4-page Case Study - Posted 8/30/2007

Views: 250

Rate This Evidence:

BSA LifeStructures

Architecture and Engineering Firm Gets Seven Server Products for the Price of Two

BSA LifeStructures wanted to maintain a strong sense of community within its rapidly growing architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design business and build stronger ties between its Indianapolis and Chicago offices. The firm also needed to more efficiently manage its fast-growing business data. To achieve these goals and contain costs, BSA LifeStructures acquired the Microsoft® Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) Suite. The firm expects the suite’s collaboration, business data integration, unified communications, and security capabilities to help improve teamwork, reduce search and IT support time, and increase productivity. The Enterprise CAL Suite provides the firm with seven server product CALs under one license for about the price of acquiring two of the products separately. It also saves the firm U.S.$15,000 a year on the cost of a third-party security solution.

Situation

Founded in 1975 as Boyd/Sobieray Associates, BSA LifeStructures now has a name that reflects its corporate mission of “creating inspired solutions that improve lives.” The firm recognized early on that architecture and engineering are equal partners in the design process, and that approach has led to long-term client relationships and rapid growth.

Justifying the cost was easy. We can get the whole Enterprise CAL Suite for about the price of two of the products acquired separately, and be ready for a lot more opportunities down the road. Brett Bonenberger Chief Information Officer, BSA LifeStructures

Challenge of Rapid Growth
All that growth brought a series of challenges. The addition of the Chicago office and the rapid staff increases made it more difficult for employees to get to know each other. Traditionally, BSA LifeStructures had printed an Employee Family Directory, which included employee contact information, family photos, and details on hobbies and other interests. Access to this information helped build relationships among employees with similar interests and maintain a family atmosphere within the company. But rapid growth made maintaining the printed directory too labor intensive, so the company wanted to re create it electronically.

BSA LifeStructures also wanted to make the Chicago office staff feel more connected to the Indianapolis office and facilitate the building of interoffice teams to collaborate on projects. The firm had an HTML intranet, used Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 for e-mail, and used a Linux-based CipherTrust IronMail messaging gateway security appliance to filter e-mail for spam and viruses. Employees were able to collaborate but not in real time.

Increasing IT and Data Storage Demands
In addition, the IT department had to spend several hours a week updating intranet content. BSA LifeStructures runs a lean 10-person IT department, so every minute spent updating intranet content took away valuable time that could have been spent working on the company’s IT strategy.

As the number of people and projects multiplied, so did the firm’s project data and the sophistication of design drawings. BSA LifeStructures creates high-definition three-dimensional (3-D) computer renderings of its building designs that provide clients with a virtual walk-through of the proposed building. The firm also recently introduced building information modeling, which adds context-sensitive information to 3-D drawing files. Each drawing element, such as a door, window, or wall, is associated with additional information regarding type, size, and materials used. When designers or clients select the element in the drawing, they can view those specifications. The specifications are stored in small databases within each file, leading to very large drawing files.

“When we were drawing in 2-D without building information modeling, our files would range from 0.5 to 1.5 megabytes,” says Brett Bonenberger, Chief Information Officer for BSA LifeStructures. “Some of the drawing files that we create now are up to 25 and 30 MB. As a result, our data storage is increasing by an average of about 25 gigabytes per week.”

Need for Enterprisewide Search
The immediate solution for the growing data requirements was to buy more disk space. But BSA LifeStructures also wanted to make the data searchable. In early 2007, the firm started implementing the Synergis Adept engineering document management system for new projects. However, the firm still had a vast amount of data from completed projects outside that document management system. As a result, architects and engineers had to spend a lot of time logging on and off disparate systems and searching through multiple sites to find what they needed.

“We had a lot of data on the network, but we really didn’t know what it was, where it was, or how old it was,” says Bonenberger. “One of our biggest challenges was how to search, retrieve, and protect that data.”

Solution

In 2005, BSA LifeStructures renewed its three-year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Under that agreement, the firm acquired the Microsoft Core Client Access License (CAL) Suite, which provided access rights to the Windows Server® 2003 operating system, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard, and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 Standard. Toward the end of 2006, the firm decided to address its communication and collaboration challenges by setting up an intranet portal based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard. It planned also to use the Enterprise Search capability in Office SharePoint Server 2007 to create an enterprisewide search solution.

However, as the BSA LifeStructures IT team looked further, it discovered additional features in the Enterprise edition of Office SharePoint Server 2007 that would help the firm solve many of its problems.

For example, the IT team determined that the Business Data Catalog capability in Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise could be used to bring key data from various business applications to SharePoint lists, Web Parts, search results, user profiles, and custom applications. The team could use the Business Data Catalog capability to extract employee data from the human resources system and publish it as an online directory through the SharePoint intranet site, replacing the printed version of the Employee Family Directory. The firm also saw potential in using the Business Data Catalog to collect project management and planning data and to direct it to “dashboards” for company executives, project managers, and team members to view.

In addition, BSA LifeStructures is planning to upgrade to Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise to take advantage of unified messaging. With the unified messaging capability, staffers will have the ability to access voice mail, e-mail, fax, and calendaring through a single inbox whether they’re in or out of the office, which will make it easier for them to stay on top of projects.

Simplified Enterprise Licensing
In late 2006, BSA LifeStructures contacted its Microsoft account manager who suggested that the firm could find a great deal of value in the Microsoft Enterprise CAL Suite, which would extend the Core CAL Suite investment by adding seven additional Microsoft server products under a single license.

Bonenberger determined that the cost of acquiring CALs for both Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise and Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise, which it already planned to get, was about the same as upgrading the licensing agreement to include the entire Enterprise CAL Suite. Through its Enterprise Agreement, the firm could add the Enterprise CAL Suite “step-up” option that adds CALs for seven Microsoft server products to the four Core CAL Suite offerings at a significant savings compared with acquiring the seven products separately.

With the cost of the Enterprise CAL Suite justified by the use of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise and Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise, BSA LifeStructures acquired the suite and began to look at the potential value of other Enterprise CAL Suite components. For example, the firm plans to use Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise for instant messaging and Web conferencing. BSA LifeStructures also plans to use the presence awareness features of Office Communications Server 2007 so that employees across various work sites can see whether colleagues are in a meeting, on the phone, or out of the office, which will enhance real-time communication.

“As we continue to grow, we’re looking to build and support stronger coordination, collaboration, and communication between the offices,” says Bonenberger.

New Intranet in Just 3.5 Months
Working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Ambassador Solutions, the BSA LifeStructures IT team began building the new intranet and creating the online Employee Family Directory in July 2006 using a beta version of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise. After 3.5 months of development, the new company intranet and Employee Family Directory went live in November 2006. Since then, the site continues to evolve to incorporate more capabilities and content. The firm plans to use key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboard templates in Office SharePoint Server 2007 to display real-time financial and project status information for decision makers.

Representatives from each of the 15 BSA LifeStructures departments are responsible for editing, adding, and removing content from their departmental sites within the intranet. Each content manager received about two hours of one-on-one training to cover the basics, such as how to add a document Web Part or a message board. Content managers use SharePoint site templates to ensure consistency between sites. “Previously all support for the intranet went through my team and now those days are done,” Bonenberger says.

BSA LifeStructures also worked with Ambassador Solutions to create an enterprisewide search solution based on the Enterprise Search capability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. With this new solution, employees can search across all enterprise data from a single interface. The solution, which includes the ability to quickly retrieve CAD drawings and Microsoft Office documents from a repository of more than 800,000 files, was scheduled for completion by the end of July 2007.

An additional capability that BSA LifeStructures gained with the Enterprise CAL Suite was Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services e-mail filtering. The firm was looking at upgrading its Linux-based CipherTrust IronMail messaging gateway security appliance, when it received an announcement that Exchange Hosted Services was available through the Enterprise CAL Suite. “We weren’t even aware of that capability when we acquired the Enterprise CAL, so it was a nice bonus,” says Bonenberger. BSA LifeStructures replaced the IronMail security appliance with Exchange Hosted Services e mail filtering in May 2007.

Benefits

With the Microsoft Enterprise CAL Suite, BSA LifeStructures gets access to an integrated suite of server software that meets multiple business needs, at a significant savings compared with acquiring individual product licenses separately. The firm also is saving $15,000 a year in licensing and maintenance costs by eliminating its IronMail security appliance. In addition, BSA LifeStructures expects to increase user and IT productivity with the capabilities offered by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the integrated Enterprise CAL Suite products.

Significant Cost Savings
For the cost of the CALs for Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise and Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise, BSA LifeStructures secured client access rights to the entire Enterprise CAL Suite. “Justifying the cost was easy,” says Bonenberger. “We can get the whole Enterprise CAL Suite for about the price of two of the products acquired separately, and be ready for a lot more opportunities down the road.”

Also, by replacing the CipherTrust IronMail appliance with Exchange Hosted Services e mail filtering, BSA LifeStructures saves the licensing and maintenance expense of the third-party appliance. “Switching to Exchange Hosted e-mail filtering immediately saved us approximately $15,000 a year in licensing and maintenance expenses associated with the IronMail security appliance,” says Bonenberger. “That’s a significant savings for a firm of our size.”

New intranet based on Office SharePoint Server 2007

Increased User Productivity
Using the Business Data Catalog and Enterprise Search capabilities in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, employees can easily retrieve information from all BSA LifeStructures systems through a single interface with a single logon. This helps architects and engineers complete tasks and jobs faster. “With the new intranet, it’s much easier to find the files and other information that I need to finish my projects,” says Chris Lake, Director of the Fast Forward department at BSA LifeStructures. “I used to log on to several systems to find what I was looking for. Now I can find everything I need from one site.”

The company projects that the improved search and integration features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 will increase productivity by up to 10 percent by helping workers find, use, and share relevant information more easily.

The ability to search structured and unstructured data across the enterprise will also enable BSA LifeStructures to find and eliminate redundant information, and thus help slow the increase in disk consumption.

Streamlined Information Access
BSA LifeStructures plans to use the KPIs and dashboard templates in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to present executives with the real-time financial and project status information that they need to make critical business decisions. In addition, a “What’s Happening” front page to the intranet keeps the entire organization aware of each day’s important events throughout the company. That, coupled with the online version of the Employee Family Directory, helps the firm maintain a sense of community even as it grows rapidly.

Reduced IT Time
Having each department publish and manage its own intranet content saves the BSA LifeStructures IT department an average of six hours a week on updates, additions, and deletions. And, because the integrated content management capability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is so easy to use, content managers require little IT support. “Since we’ve deployed our new intranet on Office SharePoint Server 2007, the number of help-desk request tickets has decreased dramatically. There hasn’t been a request for assistance in developing or adding content for any of the sites since about two months after the intranet was launched,” says Bonenberger. “The content managers have really become self sufficient.”

Microsoft Volume Licensing
Microsoft Volume Licensing offers customized programs that are designed to meet the needs of your business. Tailored for companies of different sizes and purchasing preferences, these Volume Licensing programs provide simple, flexible, and affordable solutions that can help you manage your licenses with ease. Whether you have five or thousands of desktop PCs, Microsoft Volume Licensing has the right program for you.

To acquire the latest Microsoft technology at a significant cost savings through Microsoft Volume Licensing, contact your Microsoft Partner or local reseller.

To learn more about Microsoft Volume Licensing, visit:
www.microsoft.com/licensing

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-of-hearing 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 Ambassador Solutions, call (317) 275-3159 or visit the Web site at:
www.ambassadorsolutions.com

For more information about BSA LifeStructures products and services, call (317) 819-7878 or visit the Web site at:
www.bsalifestructures.com