Customer Solution Case Study
/ Media Firm Adds Business Value, Avoids $500,000 by Moving Email System Online
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Media and entertainment
Customer Profile
Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) is a leader in lifestyle media, including TV shows, websites, magazines, and books. The Cincinnati, Ohio–based company has 2,000 employees.
Business Situation
When parent firm E.W. Scripps spun off SNI as a separate company, SNI had just a few months to create its own messaging infrastructure, without interrupting mission-critical email service to employees.
Solution
SNI subscribed to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite to gain quick, web-based access to the latest versions of Microsoft messaging and collaboration programs.
Benefits
· Three-weekend migration
· Cost avoidance of U.S.$500,000 annually
· Outsourced email worries / “By going with Microsoft Online Services, we made a strategic decision to work with Microsoft in building long-term business value, and we avoided $500,000 annually on the cost of an on-premises environment.”
Mark Hale, Executive Vice President, Operations and Chief Technology Officer, Scripps Networks Interactive
Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) is a leading lifestyle media company, developing popular TV programming such as the Food Network, Home and Garden Television, and related websites and magazines. When parent company E.W. Scripps spun off SNI as a separate company, SNI had to set up its own email messaging system in eight months. To meet the deadline and provide low-cost, high-quality messaging services to its 2,000 employees, SNI subscribed to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. SNI migrated all 2,000 mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Online in just three weekends and obtained a full-featured messaging system for one-third the cost of a partner-hosted solution. In addition to realizing lower capital and operational costs, SNI no longer has to worry about email infrastructure.
Situation
Since launching Home and Garden Television (HGTV) in 1994, Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) has become a leader in lifestyle media, developing a range of popular content for television, the Internet, and satellite radio; in books and magazines; and on today’s emerging media platforms. In addition to HGTV, SNI runs the Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living Network, and Great American Country, all of which are complemented by companion websites, books, and magazines. SNI programming is seen in more than 170 countries on seven continents around the world. SNI is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has 2,000 employees.
In 2008, media conglomerate and parent company E.W. Scripps, which owns hundreds of TV stations, websites, and publishing ventures, made the strategic decision to spin off SNI as a stand-alone company. SNI needed to give its 2,000 employees the same enterprise-class messaging services that they had enjoyed at the parent firm, namely, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 messaging and collaboration client.
The SNI IT staff had a very short time in which to build the required infrastructure and limited people resources with which to support it. The IT team also had to guarantee that no interruptions of the email messaging service would occur during the transition, either to the Office Outlook 2007 client or to BlackBerry mobile messaging services that are used by 800 employees. “SNI is more email dependent than any company I’ve ever worked for,” says Pat Burnett, Vendor Manager in IT Outsourcing for Scripps Networks Interactive. “It’s the lifeline within and between internal departments, and between SNI and its business partners. If email stops, our business stops.”
Solution
As SNI was creating its own IT operation, management realized that certain infrastructure services were better delivered as hosted services “in the cloud”—that is, by third-party providers hosting applications over the Internet through their data centers—rather than running and managing those applications and underlying servers in-house. SNI had moved other applications into the cloud and knew that it would see a significant capital savings by avoiding the purchase of messaging servers, storage, and software licensing.
But there were other advantages. “There are also operational advantages to running software in the cloud,” says Siva Akurati, Director, Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Management Office for Scripps Networks Interactive. “We would reduce maintenance costs, since someone else is managing those servers. We wanted our IT staff to focus on business innovation, not managing messaging servers. Plus, with a hosted email service, we would always be up-to-date on the latest software.”
Move to Online Email
In late 2008, SNI was on the verge of signing an agreement for a partner-hosted email solution—SNI would purchase and own the hardware and software, but a partner would host it—when it learned about the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. Part of Microsoft Online Services, the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Office Communications Online. Companies subscribe to these online services through partners or directly through Microsoft, and gain instant access to the latest Microsoft messaging and collaboration software.
“The Business Productivity Online Standard Suite provided a more complete solution than the partner-hosted options we were considering,” Akurati says. “Even though our email services would have been outsourced to a third-party provider, we would still have had to own certain parts of the infrastructure. We also compared Microsoft Exchange Online to other cloud email providers such as Google Mail, and thought that the Microsoft solution was more stable, full featured, and the customer response center more responsive.”
SNI also saw the move to Microsoft Online Services as a strategic continuation of its gradual migration to online software. “We have forged a strategic long-term relationship with Microsoft to build business value, reduce the cost and improve the delivery of IT services to the business,” said Mark Hale, Executive Vice President, Operations and Chief Technology Officers for Scripps Networks Interactive.
Quickly Migrate 2,000 Mailboxes
E.W. Scripps had asked SNI to be off of its email network by June 1, 2009, giving the IT team eight months to transfer 2,000 mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Online. In March 2009, the IT staff launched a three-week pilot program of the online service with about 75 IT staff members. It wanted to evaluate performance, ease of use, and Microsoft service.
At the same time, SNI brought in PointBridge, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to help SNI formalize its email migration plan and perform the technical aspects of the migration. With positive results from the pilot program, SNI forged ahead with migrating all employees to Microsoft Exchange Online. “What we learned during the pilot project really helped us roll out Microsoft Exchange Online to our larger employee population,” Burnett says. “We successfully upgraded all 2,000 mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Online in just three weekends.” SNI moved the mailboxes on weekends to avoid interrupting work time. During this time, SNI also implemented Exchange message filtering and email archiving, and switched the company’s 800 BlackBerry users to accessing their email messages from Microsoft data centers.
SNI also took care to create a strong communications plan to ensure that there were no surprises for employees. The IT team notified employees about the upcoming switch to cloud-based email messaging through daily updates on the company intranet and in frequent email messages. It let each employee know their specific migration date, provided detailed Microsoft Exchange Online logon instructions and tips, and explained minor changes that BlackBerry users would see. Because of this thorough planning, migration was relatively painless.
Implement Rich Email Services
By subscribing to Microsoft Exchange Online, which is based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, SNI was able to upgrade the company’s messaging infrastructure from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007—without purchasing a single server or installing and testing any new software. “The increased mailbox size, from 5 to 25 gigabytes, in Exchange Server 2007 was really important to us because, as a media company, our employees send many large media files that quickly fill up mailboxes,” Akurati says. “Microsoft Exchange Online also gave us easier mailbox management and built-in access to Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, for better virus and spam protection.”
Another big plus was far easier access to email messages for remote workers. “Users don’t have to use VPNs [virtual private networks] to get to their email messages anymore,” Burnett adds. “Many of our employees travel or work from home, and now they can get to their email from any web browser.”
While Microsoft Exchange Online was the primary reason to subscribe to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, various groups in SNI are also gradually using the other programs in the suite to simplify document sharing and speed internal communications.
Benefits
By subscribing to Microsoft Exchange Online, SNI was able to deliver not only seamless but improved email service to its 2,000 employees in less than a month. It avoided considerable capital and operational expenses and has outsourced all email-related worries to Microsoft.
Three-Weekend Migration
Using Microsoft Online Services, SNI was able to get a full-featured, enterprise-class messaging system deployed to users in less than 30 days. “By moving to Microsoft Exchange Online, we were able to set up a fully functional messaging environment in just three weekends,” Akurati says. “Transitioning to a traditional outsourced solution usually takes 60 to 90 days, because of steps for testing, training, documenting, sharing knowledge, and other processes, which we completely eliminated with Microsoft Exchange Online.”
Akurati adds that the smooth migration was just as critical as the speed at which it was accomplished. “A stable email environment is absolutely crucial to our business,” he says. “Our revenue stream depends on email. PointBridge and Microsoft really helped us plan and accomplish the migration very smoothly. And the fact that Microsoft data centers are SAS 70 certified and contain the latest security and operational practices gives us huge peace of mind.” SAS 70 is an auditing statement issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants that provides guidance to service auditors when assessing the internal controls of a service organization such as a hosting facility. Microsoft data centers also provide 99.9 percent scheduled uptime with financially backed service-level agreements.
Cost Avoidance of $500,000 Annually
SNI also significantly lowered messaging costs—by a factor of three or four—by subscribing to Microsoft Online Services. “The cost of building an on-premises messaging infrastructure from scratch and staffing was twice as high as the cost of Microsoft Online Services, and the cost of going the partner-hosted route was three or four times higher,” Hale says. “By going with Microsoft Online Services, we made a strategic decision to work with Microsoft in building long-term business value, and we avoided $500,000 annually on the cost of an on-premises environment. We also avoided an approximate $475,000 in one-time costs to buy the needed hardware.”
Additionally, with Microsoft Online Services, SNI gets a predictable monthly fee that management can plug into operating budgets. “If a server dies or overtime labor is needed for server maintenance or software upgrades, Microsoft bears that cost, not us,” Akurati says. “Plus, Microsoft Online Services gives us a ‘pay as you go’ model; we only pay for the messaging infrastructure that we’re using rather than building excess infrastructure to withstand peak-traffic periods or accommodate future growth.”
Outsourced Email Worries
Another huge value of Microsoft Online Services to SNI is that the IT staff simply doesn’t have to think about messaging on a day-to-day basis. “We don’t have to lay out a strategic migration plan or budget for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010,” Akurati says. “We are putting no time into it; Microsoft will simply turn it on for us when it’s available. The only thing that we have to worry about is the cultural adoption of new products; Microsoft takes care of the technical issues. Our staff is free to focus on developing new services that make our company more competitive and attract more viewers and subscribers.”
Microsoft Online Services
Microsoft Online Services are business-class communication and collaboration solutions delivered as a subscription service and hosted by Microsoft. With these offerings, customers can cost-effectively access the most up-to-date technologies and immediately benefit from streamlined communications, simplified management, and business-class reliability and security features. For IT staffers, Microsoft Online Services are backed by strong service level agreements and help reduce the burden of performing routine IT management, freeing up time to focus on core business initiatives.
For more information, visit:
www.microsoft.com/online