Microsoft Lync and SharePoint: Increase productivity by connecting people and information

Microsoft Lync and SharePoint: Increase productivity by connecting people and information

Achieve more for less by unifying employees and collaboration Computacenter together with ICS Solutions help organisations increase productivity by connecting disparate teams and information with Microsoft Lync and SharePoint. Workplace collaboration has been high on the CIO agenda for the last 10 years. According to research conducted by Vanson Bourne 1, 89 per cent of business leaders believe that technology improves collaboration between employees and/or customers. Yet despite investing in a myriad of technologies, organisations are still not achieving their collaboration goals. In today s contemporary workplace, collaboration must take various forms from instant messaging and video-conferencing to document sharing. Many organisations have taken a piecemeal approach to provisioning these services based on either a specific technology or team, as in the short-term, this can appear to involve less cost and risk. This, however, is a false economy. Disparate tools and fragmented deployments mean more support and less integration. And that means higher costs and lower user adoption. 89% of business leaders believe that technology improves collaboration either between employees, with customers or both. 1 3

Addressing the challenges of flexible working With the devolution of the traditional office due to home, remote and mobile working, organisations need to ensure employees can collaborate effectively and work productively. As well as equipping staff with the right technology enablers, organisations need to consider the cultural ramifications of a fragmented workplace. For example, employees can struggle to maintain team relationships without regular face-to-face interaction with colleagues. According to the Vanson Bourne survey, only 52 per cent of employees trust their colleagues to be productive when working flexibly. 1 The inability to see whether colleagues are physically at their desks also means more time is spent trying to track people down with emails and voicemails, and can leave middle management feeling out of control of their teams. Without the right centralised repositories, sharing documents across multiple locations can become particularly challenging, resulting in version control and information access issues. Key features Microsoft Lync Provides real-time presence information to enable organisations to identify a colleague s real-time work status Instant messaging ensures a faster response to queries Audio and video conferences can be started at the click of a button IP telephony capabilities can costeffectively replace PBX systems Integrates with Microsoft Office Available as a mobile version for Windows Phone, iphone/ipad and Android devices Only 52% of employees always trust their colleagues to be productive when working flexibly. 1 4

Tap into existing collaboration capabilities To enable cost-effective and cogent collaboration across the workplace, organisations need to take a unified approach. They need reliable and secure tools that deliver a predictable experience. They need a user-centric strategy that ensures full adoption. And they need the skills and resources to make it happen. Working in partnership with specialist ICS Solutions, Computacenter helps organisations exploit new and existing collaboration tools that enable such a holistic approach. Microsoft Lync is often included in wider software licensing agreements, yet its ability to unify collaboration technologies to deliver the broad functionality that organisations need are frequently overlooked. Using Microsoft Lync, organisations can bring together existing tools for email, video-conferencing and telephony and combine them with Lync s real-time instant messaging, presence/working status updates and document sharing features in a single package that staff will find easy and intuitive to use. When used in tandem with Microsoft SharePoint, organisations can also create customised portals for intranet, extranet, generic collaboration and online sites. Key features Microsoft SharePoint Enables organisations to create custom intranet, extranet, website or corporate collaboration sites quickly and efficiently Provides the building blocks for hundreds of use cases Supports document-sharing and coauthoring to eliminate version control issues Integrates with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project and Microsoft Dynamics CRM With a similar interface to Microsoft Office applications and seamless integration, adoption of both solutions is rapid and straightforward - especially when an organisation opts for an on-demand delivery model. Microsoft Lync and SharePoint can both be delivered as a cloudbased pay-per-user service via Office 365. This version offers up to 90 per cent of the features of the on-premise equivalents and provides exceptional scalability with the ability to add, change or remove users with immediate effect. As well as enabling rapid deployment in a matter of minutes, the cloud-based option eliminates the need for investment in servers, maintenance and support. 1 Attitudes towards flexible working, Microsoft and Vanson Bourne, January 2012 5

Maximise results and minimise risk with a unified approach To help organisations determine the right delivery model and maximise their investment in Microsoft Lync and SharePoint, Computacenter and ICS Solutions have developed a lifecycle of corporate collaboration services. From identifying business requirements and designing the solution to delivering user training and ongoing support, Computacenter and ICS Solutions can help at every stage of your Microsoft Lync and SharePoint projects. Our customer-centric approach recognises that every organisation has unique collaboration needs. Computacenter will help build an adoption roadmap that delivers the right outcomes for your business while mitigating any specific risks. Thanks to our end-to-end experience of unified communications and collaboration (UCC), we are also able to maximise wider integration opportunities and ensure that Microsoft Lync and SharePoint projects are aligned to an organisation s overall IT strategy and business goals. To further safeguard the success of customers Microsoft SharePoint projects, ICS Solutions has developed the SharePoint Adoption Framework 2012. The framework combines strategy, governance, business transition, technical services and accelerators in a single scalable and cost-effective offering. Collaboration credentials ICS Solutions The UK s leading Microsoft SharePoint partner, with a pool of 750-plus consultants and a track record of more than 300 completed projects Microsoft Gold Partner with specific SharePoint Portals competency and currently working towards Gold competency in Microsoft Lync Helped Microsoft launch the first Microsoft SharePoint website and continues to work closely with the company on new versions More than 6,000 people have been trained on Microsoft SharePoint through its education programme One of nine Microsoft Office 365 champions in the UK Computacenter is a shareholder and investor in ICS solutions By taking advantage of pre-defined SharePoint packages for intranets, extranets, websites and self-service collaboration, organisations will be able to accelerate deployment as well as benefits realisation. 6

A more productive and agile workforce Partnering with Computacenter together with ICS Solutions will reduce time to value and ensure that Microsoft Lync and SharePoint projects are completed on time, to budget and to expectation. By building their UCC foundations on Microsoft Lync and SharePoint, organisations will be able to: Improve productivity Staff can work more efficiently and access the information they need from any location, enabling them to make better use of their time. The solutions collaboration tools unite distributed teams, which in turn enhances employee morale and retention rates. Optimise costs Increased efficiency will enable organisations to achieve more with the same or less resource, which reduces overheads. Businesses can also use the solutions to improve collaboration with customers, which can lead to additional revenue generation. Lower their carbon footprint Enabling staff to work together effectively from remote locations, for example through video and audio conferencing, minimises the need for physical meetings and the associated travel requirements. This minimises both costs and environmental impact. Enhance business agility By empowering employees to work faster and smarter, organisations can launch new services more quickly and easily. This ensures a faster response to business change and growth, and safeguards competitive advantage. Collaboration credentials Computacenter Microsoft Gold Partner with 30 years experience of implementing and managing workplace technologies More than 300 accredited Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers Dedicated workplace and networking practices Vast experience in IP telephony and video-conferencing End-to-end service capabilities from requirements analysis and product benchmarking through to support, maintenance and disposal of end-oflife equipment Experience in user profiling to ensure collaboration features are matched to need Helps organisations select best-fit best value technologies from a multivendor portfolio 7

Case Studies National Trust: improving communication with volunteers Challenge The National Trust has more than 3.7 million members and relies on 61,000 volunteers to keep its 350 historic houses, gardens and ancient monuments well maintained and open to the public. The organisation needed a more efficient way to communicate with its large number of volunteers. Communication was via a quarterly publication, however a survey highlighted that this strategy was not sufficient, with volunteers identifying problems such as lack of involvement and transparency over decisions. Furthermore, the National Trust lacked a centralised database of its volunteers. Solution ICS Solutions supported the National Trust in defining the best way to address its needs. ICS implemented the My Volunteering portal, a SharePoint 2010 Extranet platform that gives volunteers a central point of contact with the National Trust, providing them with local news, news about the organisation and other volunteers activities. The portal also provides a central database with up-to-date information about volunteers for the organisation. Results By providing a central point of contact, the portal improves the volunteering experience and helps the National Trust s assistants feel more involved and make more informed decisions. The project responded to problems identified by the survey and will help increase success with key performance indicators, such as volunteer satisfaction and recommendation rates. 8

Harrods: empowering a diverse workforce with SharePoint Challenge Harrods has a blended workforce consisting of over 8,000 full-time and part-time employees, and associates hired by the various brands it hosts. It also has contractors recruited during peak periods such as Christmas. Harrods needed its Intranet to overcome the challenge of integrating this mixed workforce. It should improve corporate communications and employee engagement, by surfacing and centralising all news and information. Moreover, the Intranet allows Harrods to be compliant with new UK legislation, which determine that all staff should have access to the same benefits and information. Solution ICS Solutions developed a bespoke layout for Harrods that reflects the brand s identity and functionality needs, including: custom site map, breadcrumbs, RSS aggregator and web parts. Among the web parts built within the SharePoint Intranet is a telephone directory, with the contact information from all 8,000 employees. This directory uses Business Connectivity Services to allow users to update their own details. The auto complete functionality makes access to this real-time information easy. Results To develop a solution that could address the complex needs of such a varied workforce, Harrods chose to implement an Extranet on a separate farm and synchronise the two sites. Moreover, PCI regulations, Forms Based Authentication (FBA) and Active Directory were implemented. To provide a comprehensive search experience, Search Server 2010 Express was configured to work together seamlessly for both sites. Case studies showing how Microsoft Lync has increased productivity and performance in a range of organisations can be found at: http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/why-choose-lync/pages/case-studies.aspx 9

More information Computacenter together with ICS Solutions will work with you to understand what your business wants to achieve and then recommend the technology solutions which will help you reach your business goals. If you would like to talk to one of our Microsoft specialists about Microsoft Lync or Sharepoint, please contact your Computacenter account manager to arrange an appointment or contact us at the details below: Email: enquiries@computacenter.com Phone: 0800 014 7420 Web: www.computacenter.com/ucc 10

Computacenter (UK) Ltd Hatfield Avenue Hatfield Hertfordshire AL10 9TW United Kingdom T: +44 (0)1707 631000 F: +44 (0)1707 639966 www.computacenter.com Computacenter is a leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services and solutions. From desktop to datacenter, we help our customers minimise the cost and maximise the value of IT to their businesses. We can advise organisations on IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology, optimise its performance, and manage elements of our customers infrastructures on their behalf. Computacenter operates in the UK, Germany, France and the Benelux countries, as well as providing transnational services across the globe. Computacenter 2012