell phones," explains Rix Kramlich, the company's vice president of worldwide marketing. "The Right Hemisphere platform integrates the information that defines the product with all other business systems in an enterprise. Engineering, marketing, sales, support - all these groups have unique needs in terms of how that information is put together and delivered. Essentially, we've developed a very broad-reaching way of liberating data from engineering, where it originates, and presenting it visually, so it is usable by all the downstream stakeholders who need it."

For example, the Right Hemisphere platform enables a marketing communications group to create consistent digital media to support a product launch across multiple channels, from broadcast and cable TV to the Web, iPods, and cell phones. The automated process links the engineers developing the product to the artists creating the media materials. "Getting up-to-date data in the file formats required allows the artists to create next-generation, three-dimensionally-based visual content to get products to market successfully," he points out.

Founded in Auckland, New Zealand, Right Hemisphere originally focused on software tools for creative professionals like game developers and graphics designers. A few years later the executive team decided that applying the core technology to "the enterprise space" offered significant growth opportunities, and that California's Silicon Valley provided the best backdrop for their pursuit. While the 60-person-strong developer group remained in Auckland, corporate functions moved to Fremont and the company embarked on a path of steady growth, scoring big wins with Bell Helicopter, Chrysler, and Sikorsky Aircraft, among other Fortune 100 notables.

Last fall, Right Hemisphere was ready for its next step, relocating to a new office suite at 3825 Hopyard Road. It also has an office in Germany, near key European manufacturers, and a large contingent of field representatives across the U.S. Kramlich sees the Hacienda setting as a good match with the quality and sophistication of Right Hemisphere products. "We deal with some very high-level customers and partners, Adobe and SAP, for example, and we enjoy inviting them here. We're perceived as an innovative market leader, and our presence in Hacienda is consistent with those ideals." For more information, visit righthemisphere.com.

Photo: Rix Kramlich, vice president of worldwide marketing, in the courtyard outside their Hacienda offices.

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