Lion Nathan improves efficiency with a unified communications solution

Lion Nathan’s geographically dispersed team members needed a faster way to locate each other and share information. To improve communication, the company became an early adopter of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 & Microsoft RoundTable...

Lion Nathan’s Sydney headquarters is the IT support hub for all Lion Nathan sites. The support team manages critical day-to-day business systems and delivers help-desk support to the entire company.

IT groups at different locations were using a variety of tools, including email, instant messaging and phone calls, for communicating with users and each another.

But locating colleagues, determining the best communication tool for each situation, and collaborating from disparate locations was often challenging and time-consuming.

In contrast to the centrally located help-desk staff, members of Lion Nathan’s application support teams were scattered throughout Australia and NZ and needed different tools to facilitate more-intensive collaboration.

These teams were using Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing software — an affordable solution small groups could use to conduct meetings from remote locations.

Missing from these solutions, however, was enhanced presence information and tighter integration with existing applications. To address these deficiencies, Lion Nathan needed a unified communications solution that could deliver audio & video conferencing, instant messaging, and presence information to all team members through a single interface.

In addition, the company hoped to take advantage of its investment in a Cisco VoIP telephony solution by allowing its mobile users to manage and control their desk phones from their portable computers, from any location with an internet connection.

Solution
In early 2006, Lion Nathan began upgrading its corporate messaging system to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

The upgrade improved remote/mobile access to the corporate messaging network, allowing users to connect through any device with a web browser, including Windows Mobile smartphones.

In the next phase of implementation, HP integrated Lion Nathan’s Cisco telephony system with Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging.

This integration provided users with voicemail capabilities and the ability to use a standard telephone and voice or touch-tone commands to manage their email.

The company wanted to enhance communications further by integrating more collaboration options with its messaging system.

“The next stage for us was to get more value from Exchange Server 2007 by showcasing additional features to the users,” says Lion Nathan system manager Brett Watkins.

Having consolidated its server computer architecture as part of the Exchange Server implementation, Lion Nathan decided to replace its aging collaboration server computer (which acted as the directory service for NetMeeting) and become an early adopter of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

Communications Server 2007 is the next version of Live Communications Server 2005.

It streamlines communication by integrating tools such as email, instant messaging, on-premise audio, video, web conferencing and presence information. Presence information is shown with colored icons integrated in Outlook and other MS applications.

By looking at the icons, users can quickly see who’s online and available for communication. With implementation help from HP, Lion Nathan began a pilot program and by April 2007 Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 was deployed to 100 users (mostly IT support team members, executives, and mobile users).

Lion Nathan technical analyst Mick Faber commends the product’s tight integration with the Active Directory service. “We have the ability to configure user settings within the directory services — it’s a really simple step-by-step process.”

With Communications Server 2007 integrated with Lion Nathan’s IP telephony system the pilot group now can make, receive, and manage phone calls from their computers. Faber says the new solution has been easy to manage.

“HP performed the design and integration services, and most of the work for us has involved migrating users off Live Communications Server. After the users were on board, very little ongoing support has been required. It’s been very stable.”

By using Communicator 2007 and Communicator Mobile, Lion Nathan users can connect to corporate email from outside the firewall, connecting on Windows Mobile devices and getting the same presence information & instant messaging tools as their office-based counterparts.

“HP provided the expertise to seamlessly integrate the Cisco and Microsoft environments and to provide a truly unified communications experience,” says Lion Nathan CIO Darryl Warren. When users don’t have access to an internet connection, they can use a standard phone to dial in to hear email messages and to check their calendars. Watkins says he’s had no difficulty getting people to use the new product. “Users are very comfortable with the tools,” he says. “It’s an intuitive interface, and they can find their way around easily.”

Benefits increases efficiency
Integrated presence information has helped Lion Nathan IT support teams improve efficiency and deliver better service.

For example, users can tag contacts who are momentarily unavailable, so that they’re alerted when those colleagues are ready to talk. This feature helps the support team save time and focus on other tasks.

Even at this early stage of deployment Faber estimates the solution is helping IT staff recover at least 30 minutes from each work day. “We save a lot of time and effort by reducing the need for ‘phone tag’ and for leaving messages,” he says.

“Having a tool in place that signals when a person is available to collaborate has dramatically improved resolution time.” By integrating its messaging and telephony environments with Office Communications Server 2007, Lion Nathan can build on its investment in its technology environment. Before the implementation, the company’s communications were often fragmented by its disparate tools and it was difficult for users to know the best way to reach someone. Now, team members can use a presence icon to choose the best way to get in touch.

Moreover, with Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, voice messages are delivered through Outlook along with email messages. Mobile users in particular benefit from the solution because they can connect with their mailboxes from any location.

“With Office Communications Server 2007, you don’t need to be in the office to see the flashing red light on your phone,” says Watkins.

“Office Communications Server 2007 brings all the different functions of devices and technology into a single interface. For example, we can drag one user name onto another to start an instant messaging conversation, instead of needing to arrange a phone call. It’s really taken communication to the desktop.”

Lion Nathan is currently using the unified communications solution mostly for internal support by IT staff, but looks forward to broader use of the technology. Users are already connecting to the solution with portable computers and smartphones.

Watkins believes that the solution has the potential to improve communication with business partners.

“In IT there can be an exchange of eight email messages between Lion Nathan and a supplier within half an hour,” he says.

“Communications Server 2007 will be a real advantage to speed up and improve that communication.”

In addition, Lion Nathan is testing the Microsoft ‘RoundTable’ conferencing and collaboration device, which has a built-in 360-degree camera and advanced voice recognition.

RoundTable connects to a standard PC and will be used by teams across Australia and NZ instead of voice-only telephone conferencing. Faber says RoundTable was easy to use and its panoramic display mimics a more natural meeting environment.

“It gives participants the feeling of being in the same room with each another,” he says, “and I like that it follows the conversation and the speaker becomes the main focus.”

Geographically separated IT team members in Australia and NZ have traditionally used telephone conferences for their weekly talks.

However, a team that recently began holding web-based conferences using web cams at individual workstations and the RoundTable conferencing device in groups reports a significant improvement over the old collaboration method.

“With RoundTable, meetings are more personal, and there’s a lot more interaction because people can see one another and aren’t staring at a phone,” says Faber.

“You actually feel more engaged in the meeting.” Warren adds, “It turns previously simple audio conference calls between cities and countries into immersive meetings with audio, video, and data. RoundTable is the best representation of a 360-degree room I have seen.”

For more information
www.microsoft.com/office

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