1-page Solution Brief - Posted 12/15/2008

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Timken

Global Manufacturer Signs Up for Service, Mitigates Portal Deployment Risks

Business Needs

Timken, a 109-year-old company, is a longtime leader in the production of antifriction bearings and specialty steel. The company began as a carriage maker before the advent of the mass production of automobiles and now has offices in 27 countries and 25,000 employees. Timken competes in a global marketplace that requires companies to adapt to ever-changing financial conditions.

Executives at Timken were anxious to rebuild the company’s entire portal to improve the efficiency of diverse, global content management. The strategic goals included relaunching its customer-facing Web site and creating an enterprisewide horizontal portal featuring a collaborative, real-time environment for its global workforce. They selected Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as the company’s portal solution and SAP as its enterprise resource planning solution.

The knowledge that the Microsoft Services team brought to the table, plus their willingness to work with us, was all very critical to the success of the project Gordon East IT Manager Timken

But, the Timken in-house IT staff needed help. Since Office SharePoint Server 2007 was new to the market and to Timken, the IT team lacked architecture knowledge and the development skills necessary to implement Office SharePoint Server 2007, especially given the scope and complexity of the company’s unique deployment challenges. Although the IT staff was skilled at Web development, it had little knowledge of the Microsoft .NET Framework and how to implement Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Solution

For Timken, the tactical goal of the project was to make Office SharePoint Server 2007 the solution for its Internet-facing Web site first. Following this initiative, Timken would replace its intranet with Office SharePoint 2007 and provide a way for light ERP users to interact with the company’s SAP platform by developing Office Business Applications (OBAs) for the new portal. Timken chose the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service for the safe implementation of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

With the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service, Timken IT staff received expert technical support from Microsoft Services. The IT staff was provided with the necessary details for the implementation, including the following:

• Architectural overview of the design
• Server infrastructure analysis and recommendations
• User load and activity estimation
• Review of existing document management and workflow processes 
• Taxonomy design and information architecture
• Workstation infrastructure analysis and recommendation
• Security requirements analysis for enterprise portal and collaboration
• Capacity planning

The offering provided Timken with an implementation architect and an engagement manager from Microsoft Services. To assist in revamping the portal for Timken, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner ProSource Solutions augmented the IT talent pool. The ProSource staff developed the customer Web site, created the portal, and developed the OBAs.

“Microsoft Services was involved in every step of implementing Office SharePoint Server 2007 at Timken. The company was thrilled to have a visionary there from Microsoft Services who would work through the process with them from beginning to end,” says Liz Dunn, Account Manager at Microsoft, who was on hand to make certain those services were properly delivered to Timken.

Benefits

Timken used the wealth of technical knowledge provided by expert consultants from Microsoft Services through the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service. For Timken, the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service was crucial to the successful implementation of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

“The Microsoft Services team brought the right kind of talent and the right level of resources to implement Office SharePoint 2007,” says Scott White, Director of Strategy at Timken.

Ensured Deployment of a Scalable Solution

The Microsoft Services team understood the strategic goals set by Timken. It aligned the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service to provide a standardized approach for the implementation of Office SharePoint Server 2007 technology.

“That alignment took into consideration Timken’s technical and user requirements,” Dunn points out. The architect helped the Timken IT staff build a solution that was scalable and that fit within the company’s IT specifications. Now, Timken enjoys a manageable and scalable solution that allows for new functionality to be added with a limited amount of rework and reinstallation.

Mitigated Risks

The ongoing access to the Microsoft Services team meant that Timken could benefit from Microsoft’s own industry knowledge from thousands of similar customer engagements. The Microsoft Services team was always present to help the Timken IT team resolve any questions during the implementation process. In addition, the company’s IT staff augmented its skills by engaging with the experts from Microsoft Services and the developers from ProSource Solutions.

“The knowledge that the Microsoft Services team brought to the table, plus their willingness to work with us, was all very critical to the success of the project,” says Gordon East, IT Manager at Timken.

Maximized Value on IT Investment

Timken’s internal IT team augmented its development knowledge of Office SharePoint Server 2007 through the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service. With the service, the Timken IT staff was able to benefit from the industry knowledge of Microsoft experts throughout every phase of the project.

“We were dependent on the Microsoft Services team for the knowledge transfer to help us with this Office SharePoint Server 2007 implementation project,” says White.