Two Degrees, LLC

Professional Services Firm Saves 44 Percent on Communications with Online Services

Two Degrees, LLC, a professional services firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, planned to upgrade its key messaging and collaboration solutions and boost its disaster recovery and data privacy practices. Instead of paying for on-premises migrations, new hardware, and a more secure data center, Two Degrees, LLC became an early adopter of Microsoft® Online Services. Its autonomous technology solutions division, Slalom Consulting,  deployed the hosted solution to deliver the security, communication, and collaboration functionality that Two Degrees, LLC consultants need to focus on customers and work productively onsite or at the office—at a 44 percent lower cost per person than it originally budgeted for. After successfully deploying Microsoft Online Services for its parent company, Slalom Consulting can now offer Microsoft Online Services to customers ahead of its competitors.  

 

Situation

Launched in 1993, Two Degrees, LLC is a professional services firm that provides consulting, staffing, and recruiting services to Fortune 500 and midsize business clients throughout the United States. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Two Degrees, LLC maintains nine offices across the United States and has three autonomous divisions: Two Degrees, a financial and accounting professional services firm providing resources on a project, interim, or direct hire basis; Slalom Consulting, a national management consulting and technology solutions firm and Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner; and Xversity, an early career staffing service for Master of Business Administration graduates and recently graduated professionals.   

We implemented four products with little upfront costs and added disaster recovery capabilities that we would not have deployed on our own. Going with Microsoft Online Services was an easy decision. Michele Bleser Director of Technology, Two Degrees, LLC

Two Degrees, LLC founders believe that there should be only two degrees of separation between customers and their consultants. Keeping consultants in front of clients is central to the company’s strategy for building its business. All three divisions pride themselves on providing locally-based, responsive professional services. Two Degrees, LLC has a diversified customer base and works with Fortune 500 and midsize business clients across all industries.

“Within the professional services industry, we work in a fragmented marketplace where it’s difficult to define yourself to your customer and establish trust,” says Tony Rojas, President of Two Degrees, LLC. “This is especially true in a recessionary market because companies cannot afford to make mistakes on the key initiatives for which they are allocating scarce resources.”

Possessing a secure, stable, and reliable IT infrastructure is a prerequisite for any professional services company looking to demonstrate its trustworthiness. “The nondisclosure agreements that we sign have strict parameters concerning information security and disaster recovery,” says Michele Bleser, Director of Technology at Two Degrees, LLC. “To retain customers and grow our business, it’s becoming more important to guarantee world-class disaster recovery and data privacy practices, especially around our e-mail solution.”

The Two Degrees, LLC data center currently resides in the firm’s Seattle office. “We needed to take steps in building a real-time disaster recovery solution,” says Bleser. “Many of our employees work onsite with customers, so an e-mail outage would isolate them from their remote workplaces and interrupt customer communications and collaboration with peers.”
 
In 2008, Two Degrees, LLC made plans to migrate from Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007 e-mail messaging and collaboration software. This project would entail the purchase of new hardware and would most likely lead to additional costs by forcing a move to a bigger space for its data center. Two Degrees, LLC began planning the deployment of Microsoft Office Live Meeting to replace its existing Web conferencing tool. Management also investigated Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for corporate instant messaging functionality.

When Two Degrees, LLC started scheduling these projects for 2009, a leader from Slalom came forward with a proposal. Tom Chew, National General Manager of Solutions, had been watching the development of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. He thought a Microsoft-hosted messaging and collaboration solution would be a great fit for Two Degrees, LLC and for many Slalom customers. At a low per-user, per-month subscription fee, the suite offers hosted communication and collaboration services that include a desktop and mobile e-mail solution, calendaring and contacts, instant messaging and presence, shared workspaces, and live audio-visual Web-conferencing applications.

Through the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, Two Degrees, LLC consultants and employees would gain access to Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint® Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online—all of which are hosted Online Services from Microsoft. “I see a growing demand for hosted commodity IT services, such as e-mail,” says Brent Carney, Slalom’s Director of Strategic Alliances. “I wanted Slalom to be one of the first firms with a strong, demonstrated understanding of the technology so that we would be ready for that wave of opportunity that we see coming to market.”

Solution

Management at Two Degrees, LLC was interested in Microsoft Online Services. “It was perfect timing,” says Bleser. “All the products in the suite fit perfectly with our IT strategy for 2009 in terms of upgrading to Exchange Server 2007, deploying a richer Web-conferencing solution, avoiding additional data center costs, and improving our disaster recovery capabilities.”

Figure 1. Two Degrees, LLC created additional monitoring tools to communicate with employees and achieved a zero downtime deployment.

Rojas was impressed by the improvements in business continuity afforded by a solution hosted by Microsoft. “Microsoft has multiple facilities with redundancy we couldn’t hope to replicate and state-of-the-art monitoring tools for viruses and malicious attacks. They are a leader in running world-class data centers,” he says.

The company also took advantage of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite, which includes Exchange Online Deskless Worker and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker. Two Degrees, LLC set up 79 shared, non-user mailboxes for IT support, marketing, and recruiting.

Partnering with Microsoft

In November 2008, Slalom Consulting joined the Microsoft Online Services Technology Adoption Program (TAP), which lasted until March 2009. During the TAP, both companies exchanged feedback on the collection of services. “We had a great working relationship with Microsoft, and our issues were addressed immediately,” says Bleser. “Microsoft even shared with us its product development plans, so we knew what we could look forward to.” 

Achieving a Zero Downtime Deployment

Two Degrees, LLC deployed Microsoft Online Services in March 2009. The company chose to migrate from an on-premises solution based on Exchange Server to a hosted environment in two stages. A “pre-migration” wave was scheduled three days before the main migration, during which “high-risk” user mailboxes of 6 gigabytes or more were handled individually. Then, the remaining mailboxes were migrated over in less than 30 hours during the weekend.

“The nice thing about the tools that Microsoft provided for the migration was that you could write code on top of them to customize them,” says Erik Pierson, Infrastructure Manager for Two Degrees LLC. “The Slalom IT staff created monitoring tools that notified employees when their mailboxes were going to be migrated and provided them with temporary passwords. (See Figure 1.)

Another tool alerted the IT team as to when the migrations were complete and if there were suspicious variances in mailbox size. (See Figure 2.)

Today, 750 employees across the three divisions at Two Degrees, LLC use Microsoft Exchange Online and Office Live Meeting. The company is also using 50 Deskless Worker Licenses for shared mailboxes. The company is currently planning the migration of more than 800 SharePoint sites on its corporate intranet to SharePoint Online. At the same time, Slalom, as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is marketing the hosted communication and collaboration services to customers around the country. “It’s a unique scenario, but everyone benefits,” says Carney. “Our early and close commitment to the TAP means that Microsoft knows we understand their offering, and they are comfortable in bringing us into a sales opportunity. Being a Microsoft Online Services user means we have a high level of expertise that we achieved through our own implementation.”

Benefits

Two Degrees, LLC is enjoying significant benefits since subscribing to Microsoft Online Services. The company has reduced the cost of doing business, enhanced employee productivity, and improved its competitive advantage. Now that Slalom has established itself early as a technology solution firm with a deep understanding of the benefits of Microsoft Online Services, it can offer this new line of business before its competitors, opening new markets, and developing new revenue streams.

Reduces Operational Costs

For Two Degrees, LLC, the most significant cost savings occurred when the company decided to embrace a hosted scenario for its key communication and collaboration technologies. Suddenly, the costs of in-house migrations and product deployments that the company had planned for disappeared.

Figure 2. The monitoring tools that Slalom IT staff developed will be available as a value-added service that it can provide to customers when they deploy Microsoft Online Services.

“We calculated that if we stayed with an on-premises solution, it would cost approximately $34 a head per month as compared to Microsoft Online Services at $15 a head,” says Bleser. “In addition, Microsoft Online Services gave us a cost-saving licensing model for deskless workers that’s saving us approximately $4 per mailbox for shared mailboxes that are not assigned to a single individual.”

Two Degrees, LLC also saves money on hardware. If the company had continued with its planned upgrade to Exchange Server 2007, it would have had to purchase at least three or four new servers. Two Degrees, LLC was able to retire its previous Web conferencing solution and now utilizes Office Live Meeting daily.

“When we looked at total cost of ownership, the savings were clear,” says Bleser. “We implemented four products with little upfront costs and added disaster recovery capabilities that we would not have deployed on our own. Going with Microsoft Online Services was an easy decision."

Enhances Productivity

With Microsoft Online Services, Two Degrees, LLC employees have access to the latest versions of key messaging and collaboration software so that they can continue to work productively, at no extra cost to the company. Already, consultants who are on the road or working at customer sites are excited by Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. “We have quite a few employees, who exclusively use Office Outlook Web Access, and they love the enhanced user interface and better features for creating meeting requests, searching for employees, and viewing the organizational chart, whenever they need to,” says Bleser.

With a geographically dispersed group of employees and a strong collaborative culture, it is important for Two Degrees, LLC employees to share ideas and conduct meetings anytime, anywhere. “Office Live Meeting is a huge improvement over our previous Web-conferencing tool, with its recording and video capabilities,” says Bleser. “We have a SharePoint solution team with members in offices across the country. They use Office Live Meeting to get together virtually and talk about the next SharePoint release, and develop marketing strategies and product customizations that they can offer our customers.”

Hosting commodity communication and collaboration software was very compelling for us, as it will be for other midsize businesses. Microsoft Online Services is broadening our customer base. Brent Carney Director of Strategic Alliances, Slalom Consulting

Builds a Competitive Advantage

Two Degrees, LLC believes that Microsoft Online Services will help give it a competitive advantage thanks to two key concepts in the professional services industry: customer trust and corporate focus. “Microsoft Online Services allows me to say to customers that because Microsoft is backing our communication and collaboration tools with a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, they can trust in the security of their data and reliability of our services,” says Rojas. “And Microsoft Online Services allows us to focus more time on our customers, and less time on upgrading and supporting on-premises technologies.”

Slalom expects to build a competitive advantage by going to market early with a practical understanding of the benefits of Microsoft Online Services. “It’s difficult to sell a solution when there are few references, but in this case, we are our own reference,” says Carney. “That plays well with the CIO or CFO, and we think it will drive our business. Our relationship with Microsoft means that we know early on what Microsoft Online Services innovations we can expect to be delivered to our customers. This gives us a definite competitive advantage, and we aim to take full advantage of it.”

Develop New Revenue Streams

Slalom expects to drive revenue not only from traditional service opportunities—for example, handling the potential migration of competing software to Exchange Server 2007—but also from new opportunities such as migrating a company’s e-mail solution to the online environment.

“Deploying Microsoft Online Services for customers is a great service opportunity for us,” says Carney. “On top of that, receiving the referral fee and a subscription fee is an added bonus. We can also drive revenue by introducing our value-added migration monitoring tools and customizing them to meet the needs of our customers, while helping to streamline deployment.” 

Opens Up New Lines of Business

While Slalom has worked predominately with enterprise-level accounts with Microsoft Online Services, the company has a new offering that will appeal to the midsize business sector. “Hosting commodity communication and collaboration software was very compelling for us, as it will be for other midsize businesses,” says Carney. “Microsoft Online Services is broadening our customer base.”

The rapid pace of innovation within Microsoft Online Services is also a way to win business. Because the products are offered online, new features and functionality are instantly available, which can quickly change a conversation with a potential customer. “Over the past few months, we have seen dramatic advances within Microsoft Online Services,” says Carney. “We’ve been able to go back and discuss feature improvements; for example, the number of Live Meeting participants has now increased to 200, and Blackberry devices are now supported. These improvements demonstrate how this dynamic online product is being updated regularly and significantly. It makes for a great selling environment.”

Microsoft Online Services
Microsoft Online Services are business-class communication and collaboration solutions delivered as a subscription service and hosted by Microsoft. These offerings help make it easier for customers to rapidly and cost-effectively access the most up-to-date technologies, and are designed for rapid deployment to provide customers with streamlined communications, simplified management, and business-class reliability and security features.

For IT staffers, Microsoft Online Services help reduce the burden of performing routine IT management tasks such as installation, provisioning, ongoing maintenance, updates, and upgrades, making it possible for them to spend more time on initiatives that move the business forward. The Online offerings are backed by strong service level agreements and are designed to meet the regulatory compliance and reliability needs of enterprise customers. On a technical level, the offerings boast the sophistication and reliability that customers expect from Microsoft, which continues to invest heavily in building data centers to support the Online family of services.

For more information, visit:
www.microsoft.com/online
 

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 in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. 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 Slalom Consulting products and services, call (206) 468-5700 or visit the Web site at:
www.slalom.com

For more information about Two Degrees, LLC products and services, call (206) 438-5700 or visit the Web site at:
www.twodegrees.com