Microsoft Office System Customer Solution Case Study Unified Communications Solution Helps Network Solutions Provider Collaborate Globally Overview Country or Region: United States Industry: Telecommunications Customer Profile Tellabs designs, develops, deploys, and supports wireless and wireline solutions for telecommunications service providers worldwide. Business Situation For the 3,500 Tellabs employees across the globe, collaborating through conference calls and e-mail was timeconsuming and inefficient, and instant messaging options were not secure. Solution Building on its existing Microsoft platform, Tellabs created a unified communication environment for its employees using Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Office Live Communications Server. Benefits Faster, smoother project deployments Increased global collaboration and improved productivity More effective training Greater security A complete solution It was great to see the Microsoft Unified Communications solution in action. We couldn t have done this project without these tools. They helped make it a success. Jean Holley, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tellabs Tellabs provides broadband solutions that enable service providers to deliver high-quality voice, video, and data over wireline and wireless networks around the world. The company wanted to help its employees work collaboratively and in real time. To achieve this goal, it deployed Microsoft Office Unified Communications products and services. Now employees thousands of miles apart can see if coworkers are online, send instant messages, and initiate voice, video, or Web conferences to solve time-critical business issues all from within common business applications. Because employees can collaborate more efficiently, Tellabs can launch complex, strategic, global projects in less time.
We measure the value of the whole solution in terms of the Microsoft platform... It s hard to say how much each tool is worth individually, but together, they are invaluable. Jean Holley, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tellabs Situation Telecommunications service providers around the world rely on wireless and wireline network solutions from Tellabs. The company employs 3,500 people in 40 locations worldwide. In 2005, Tellabs implemented Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server and deployed Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 messaging and collaboration client and Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 on all workstations. The solution gave employees the ability to send e-mail, share calendars, and stay connected when working remotely. To help Tellabs respond to customers and deliver projects more quickly, the IT group wanted to take the solution one step further and find a way for employees to work more collaboratively. We sought a solution that would enable our employees in the continental United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe to communicate in real time, says Ken Shemanske, Group Program Manager for Tellabs. Traditionally, employees in various locations met using conference calls. However, the logistics of scheduling meetings were often a hindrance to working collaboratively. Meeting organizers needed an account before they could set up a conference call, and they had to make sure everyone on the call had access rights. Then they had to send participants e-mail messages with the links and dial-in information. It was a lot of work just to set up a meeting, says Shemanske. To answer questions on time-critical projects, some Tellabs employees used instant messaging (IM) capabilities through providers such as MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL. Although IM was useful and convenient, Tellabs had security concerns about confidential information passed in messages. With public IM services, we weren t able to ensure the confidentiality of data or log messages, says Huzefa Mustaly, Collaboration Manager for Tellabs. We wanted to have more control over the security of messages, and we didn t want to have multiple IM clients on workstations. The company also delivered internal training presentations by conference call to large audiences. However, with no visual cues, keeping the presenter and attendees in synch proved a challenge. If there were any last-minute changes, the presentation had to be re-sent to participants by e-mail. The presenter might spend the first 10 or 15 minutes of the meeting making sure everyone had the right version of the presentation and was looking at the right slide, says Jean Holley, Executive VP and Chief Information Officer for Tellabs. When you multiply even five minutes of wasted time by several people, that adds up to a lot of lost productivity. Solution Tellabs sought a unified communications solution that would enable employees to work together in real time and make IM capabilities more secure. We considered switching our conference call provider, too, so we were looking for a total solution that would be best for Tellabs, says Shemanske. Pleased with its Exchange Server messaging platform, Tellabs created a unified communications environment by adding Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Office Live Communications Server 2005, and Office Communicator 2005. Tellabs started designing the solution in June 2005 and gradually rolled out the products to every location between July and November 2005. Tellabs employees now can find and correspond with one another quickly using the rich presence information provided by Live Communications Server 2005 and delivered through the Communicator 2005 instant messaging client. Presence
This solution is helping us deploy larger, more complex enterprise projects with fewer deployment support issues because we can talk to anyone, anywhere instantly. Jean Holley, Executive Vice President and CIO, Tellabs awareness also has been integrated into Outlook 2003 and other Microsoft Office programs such as Word 2003, Excel 2003 spreadsheet software, and Visio 2003 drawing and diagramming software. While working in any of these programs, Tellabs employees can see instantly who is signed onto the network and available for collaboration by IM, phone, video, or Web conference. Live Meeting, a Web conferencing service, helps Tellabs employees share information with each other anywhere in the world through virtual conference rooms. Now, team members can all view the same presentation or share desktops. Tellabs routinely uses Live Meeting for training sessions. Participants can view a presentation at the same time, ask questions online, and provide immediate feedback to the presenter. Benefits The Microsoft Unified Communications solution has transformed the way people work at Tellabs. Implementing Exchange Server with Outlook improved the company s office operations by combining calendar and e-mail in one common system. Deploying Live Meeting and Live Communications Server further enhanced that solution by providing real-time collaboration capabilities. Shemanske describes Live Meeting as a oneto-many or many-to-many tool whereas Live Communications Server with Communicator is a one-to-one or one-to-several tool. Faster, Smoother Project Deployments The use of the Microsoft Office Unified Communications products and services is becoming part of everyday life at Tellabs. Holley says that employees especially realize the benefits of the tools when deploying a project. During a rollout, we re opening up a new environment for people to start using a new solution, so we re watching everything very closely. Good communication is critical to the success of any project, especially a large one. If someone has a problem during the rollout, we get feedback immediately through IM and can solve the problem right away. This solution is helping us deploy larger, more complex enterprise projects with fewer deployment support issues because we can talk to anyone, anywhere instantly. The IT group s most recent application deployment project involved more than 100 people worldwide. It was great to see the Microsoft Unified Communications solution in action. We couldn t have done this project without these tools. They helped make it a success, says Holley. Increased Global Collaboration and Improved Productivity The Microsoft Unified Communications offerings have helped dispersed project teams at Tellabs work together more effectively. With many Tellabs employees spread across the globe, Live Meeting has made it easier for workers in different offices to hold virtual meetings, and share desktops and presentations. Our goal with this unified communication solution wasn t to reduce travel time; it was to increase collaboration capabilities. But indirectly it has the long-term ability to reduce travel time and costs, says Holley. Communicator, with its ability to handle Voice-over-IP calls and video, further enhanced collaboration among Tellabs employees around the world. It s pretty impressive to sit in an office in California and not just talk to, but actually see the person you re working with in Finland in real time, says Shemanske. With video, you get better feedback, and the experience is more personal. The new unified communications solution has had a direct impact on productivity as well. This solution makes it easy to send an
instant message and get a question answered quickly, says Shemanske. If I see that someone is online and available, I can instantly contact them and say, we need to decide on this now, and it s done. It is incredibly more efficient than relying on e- mail or phone calls. The solution particularly helps when people are working on complex process flows for example, with Visio diagrams. Often someone needs input from people in different departments and locations. For example, with Live Meeting and Communicator, when you know someone is available, you can click Meet Now to begin sharing a file and make changes to it live, says Shemanske. Then you can move on to the next person and repeat the process. We do it all in a matter of hours now. Before, it would have taken days. More Effective Training One of the best features of Live Meeting is that when you have multiple presenters, you can upload their presentations prior to the meeting, says Mustaly. Presenters no longer need to send presentation files to coworkers. All the presentations are there and we can change presenters transparently. One presenter might be in California, and another in Latin America. Because different time zones prevent some employees from participating in Live Meeting presentations, Tellabs records all meetings and training sessions so that, for example, employees in the United States can view a session that was recorded in China 20 hours earlier. The great thing about recording meetings especially training sessions is that they re reusable. Employees can view them at their convenience, says Shemanske. But do employees actually view the recordings? Statistics say yes. That s a very telling story, says Holley. Use is skyrocketing. We know Live Meeting is a success because we have seen usage numbers increase over the last five months. Between November 2005 and April 2006, the number of recorded meetings viewed rose by 77 percent. Holley found Live Meeting to be so efficient that she now uses it for her staff meetings. My administrator sets up and records the meeting, and within an hour or two, she sends out a link to the people in remote locations, says Holley. It s so easy; she literally uses the same e-mail message for our meetings, changes the date, time, and link information, and it s done. Greater Security Before deploying this solution, Tellabs had security concerns about employees using instant messaging because most public IM providers do not encrypt messages. Using Public IM Connectivity with Live Communications Server, Tellabs replaced individual client software for providers such as Yahoo! and AOL, and yet could still provide employees a means to communicate with people who use those services. Live Communications Server also offers powerful federation capabilities. Tellabs now has the assurance that IM messages and presence information that users and teams are sharing with trusted customers and partners is authenticated and encrypted. Live Communications Server provides a layer of security that we didn t have in the past, and it enables us to log and archive messages, says Shemanske. Without that security, we could have required everyone to use MSN, but then we wouldn t be able to communicate with people who still use other IM clients. A Complete Solution It s difficult for us to measure total cost of ownership and return on investment in hard figures, says Holley. Rather, we measure
For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about Tellabs products and services, call (630)798-8800 or visit the Web site at: www.tellabs.com the value of the whole solution in terms of the Microsoft platform Exchange Server, Outlook, Office, and then Live Meeting with Live Communications Server. Holley describes them as tools in their toolbox. It s hard to say how much each tool is worth individually, but together, they are invaluable. Shemanske adds, The beauty of this solution is that it all integrates so well into Outlook and other applications. It s not as though we re introducing anything new for people to learn. It's just new functions and capabilities we're adding on to what they re already familiar with. For Tellabs, this familiarity contributes to high usage and end-user value for the overall solution. Our employees have embraced and accepted these new tools, says Holley. Everyone wants to use them. Microsoft Office System The Microsoft Office System is the business world s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact. For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to: www.microsoft.com/office Software and Services Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Microsoft Office Live Meeting Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Technology Public Instant Messaging Connectivity 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Excel, the Office logo, Outlook, and Visio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Document published July 2006