Alutiiq

Alaska Native Corporation Saves Nearly $1 Million with Unified Communications

Alaska-based Alutiiq offers services such as construction, security, and training for government-funded and privately funded projects around the world. The company has 6,200 employees operating out of multiple locations that span the globe. For interoffice and remote communications, Alutiiq relied heavily on separate office-based telephony systems. The segregated communications infrastructure was inefficient and unreliable, which hindered employee productivity and drained IT and financial resources. The company engaged Gold Systems, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, to implement a Microsoft unified communications solution. As a result, Alutiiq saved nearly U.S.$1 million in hardware and maintenance costs. The company also has increased employee productivity and reduced IT hours by 85 percent.

Situation

Alutiiq was established by the Afognak Native Corporation in 1999 to benefit its namesake, the Alutiiq people of Afognak Island in Alaska. Company profits are used to create dividends, job training, scholarships, and social and cultural programs for the indigenous people and descendants who own Afognak Native Corporation.

The Microsoft solution made sense. We could integrate it with our existing environment and not worry about ripping out and replacing the telephony equipment that we had in all of our locations.  Joe LeNoach Senior Manager of IT Alutiiq

The company provides services ranging from construction and logistics to security, training, and maintenance. Headquartered in Anchorage, Alutiiq has 6,200 employees working at multiple sites around the world to provide support for a long list of projects—such as constructing barracks in Hawaii, repairing a runway in Virginia, or renovating a U.S. Embassy in Brazil. Some of its most notable clients include the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and CH2M HILL.

In 2007, Alutiiq relied heavily on a distributed Private Branch Exchange (PBX) infrastructure for voice communications and conferencing. Each company site had its own dedicated telephony hardware and required a complex dialing procedure because the systems weren’t linked. “Employees had to dial special 10-digit prefix codes before phone numbers to reach other locales,” says Joe LeNoach, Senior Manager of IT at Alutiiq. The system was also difficult to deploy and manage. “We couldn’t scale it to accommodate our growth,” LeNoach says. “Alutiiq grows significantly every year, and every time we opened a new office, we had to deploy a complete phone system.”

As a remedy, Alutiiq began implementing Avaya IP Office for voice and data communications but was disappointed with the results. “We set it up in five offices and there were issues constantly,” says LeNoach. “Units often crashed because of the extension overload, and when that happened, employees couldn’t call out. We were spending nearly 85 percent of our time trying to keep the IP routes open.”

Additionally, Alutiiq had costly expenses for Avaya maintenance agreements, upgrades, and handsets, and it still lacked the integration needed for a unified communications infrastructure. The company wanted an enterprise communications solution that would work with the telephony systems it already had in place and could be easily deployed to new sites.

Given the company’s diverse work environment, it also wanted to provide employees with more options for how they communicated, such as instant messaging and video conferencing. “We have a huge work force out in the field,” LeNoach says. “In some cases, employees may be working out of trailers at a job site or in areas where there are no roads to reach them. It’s critical that we have a way to communicate with each other in real time.”

Solution

Alutiiq considered unified communications products from Avaya and Cisco, but those solutions required a “rip and replace” approach that was cost-prohibitive. “It would have cost us more than U.S.$1 million to implement either one,” LeNoach says.

Alutiiq decided instead to deploy a Microsoft® unified communications solution. The company implemented the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 for presence awareness, instant messaging, software-powered voice over IP (VoIP), and conferencing. It also deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Unified Messaging, which makes it possible for users to manage e-mail and voice-mail messages from one inbox.

Office Communications Server 2007 can integrate easily with an existing PBX infrastructure to provide real-time communications. “The Microsoft solution made sense,” says LeNoach. “We could integrate it with our existing environment and not worry about ripping out and replacing the telephony equipment that we had in all of our locations. Plus, we were using Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, so we were familiar with the technology.” The company was also using the Microsoft Office 2007 suites for its desktop environment, which would make integration relatively simple.

With the Microsoft unified communications solution, we’ve given employees a stable and more user-friendly communications environment.  Joe LeNoach Senior Manager of IT Alutiiq

In May 2008, Alutiiq engaged Gold Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to help with the deployment. Gold Systems specializes in enterprise systems integration for unified communications solutions. 

Gold Systems conducted an enterprise site survey and used the information to create and implement the solution architecture for Alutiiq. The architecture included a central data center to house the servers, and a mediation server and VoIP gateway at each facility, so calls could be channeled through Office Communications Server 2007.

At the Alutiiq home office in Kodiak, Alaska, Gold Systems capitalized on the VoIP features of Office Communications Server 2007 to create a PBX-free environment. Office Communications Server 2007 connects to the Public Switched Telephone Network through a media gateway, and an Office Communicator 2007 endpoint is used instead of a PBX phone.

Gold Systems conducted pilot testing to ensure stability and proper functionality, and the solution went live with the first 300 users by June 2008. Alutiiq added another 200 users by the end of 2008. As part of the solution, Alutiiq migrated to a combination of Jabra GN9330 USB and GN9350 headsets, and Polycom CX100, CX200, and CX700 desktop phones. It also deployed Microsoft RoundTable™ conferencing and collaboration devices. 

In January 2009, the company collaborated with Gold Systems to upgrade to Office Communications Server 2007 R2. “We did a side-by-side install,” says LeNoach. “After we got users moved over to the new server, we phased out the first generation.”

By April 2009, the company had disengaged its PBX infrastructure and was using Dialogic media gateways, Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and Office Communicator 2007 R2 for call control across the organization. The company plans to take advantage of new features such as dial-in audio conferencing, cross-platform desktop sharing, and persistent group chat.

Benefits

By deploying the Microsoft unified communications solution, Alutiiq was able to create a strong communications backbone that has helped maximize savings, increase employee productivity, and reduce IT labor hours. 

Saved Nearly $1 Million

Alutiiq was able to realize substantial savings with the Microsoft unified communications solution. “A new enterprisewide PBX system would have cost us about $1 million for the system, plus a third of the cost of the system for maintenance each year,” says LeNoach. “And we would have had to pay for additional equipment every time we opened a new office.” The company outlay for the new solution was only about 10 percent of that cost.

The Microsoft unified communications solution has helped us tremendously. We can put users in the field immediately. And we have more time to focus on IT projects that have been in the pipeline.  Joe LeNoach Senior Manager of IT Alutiiq

The new IT infrastructure is easy to manage, which helps Alutiiq save further. “Before, we had to get a vendor in each time we had a problem and for upgrades,” LeNoach says. “Now, we can manage it ourselves because we’re familiar with Microsoft technology and understand how it works.”

Increased Productivity

Employees were relying on an inefficient telephony infrastructure that left them frustrated. Now they have a stable communications infrastructure that unifies voice and data to help them be more productive. “Before, they were so frustrated,” LeNoach says. “They expected to be able to pick up the phone and have a dial tone, and that didn’t always happen. With the Microsoft unified communications solution, we’ve given employees a stable and more user-friendly communications environment.”  

Employees can quickly check the availability of those they need to reach and then initiate an instant messaging conversation or a voice call directly from their computers. They can also quickly escalate a conversation to an audio or video conference. In addition, Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging gives employees the ability to receive voice- mail messages in their e-mail inboxes for easy retrieval and archiving.

With the enhanced communications capabilities, Alutiiq is able to make sure its employees have the tools and resources necessary to help them stay on top of projects and meet customer expectations. “I can’t put a number on how much time it’s saving them, but I can tell you that they absolutely love it,” says LeNoach.

Reduced IT Hours by 85 Percent

For LeNoach and his staff, one of the best outcomes from implementing the Microsoft unified communications solution was a significant reduction in IT labor hours. “Before, we were spending almost 85 percent of our time trying to keep the phone systems working and had to put a lot of other projects on hold,” says LeNoach. Now, the persistent phone issues have become a thing of the past.

Additionally, IT staff members no longer have to spend time deploying phone systems to new office sites. Instead, they simply install the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client on user desktops and configure them for voice and instant messaging. “The Microsoft unified communications solution has helped us tremendously. We can put users in the field immediately,” LeNoach says. “And we have more time to focus on IT projects that have been in the pipeline, such as virtualizing all of our sites and performing load balancing on our network.”

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 Gold Systems products and services, call 800-988-7798 or visit the Web site at:
www.goldsys.com

For more information about Alutiiq products and services, call (907) 222-9500 or visit the Web site at:
www.alutiiq.com

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Document published May 2009