4-page Case Study - Posted 12/21/2007

Views: 750

Rate This Evidence:

Cytec Industries

Mobile Solution Helps Specialty Chemicals and Materials Company Improve Customer Focus

Global specialty chemicals and materials company Cytec Industries develops, manufactures, and sells value-added products to markets such as aerospace, adhesives, automotive and industrial coatings, inks, and plastics. In April 2006, the company began searching for a mobile solution that would give its global work force around-the-clock access to Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 e-mail and calendars. To meet this need, the company standardized on Windows Mobile® phones and smartphones. The solution gives Cytec employees anytime, anywhere access to e-mail and calendars, and it improves time management. In the future, the solution will also help Cytec to offer superior customer service by providing remote access to internal Cytec applications, such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications.

Situation

Communication levels have increased as Windows Mobile devices have made it easier to check e-mail and sort for the critical few.  Stephen Stone Vice President, Performance Chemicals Group Cytec

In April 2006, the company was seeking a way to make it easier for employees who traveled frequently to keep up with daily business tasks. Employees on business away from the office typically needed to find designated WiFi hotspots and use their laptops to connect with their e-mail, calendar, and meeting requests through the Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client. Philip D. Kutzenco, Director of Technology at Cytec, says, “Our road warriors were asking for a convenient way to be able to check e-mail, update their calendars, and respond to meeting requests 24/7—a way that didn’t require them to go to a designated Internet point or pull out a laptop at inconvenient times.”

Cytec began looking for a mobile solution with some specific criteria in mind. “We wanted to make it possible for people to have only one mobile or wireless device,” says Kutzenco. Some Cytec employees have personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the vast majority of employees use cell phones. But, says Kutzenco, “For the most part, the PDAs that employees were using were non–e-mail-enabled PDAs—so in a meeting, employees could update their calendars, but then they would have to go back to their PCs and sync them. Or, for employees who received e-mail on the PDA, they would have to wait until returning to the PC to sync the device before sending the response back out.”

Cytec wanted to streamline the number of devices a mobile employee needed in order to stay connected to important business information around the clock. Kutzenco adds, “Employees needed a device that would connect over wireless telephone networks, so they could send messages on the run.”

Solution

The Cytec IT department began researching a mobile e-mail solution that would meet the needs of employees in any location around the globe. “It was important that it actually work all around the world, because we have employees in almost every country,” says Kutzenco.

Cytec began researching prospective solutions by talking to industry peers, as well as consulting agencies. “We started our decision-making process by talking to companies like Gartner Consulting about the various products out there,” says Kutzenco. “We also sent out a questionnaire to a number of other chemical companies and got responses from them. We asked them what products they were using, and we evaluated several of these.” As a result of this research, Cytec was able to understand how easy or difficult each product was to manage and how much effort it took to administer it. “We thoroughly reviewed the literature and the security implications of each,” says Kutzenco.

The Windows Mobile devices coordinate all of the Office Outlook 2007 features that people are accustomed to using to manage their working lives, to keep themselves on track.  Philip D. Kutzenco Director of Technology Cytec

“It was critical that the solution really work from a standpoint of e-mail infrastructure and security. All of our e-mail servers are located in the United States, but we have employees on almost every continent,” says Frank Guzowski, Cyec’s Senior Messaging Administrator. “The Messaging and Security Feature Pack [MSFP], which was released as an add-in to Windows Mobile 5.0, provided key security features that we required. We needed to ensure that it would be easy to wipe a device remotely if needed. We wanted to make sure that if somebody stole the device, if anybody tried too many times to get in, they’d be locked out. We wanted to be sure that we could prevent somebody from connecting to our e-mail server if we didn't authorize it.”

Another positive factor was that the solution didn’t require Cytec to use another company’s proprietary infrastructure. “As long as the cellular phone carrier’s plan provides Internet access to the Windows Mobile device, we can push mail to it without having to go through anyone else’s technology. With this solution, we aren’t dependent on a server that is outside of our infrastructure, and owned by a third party, being available,” says Guzowski.

Cytec already had the main technology on the server side—Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). “We were able to pilot this without buying anything extra, except for Windows Mobile phones and smartphones,” says Guzowski. “We piloted it with business people and a bunch of IT people. We tested it in every region—Europe, Latin America, North America, and Asia Pacific. There were no hitches—it went very well. The pilot really proved the reliability of the solution.” The company also tested a Nokia phone that did not run Windows Mobile software but worked with Exchange Server; however, Guzowski explains, “It didn’t compare in terms of functionality.”

Cytec found Windows Mobile phones and smartphones to be the best fit for the company from the standpoint of being able to move many types of applications to the devices. “Looking to the future, there is a push in our company toward customer relationship management [CRM],” says Kutzenco. The company is currently in the process of deploying Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. “As we chose our mobile solution, we kept in mind the possibility that people would want to start putting some of our CRM or ERP [enterprise resource planning] applications on these devices. We have Microsoft .NET Framework developers that can write applications for Windows Mobile devices—so that was one of the things that helped us feel this was the best technology for us.”

Employees requesting a device must demonstrate a legitimate business need. “Once an employee receives authorization, we provide a list of the devices that we support, with some documentation,” says Kutzenco. “We want people to be self-sufficient. We’re pretty undemanding in terms of what people get—as long as it’s a Windows Mobile 5.0 device with the MSFP or a Windows Mobile 6 device. We are confident that if it has that operating system and those security features, we can control the device, and that if they lose it, we can wipe it.”

Cytec has authorized the devices for 200 employees so far. “That's a significant number. More and more people who were initially skeptical that the Windows Mobile devices would cost too much are really seeing the value of them, and also seeing that the costs are well worth the benefits,” says Kutzenco.

Benefits

According to Stephen Stone, Vice President of the Performance Chemicals Group at Cytec, “As we rolled out the devices to our commercial organization, we saw an instant acceptance of the technology. Communication levels have increased as Windows Mobile devices have made it easier to check e-mail and sort for the critical few. This has made us more responsive to the urgent needs of our customers because we have information readily available.” Cytec employees who travel frequently now have anytime access to e-mail and calendars no matter where they are. Employees are managing time better. And having internal Cytec applications on the devices will help Cytec to provide superior customer service.

With Windows Mobile, people now have better access to information and have used it to our customers’ benefit, which was a key objective of using this technology.  Stephen Stone Vice President, Performance Chemicals Group Cytec

Anytime, Anywhere Access to E-Mail and Calendars

Employees using the devices now have around-the-clock access to Office Outlook 2007 e-mail and calendars, so they can respond to urgent messages or meeting requests from wherever they’d normally have a cell phone connection. “I’d say the number one benefit the Windows Mobile devices provide is the ability for employees to be more responsive to e-mail messages and calendars,” says Kutzenco. Previously, employees who needed to check e-mail or update availability away from the office had to either find a public WiFi hotspot and use their laptops or wait until they reached their hotels. “Like many employees, I live by my calendar,” says Kutzenco. “So to be able to do that now without having to be sitting in front of a PC, to be able to do it in the cab or wherever you’d normally use your phone, is very helpful.”

Improved Time Management

From a time-management perspective, says Kutzenco, “People appreciate the seamless integration with Office Outlook 2007. The Windows Mobile devices coordinate all of the Office Outlook 2007 features that people are accustomed to using to manage their working lives, to keep themselves on track. In fact, one reason we chose this solution was the comprehensive integration with Outlook. You have all your contact lists, your tasks, and your entire calendar already there.”

The ability to go home at the end of the day and check messages without having to boot up the laptop or the PC, says Kutzenco, “is invaluable.” He continues, “To just be able to look at a small device and determine if something is critical and then decide whether to take further action is so helpful. People really feel it puts them in more control of their lives. It gives them a comfort level to know where things are without having to go through a lot of trouble.”

Minimal Technology Investment

The existing investment by Cytec in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 provided both logistical and financial benefits. “We liked that we didn’t have to worry about integrating with or spending money on new software. As a user of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2, we had all of the functionality we needed,” says Kutzenco. “Our only investment was the mobile devices themselves, which was very convenient.”

Better Customer Service

Cytec views the ability to have as much customer information as possible on the mobile devices as a critical benefit of the solution. Part of the company’s requirement for its CRM solution was that it have a client that works on a Windows Mobile smartphone or other handheld device. “As Cytec adopts Microsoft Dynamics CRM as our customer relationship management software and process, we are tailoring this system to allow for easy collection of customer information through the smartphone as well as through a traditional laptop. The goal of the smartphone entry is to ease the burden of data entry and allow our commercial group to spend more time focusing on our customers,” says Stone. 

Stone adds, “Response times have greatly improved with the Windows Mobile smartphones, as evidenced by the quick turnarounds on customer requests. With Windows Mobile, people now have better access to information and have used it to our customers’ benefit, which was a key objective of using this technology.”

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 Cytec Industries products and services, call (973) 357-3100 or visit the Web site at:
www.cytec.com

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile brings the power of the Windows® operating system to mobile devices, helping businesses and their mobile employees stay connected while on the go. Windows Mobile runs mobile versions of Microsoft programs, including Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer® Mobile, Pocket MSN®, Windows Media® Player Mobile, and Microsoft Office Word Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, and Excel® Mobile. With Windows Mobile, information workers get powerful software combined with the familiarity of Windows. Combined with available service plans and connectivity options, Windows Mobile–based devices, available from 42 device makers and 68 mobile operators in 48 countries, can be used to make calls, send e-mail and instant messages, surf the Web, and access critical business information even when users are away from the office.

More information about Windows Mobile can be found at:
www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile 

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published December 2007