Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Telecommunications Company Increases Productivity with New Solution
Overview
Country or Region: Austria
Industry: Telecommunications
Customer Profile
With revenues close to U.S.$6.4 billion (€4.9 billion), 17.8 million mobile communication customers, about 2.3 million fixed access lines, and more than 17,000 employees in 2007, the Telekom Austria Group is the country’s leading telecommunications company.
Business Situation
To improve internal and remote communication and collaboration, Telekom Austria TA AG, the Fixed Net segment of the Telekom Austria Group, required an innovative, companywide, unified solution that would manage various communication methods.
Solution
Migration to Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 provided improved unified communications features including instant messaging, presence, voice over IP, and conferencing (audio and video).
Benefits
n Reduced communication costs
n Improved collaboration and communications
n Increased efficiency
n Consolidated communication methods / “We will have reduced costs for internal audio conferencing, but the most important thing is the ease of use. You can set up a meeting from Outlook with one click in real time.”
Christoph Wellenzohn, Business Development Manager, Telekom Austria TA AG
Telekom Austria TA AG, also referred to as Telekom Austria, is the fixed net segment of the country’s leading telecommunications company Telekom Austria Group. Telekom Austria recently deployed Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to upgrade its existing Microsoft communications infrastructure to include audio conferencing capabilities and improved voice communications options. The company previously used a dedicated solution for audio conferencing, but is migrating users to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 over the next few months. Telekom Austria was able to deploy the upgrade quickly and expects to achieve huge cost savings by moving employees to the new audio conferencing system and reducing the amount of PBX equipment that must be maintained at small branch offices.
Situation
With 2007 revenues close to U.S.$6.4 billion (€4.9 billion) and more than 17,000 employees, the Telekom Austria Group is the leading telecommunications provider in Austria. The company supplies high-quality services to more than 2.3 million fixed access lines and more than 17.8 million mobile customers. The Fixed Net segment of the Telekom Austria Group, Telekom Austria TA AG, not only comprises fixed line telephony but also data and IT solutions, Internet access and media, and value-added and wholesale services. Following its successful expansion in recent years, the Telekom Austria Group now has operations in Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Belarus.
Telekom Austria maintains a leadership position as an early adaptor and technological pioneer for communications technology. “By adopting new technologies quickly for our internal users, Telekom Austria is able to gain experience and then offer the capabilities as services to our customers,” explains Christoph Wellenzohn, a Business Development Manager at Telekom Austria TA AG.
In April 2007, Telekom Austria deployed Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007. More than 900 employees use the instant messaging, presence, Web conferencing, and voice capabilities to improve productivity and reduce costs.
For audio conferencing, Telekom Austria currently uses a hosted solution for internal users and offers the same service to external customers. The current solution is managed by administrators who set up the call. The administrators can also call attendees at a phone number they specify and connect them to the conference. “When Telekom Austria employees want to host a call, they must call the service or send an e-mail to schedule the call,” explains Wellenzohn. “They then receive the call-in number and access code when the call is scheduled. Usually this takes a few hours.”
Solution
Telekom Austria discovered that upgrading to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 would provide the audio conferencing capabilities that are required for internal users, as well as many new conferencing and voice capabilities. “Having all of the communications capabilities we need provided within one application made the decision to upgrade very easy,” notes Wellenzohn.
In November 2008, Telekom Austria deployed Office Communications Server 2007 R2 as a pilot program to more than 60 users. The company implemented Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in a test environment running in parallel with its current environment. A consolidated front-end server handles all the instant messaging, presence, conferencing, and voice capabilities for internal users, while an Edge server and Web Access server provide access to external users. The company expects to deploy the solution into its production environment by the middle of 2009.
Conferencing
IT staff established audio conferencing bridges using numbers within the existing Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system. “Setting up the audio conferencing bridges on the server was not complicated and only required less than a day of work,” explains Wellenzohn. “We established the number and distributed PINs to users—that is the whole process.” Users can initiate the conference from within an existing instant messaging session or use the integration with the Microsoft Office Outlook® messaging and collaboration client to create an appointment and e-mail the conference information to participants.
In addition to the audio conferencing capabilities, Telekom Austria will deploy many of the new voice capabilities. “We have about 2,500 different locations in Austria, most of which have some PBX equipment,” explains Wellenzohn. “We want to replace this equipment with Office Communications Server and give our users IP phones or headsets.” Deployment will take time, but Telekom Austria plans to move employees off the PBX system in 2009 and give new hires phone service through Office Communications Server.
Voice
Telekom Austria feels that the new voice capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Office Communicator 2007 R2, such as the Attendant Console and Response Groups, provide a great opportunity to replace PBX systems in small branch offices. With a Response Group, incoming calls are queued and routed to designated agents based on predefined routing rules. The Attendant Console in Office Communicator is an intuitive, integrated attendant console that facilitates accurate and rapid call handling.
Telekom Austria has many users taking advantage of Web conferencing through Office Communications Server. The Desktop Sharing capability is widely used when users do not require the full feature set of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. With desktop sharing in Office Communicator, a participant in a Communicator conference can display his or her entire computer desktop to the other participants without switching to the Live Meeting client.
Benefits
Telekom Austria expects to see significant benefits by consolidating its communications methods down to one user interface through Office Communicator. Users will find it easier to collaborate and will gain efficiency.
Reduced Communication Costs
Telekom Austria expects to cut costs on audio conferencing by using Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to host audio conferencing bridges for its internal users. Savings will also be achieved when Telekom Austria shuts down PBX equipment at small office locations after transitioning users to Office Communications Server. With a large number of small offices across Austria, the potential for savings is significant.
Improved Collaboration and Communications
“We will have reduced costs for internal audio conferencing, but the most important thing is the ease of use,” explains Wellenzohn. “You can set up a meeting from Outlook with one click in real time.” The audio conferencing feature will allow users from different sites, as well as mobile users, to attend meetings, irrespective of their location. Meetings can be scheduled at any time and by any user, providing much more flexibility than previously existed. “Our users like the fact that there is just one interface—all of the capabilities are accessed within Office Communicator,” adds Wellenzohn.
Increased Efficiency
By using Desktop Sharing through Office Communicator, Telekom Austria staff will become more productive. “With this update, our users can just click on one button and share their desktop,” explains Wellenzohn. “This is a very big improvement for usability.”
Since Desktop Sharing will be available to everyone, even customers and partners outside of the company, it can reduce the dependence on e-mailing documents back and forth for reviews. Users are able to initiate Desktop Sharing from within an instant messaging session or by e-mailing a link.
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