4-page Case Study - Posted 8/6/2008

Views: 714

Rate This Evidence:

Wyoming Department of Health

State Agency Improves Communication and Productivity with New Software

The Wyoming Department of Health comprises 68 programs that offer the citizens of Wyoming a range of health and human services. The agency’s decentralized structure led to each program purchasing its own technology, which resulted in communication and information-sharing difficulties and high costs. The Wyoming Department of Health replaced its Novell messaging system and multiple instant messaging applications with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. With common email messaging, instant messaging, Web-based video conferencing, and presence capabilities across the agency, employees—especially in far-flung locations—can communicate faster and more personally. Travel across Wyoming’s icy winter roads has been dramatically reduced, increasing employee safety and reducing travel costs.

Situation

The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is the state’s primary agency for providing a broad range of health and human services to Wyoming citizens. WDH includes 68 programs that each focus on a specific area such as aging, public health, mental health, substance abuse, developmental disabilities, and rural and frontier health. Only half of the agency’s 1,600 employees are located in the state capital of Cheyenne; nurses and other employees work from county offices and hospitals across the state.

With employees spending less time on the road, they can spend more time working and serving the citizens of Wyoming.  Andy Corbin Information Technology Director Wyoming Department of Health

Within WDH, there were five different Active Directory® directory structures that various programs had set up on top of the agency’s Novell eDirectory structure. Multiple instant messaging systems were in use, and it was difficult to audit and secure content.

“We were duplicating resources across 68 programs, which led to inefficiencies and confusion, and less buying power for the agency,” says Andy Corbin, Information Technology Director for the Wyoming Department of Health. “Each division supported its own technology, usually using expensive outside contractors.”

The plethora of instant messaging systems and the agency’s convoluted directory structure made it difficult to share information between divisions. Communicating with remote employees was especially difficult and expensive. WDH nurses are stationed at public health nursing offices in remote, distant corners of the state. “When they needed to have meetings, they’d hop in their cars and head to Cheyenne,” Corbin says. “They would also use email, but many people here—nurses and HR [human resources] people especially—really like human interaction.”

Road travel during Wyoming winters is treacherous, and with gas prices rising, WDH wanted to give employees a way to conduct personalized communications without climbing into a car. A few years ago, WDH installed stand-alone video conferencing systems, which cost U.S.$5,000 apiece, in each of its 26 county offices to fill this need. However, the units were difficult to use, unreliable, and often ignored. They also required that WDH open its firewall security ports, and they consumed significant network bandwidth, requiring that WDH purchase dedicated DSL lines.

Messaging system reliability was another problem. At one point, Novell GroupWise went down, hobbling the agency’s communication; at other times, message stores would become corrupt.

Solution

In 2003, the State of Wyoming decided to standardize on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 as its statewide messaging system. Exchange Server was perceived to be the industry leader with the strongest feature set. As soon as the state obtained its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, WDH was on a fast track to switch from Novell GroupWise to a Microsoft messaging platform. “Microsoft messaging was clearly superior to Novell’s solution,” Corbin says. “Once we had our licensing vehicle, we took the lead in the state in moving to Microsoft.”

When [employees] needed to have meetings, they’d hop in their cars and head to Cheyenne. They would also use e-mail, but many people here—nurses and HR [human resources] people especially—really like human interaction.  Andy Corbin Information Technology Director Wyoming Department of Health

Taking Advantage of the Microsoft Agreement

WDH upgraded its existing Exchange Server software to Exchange Server 2007 in late 2007 to take advantage of improvements in email security, remote access, and operational efficiencies. The agency wanted to apply many of these same improvements and efficiencies to other communications areas—namely, instant messaging and video conferencing. WDH originally considered using Skype and other Web-based conferencing services, but then it realized that, with its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, it could cost-effectively take advantage of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, an integrated software suite that includes presence, instant messaging, on-premise Web conferencing, software-powered voice over IP (VoIP), and the ability to extend unified communications to outside parties. Presence is the ability to see an individual’s availability and preferred mode of communication.

“Using Office Communications Server 2007 would solve our stand-alone video conferencing system problems and give us standardized, secure instant messaging agency-wide,” Corbin says. “We were also excited about the presence capabilities, which would help us track down one another more expediently for information and decisions.”

Two-Week Rollout

WDH decided to bring in BT, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to help with the deployment. “We have 23 IT staffers to manage 1,600 users and had no time to implement Office Communications Server 2007,” Corbin says. “We talked to a few vendors, and everyone came back with sky-high bids. BT already had a consultant here implementing Exchange Server 2007, and they offered to help us out.”

In January 2008, BT installed Office Communications Server 2007 and a Web access server, documented the installation, and provided a one-day training class for the agency’s IT staff. The entire Office Communications Server 2007 deployment took just two weeks and cost U.S.$10,000.

“Prior to deploying Office Communications Server 2007, we implemented Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to help WDH manage and monitor its desktops and servers,” says Kirk Schroeder, Microsoft Partner Alliance Manager for BT. “With a management infrastructure in place, we then rolled out Exchange Server 2007, followed by a revamping of the complicated Active Directory structure and installation of Office Communications Server 2007.”

Simultaneous to the Office Communications Server 2007 deployment, Corbin’s staff rolled out Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, a unified communications client that people use to move seamlessly between email messaging, instant messaging, voice, and video communications from within any Microsoft Office program.

Instant Success

Corbin’s staff purchased inexpensive webcams and installed them on the desktop computers of 10 pilot users around the state. Within days, other employees had learned of the new unified communications capabilities and wanted the software installed on their desks, too. “My strategy was to get a few user advocates out there and let them sell it for us,” Corbin says. ‘This generates a higher adoption rate than mandating that people use it.” Today, 10 percent of WDH employees are using Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007, and Corbin plans to make the programs available to all 1,600 employees by fall 2008.

Benefits

By deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007, the Wyoming Department of Health has improved communication and productivity, increased employee safety by keeping employees off the roads, reduced travel and technology costs, and enhanced the security of confidential data.

With Office Communications Server 2007, we’ve been able to have the same warm, face-to-face contact without the travel.  Andy Corbin Information Technology Director Wyoming Department of Health

Improved Communication and Productivity

Through the use of Office Communications Server 2007, Wyoming Department of Health employees can reach one another immediately, and more personally, than was possible before with previous conferencing services, increasing communication effectiveness and productivity. Instead of taking two days to travel to Cheyenne for an hour-long meeting, staff members can simply attend a meeting by video conference from the comfort of their offices. “With employees spending less time on the road, they can spend more time working and serving the citizens of Wyoming,” Corbin says. “Our citizens win by saving money and getting higher productivity out of their state employees.”

Computer-based communications can also be more reliable than standard telephone communications. “Recently, the local phone company lost some lines in Buffalo, Wyoming,” Corbin says.  “Our veterans’ home there was still able to make calls and communicate with our Cheyenne, Thermopolis, and Basin locations using Office Communications Server.”

Being able to determine if colleagues are available for a quick question has also been a big convenience and timesaver. “The presence feature in Office Communications Server 2007 is fantastic,” Corbin says. “When I need to track down my boss, I don’t have to call his secretary. I can immediately see if he’s at his desk. Also, I’m on the phone much of the time, and IT staff members in the field often had trouble getting in touch with me. Now, I can respond to them over instant messaging, even when I’m in another meeting.”

The easy escalation of a phone call or instant messaging session to a conference call, group instant messaging session, or video call makes it easy to corral multiple parties and arrive at decisions quickly. “A person in accounting asked me a question recently on instant messaging,” Corbin says by way of explanation. “I needed to consult several other people for the answer and was able to escalate the instant messaging session to a video call with a few mouse clicks and bring in the other people. Everyone was there, making the decision together, looking each other in the eye. It was a huge timesaver. It’s very different from sending an email blast and waiting for answer.”

Increased Employee Connectedness, Personal Safety

The use of Office Communications Server 2007 has been a real unifier in a state with as much wide open space as Wyoming. “Because our staff is so spread out, it’s been great to be able to make video calls from our desks and review documents together over the computer,” Corbin says. “It really brings team members closer together without travel. Before, many of our employees had very little face time. Remote employees, especially, feel more that they’re part of a team and are able to communicate with team members more personally and rapidly.”

Using computer-based communications tools also helps WDH better fulfill its role of helping people and saving lives, beginning with its own employees. “The roads in Wyoming are very treacherous in wintertime. Using Office Communications Server 2007 helps us keep our employees safe.”

Remote employees, especially, feel more that they’re part of a team and are able to communicate with team members more personally and rapidly.  Andy Corbin Information Technology Director Wyoming Department of Health

Lowered Operations Costs

WDH has also been able to reduce travel costs, which continue to climb. “Landers is a four-hour trip from Cheyenne, and other cities with WDH offices are six hours away, and gas prices just keep rising,” Corbin says. “With Office Communications Server 2007, we’ve been able to have the same warm, face-to-face contact without the travel.”

Standardizing on a single messaging infrastructure will also save money by decreasing the agency’s long-distance phone bill and increasing its buying power when purchasing webcams, software, and other technology elements. Corbin’s staff has also reduced its maintenance and management work, since it is no longer supporting multiple instant messaging and video conferencing systems.

Enhanced Messaging Availability, Security

Exchange Server 2007 has been much more reliable than Novell GroupWise, eliminating
email outages and associated productivity lapses. The ability to use a single Active Directory authentication structure for both Exchange Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 extends the agency’s existing security policies to new communications tools and simplifies user authentication. “When security is simpler, it’s stronger,” Corbin says. “Users aren’t pasting multiple passwords on their monitors using sticky notes.”

WDH has also brought instant messaging communications under the strong protection of Active Directory. “People were using Google Talk and other systems before,” Corbin says. “Employees received training for securing these conversations, but they often forgot precautions. By shutting down other instant messaging systems, we know that these conversations are safe and auditable, with no confidential data being leaked out. We can better comply with federal regulations governing Medicaid and other programs.”

Extendable to Other Applications

Long term, WDH would like to integrate Office Communications Server 2007 with its notebook computers and PDAs, with Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 productivity programs, and with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007. This integration would enable employees working on Office documents to see, from a presence pane within the Office documents, when colleagues are at their desks and to send them an instant message requesting answers needed to complete documents. WDH is also federating Office Communications Server 2007 to make it possible to use enterprise instant messaging outside the organization—with other state agencies, BT, Microsoft, and other vendors.

“Office Communications Server 2007 has opened a whole new world for us and enabled us to enrich communications for our employees,” Corbin concludes.

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 BT products and services, call (408) 330-2700 or visit the Web site at:
www.bt.ins.com

For more information about Wyoming Department of Health services, call (866) 571-0944 or visit the Web site at:
www.health.wyo.gov

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 

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

Document published July 2008