Pella Corporation—an 85-year-old window and door manufacturer—has a long tradition of product and service innovation, which is why the company is consistently forward-looking regarding technology. Pella signed a Microsoft Enterprise Client Access License (ECAL) Suite agreement to cost-effectively implement business and IT productivity solutions built on products such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Despite the recession and its negative impact on the construction industry, Pella has taken full advantage of the suite’s software components, using them to automate workflow processes, reduce travel costs while maintaining effective meetings, streamline communications, transform training methods, and better support remote workers. Pella uses the ECAL to drive business success while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Situation
Pella Corporation has been a pioneer in the creation of windows and doors since 1925. Known in the construction industry as an innovator, Pella has been awarded more than 100 product and design patents. In the twenty-first century, the company turned its eye for innovation toward manufacturing and distribution, using the Kaizen methodology for continuous process improvement in every facet of its business.

In keeping with the company’s history of investing in technology to solve business issues, Pella determined that it needed to upgrade its IT landscape to streamline communications for more efficient operations. However, the economic downturn put extra pressure on the company to conserve costs. “Pella is part of the construction industry, which has been struggling for several years now,” says Jim Thomas, Director of IT Operations for Pella. “We’ve worked hard to ensure that we align our costs with our business model so that we can continue to deliver to our shareholders.”

There may be companies that feel an ECAL is a heavy-duty investment, but to me, it’s a no-brainer. Just being able to stay current so easily—without paying for all the pieces and parts—makes it worth it. Steve Printz Chief Information Officer, Pella

Yet Pella saw real challenges—and opportunities—that technology could help it address. For example, the company wanted to streamline many of its business processes, such as the appropriations approval process. Historically, employees used interoffice mail, sent faxes to different sites, or physically delivered relevant documents to the right people.

The company also sought to further develop the ease and transparency of communications among its sales branches and corporate headquarters. “Our ability to take good care of our customers is of prime importance,” says Thomas. “We wanted to give employees tools that would enable them to work together more smoothly to provide excellent service.”

For instance, a Pella customer service representative could not share a customer’s voicemail message with a colleague at one of the company’s 11 manufacturing plants without first transcribing it, which risked losing details in the translation. “Our previous voicemail communications weren’t as coordinated or timely as we wanted them to be,” says Thomas.

Sales force training stood out as another area for improvement at Pella. In the past, the company waited until it had amassed enough issues to cover in order to justify gathering all its salespeople in a centralized location and spending multiple hours on training. “We wanted to address the lack of timeliness of the training, the lost time as each salesperson was pulled from the field, and the risk of information overload due to the mass data transfer,” recalls Thomas.

Solution
Even given the depressed state of the economy, Pella did not wait until the housing demand improved to tackle the problems it had identified. “We’ve always maintained our commitment to staying current with technology, although we’re careful to make value-based investments,” says Steve Printz, Chief Information Officer for Pella. “We target steps that make our business units more productive, such as reducing travel and providing faster access to accurate information. We can’t control the economy, so we pinch pennies where we can and spend where it will make a difference for our business.”

As Pella looked to improve its communications, automated workflow processes, and training methods, the company turned to Microsoft, one of its primary technology vendors. “We have a limited number of strategic partners,” says Thomas. “We chose Microsoft as one of them because it offers a broad base of products that work together.”

Controlling Software Costs Through Standardization
In May 2008, Pella entered into a Microsoft Enterprise Client Access License (ECAL) Suite agreement. “We made the strategic decision to standardize throughout the company on a current, common set of communication tools. Doing so through the Microsoft ECAL would make that easier and help us control expenditures,” says Thomas. “We saw that we’d gain more from deploying and using new technologies than it cost to invest in them.”

We make the most of our partnership with Microsoft—its knowledge as well as its product offerings. Not signing the ECAL would have been short-term gratification with long-term ramifications. Steve Printz Chief Information Officer, Pella

Adds Printz, “We also signed the ECAL because it was the right direction for us in the long term. Pella benefits from the flexibility that comes from continuing to leverage the breadth of Microsoft products as they, and we, evolve over time. With that range of software and capabilities, we also can minimize the number of vendor partners we need. And believe me, we make the most of our partnership with Microsoft—its knowledge as well as its product offerings. Not signing the ECAL would have been short-term gratification with long-term ramifications.”

The company’s investment in the ECAL Suite represents a small fraction of its overall IT budget—less than three percent—but the ECAL Suite has become vital to Pella’s IT technology strategy. “There may be companies that feel that an ECAL is a heavy-duty investment, but to me, it’s a no-brainer,” says Printz. “Just being able to stay current so easily—without paying for all the pieces and parts—makes it worth it.”

Operational Improvements Through Technology
The ECAL agreement melds well with the company’s Kaizen approach—a methodology that involves making constant improvements in every area of the business. The approach has taught employees to expect and accept new technologies. “Kaizen is all about change, and Pella as an organization is comfortable with change, so our employees embrace new tools in the spirit of continuous improvement,” explains Printz. “Pella employees repeatedly demonstrate a willingness to take on any challenges that may accompany changes because they understand the importance of taking waste out of not just our factories, but our processes as well. Especially when it comes to Microsoft technologies, new solutions are pulled—rather than pushed—into the business.”

The company’s IT staff relies on that culture of acceptance to help employees derive full value from new technology solutions. For instance, when Pella deployed the Windows 7 operating system in August 2009, IT staffers first identified some of the operating system’s key features and then questioned a representative group of employees as to how those features would have an impact on their various business areas. IT staff used the group’s insights to make the operating system’s deployment schedule and internal marketing campaign more valuable to all employees.

Collaboration Technologies for Faster Communication
To complete daily tasks more quickly, Pella found that its user community particularly sought solutions built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. “For example, Pella is a lean manufacturer, and our entire KPO [Kaizen Promotion Office] is essentially structured on Office SharePoint Server 2007, with hundreds of our Kaizen teams using its calendaring, communications, and document repository functions,” says Printz. “Pella employees have really embraced Office SharePoint Server 2007. In fact, it’s so intuitive that they’re using it in innovative ways and in areas that we had never thought about.”

Across the company, employees rely on more than 1,000 team, project, and general business communication sites for clear communication, document version control, and organization for special business initiatives, product development projects, and potential acquisitions. “We use Office SharePoint Server 2007 to handle all the due diligence and integration involved in buying another company,” says Thomas. “It’s critical to maintain strict levels of confidentiality and the product helps us keep better control over every aspect to ensure that we meet those requirements.”

By signing the ECAL, we’re saving more than $100,000 per year. Plus, we liked the idea of getting all our security, collaboration, remote access, and communications products all together under the umbrella of one strategic partner. Jim Thomas Director of IT Operations, Pella

The company also has developed business-intelligence dashboards using Office SharePoint Server 2007. The dashboards aggregate IT, supply-chain, and other measurements to provide managers and executives with information that is accessible and accurate. “We’ve reached a point where Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the company’s default standard for maintaining a single source of the truth,” says Printz.

Pella has built a range of automated workflow processes to improve efficiency tasks, such as approving appropriations requests, handling internal requests for qualifications, processing corporate account credits, and managing quality-control documents.

In addition to providing employees with remote access to company information using Outlook Web Access, Pella also adopted the presence functionality in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to promote better communication and collaboration. “While working in a SharePoint document library, for instance, we use presence to quickly see who contributed to a particular report or spreadsheet and how best to contact that colleague right then, whether it’s through an email, voicemail, or instant message,” says Thomas. “Presence is particularly helpful to a geographically distributed company like ours, where we want project teams, customer service representatives, and others to get quick answers to questions and share documents.”

Training Process Improvements
Pella adopted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to help transform its training methods. Pella now develops training materials—including audio information, video examples, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 slides—which trainers can present to the company’s several hundred salespeople using Office Communications Server 2007. Material is presented live and is also captured for salespeople scattered around the United States to watch later if they have a scheduling conflict. “Using Office Communications Server 2007, we can communicate information to a broader audience in a much shorter timeframe,” says Thomas.

Lower Costs for Routine IT Tasks
The company’s business users are not the only ones to enjoy new tools as a result of the ECAL Suite. Pella IT staffers take advantage of features in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft System Center tools to make their jobs easier. They used to handle all the company’s spam filtering internally, but now spam filtering in Exchange Server 2007 eliminates spam before it reaches the Pella site, which has eased some of the company’s administrative headaches along with its bandwidth cost constraints.

With System Center Configuration Manager 2007, IT staffers are able to deploy new solutions. “Previously, we had to conduct manual hardware and software inventory and deployment processes and had a hard time knowing for sure if we were compliant,” says Thomas. “We now use System Center Configuration Manager to push tools out to our user base in an organized manner.” Pella also uses Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to monitor mailbox and database sizes, and it replaced a third-party security product with the Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection family of products.

Benefits
Pella is using technology to stay competitive in an economic downturn, helping employees increase productivity, reducing travel and other costs, and increasing the effectiveness of trainers and IT staffers. “By signing the ECAL, we’re saving more than [U.S.]$100,000 per year,” says Thomas. “Plus, we liked the idea of getting all our security, collaboration, remote access, and communications products all together under the umbrella of one strategic partner.”

Increased Employee Productivity
Pella is finding myriad ways to help its employees stay efficient and get more done in each work day through the use of tools such as Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007. “We definitely have a competitive advantage because we can so easily and quickly share accurate information across the entire organization,” says Thomas. “Our employees can reach the people, documents, and data they need without disrupting productivity. They don’t have to deal with conversion issues, version control, time wasted trying to determine who to ask for information and then tracking that person down, and so on.”

We use Microsoft tools to maintain the effectiveness of meetings while reducing the impact on attendees’ business productivity and personal lives because they no longer have to travel to participate in those meetings. Steve Printz Chief Information Officer, Pella

The company holds far fewer in-person meetings because employees use Microsoft Office Live Meeting capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 in combination with the RoundTable communications and archival system. In fact, Pella estimates that more than 75 percent of its meetings incorporate remote or traveling participants. “We use Microsoft tools to maintain the effectiveness of meetings while reducing the impact on attendees’ business productivity and personal lives because they no longer have to travel to participate in those meetings,” says Printz.

Even scheduling those meetings is easier; employees use presence functionality and instant messaging to streamline scheduling, which used to be an arduous process. “Employees no longer have to be on and off the phone with the different meeting invitees,” says Thomas. “Instead, they just start up an instant chat session and get all schedules adjusted at once to set the meeting. We’ve seen instant message use escalate from about 1,000 per day to tens of thousands per day.”

The company’s automated workflow processes also help with efficiency. The approval process for appropriations requests, for instance, used to take an average of three days, but it now takes less than one day because requests are automatically routed to the right approvers.

Pella employees appreciate their improved ability to reach out to colleagues. “Now that we’ve got all our locations under a common, integrated unified communications platform, we can quickly and easily send original voicemail messages, without risk of something being lost in the translation. Employees can be more responsive to each other and to our customers, now that they can communicate in a direct and timely manner,” says Thomas.

Greater Ability to Work from Anywhere
As Pella seeks to further expand its product distribution mechanisms, it is critical that the company give remote salespeople the information that they need. “Now employees everywhere can access Pella systems from outside company buildings, using Outlook Web Access,” says Thomas. “That’s helped us give communication and collaboration capabilities to remote employees who didn’t have them before, so they have more options to increase their productivity and effectiveness.”

Many of the senior managers at Pella use the Windows Mobile technology to stay current with email while away from the office. “It’s great to have such an accessible toolset available for our users as they travel, with the same look and feel as the tools they’re accustomed to using,” says Thomas.

12-Month Return on Investment
Within 12 months, Pella has been able to demonstrate a clear return on investment by fully utilizing the ECAL Suite technologies in communication, collaboration, and IT management. “We began to reap the financial benefits of the ECAL almost immediately,” says Printz. “We saw instantaneous travel savings from employees’ use of Office Communications Server 2007. And using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 makes it possible for us to handle software deployments without hiring additional IT staffers, which would cost $200,000 annually. In addition, implementing Forefront saved us approximately $50,000 each year on a third-party security product.”

Improved Training
Today, rather than holding sporadic in-person training sessions, Pella conducts its sales force training sessions using Office Live Meeting. This method has been particularly effective in assessing new salespeople who are completing a corporate sales training program. “We’re using the technology for role-playing and evaluation,” explains Brent Ewell, Training Manager for Pella. “Instead of watching a videotape of the role-play, sales managers watch salespeople role-play in real time, scoring them against predefined criteria and providing immediate feedback. This enhances the managers’ ability to reinforce learning and to provide targeted sales coaching when the salespeople return from a training program.”

Adds Thomas, “Better training and timeliness has substantially improved our ability to communicate information to the field. We’ve reduced errors because product changes are better communicated, the company can sell new products and features more quickly, and we’ve driven a more consistent sales message across the organization.”

And, of course, Pella is pleased that its training sessions continue to be effective, even as the company has eliminated substantial training-related travel costs. “Our travel costs dropped by hundreds of thousands of dollars, but we’ve maintained open, productive communications,” says Thomas.

Greater IT Staff Efficiency for Increased Team Impact
Thanks to its environment and IT management tools that work so well together, Pella has increased the efficiency of its IT staff. “I have the same size IT team of 12 that I had five years ago, and yet we’ve continually added technologies, components, and features over those years, as well as added 10 percent more employees,” says Thomas. “Without all the integration and management benefits that come with Microsoft technologies, we’d never be able to handle our growth in user numbers and infrastructure without also adding IT headcount.” In particular, Pella points to Group Policy features, Office Communications Server, and new automated processes as helpful in minimizing infrastructure management.

Pella also finds it easier to handle acquisitions. “We’re able to shorten the time-to-integration for new companies now that we use Office SharePoint Server 2007 to define common work, solutions, and systems between Pella and the new company,” says Thomas. “We follow a 100-day plan for integration, but we actually achieve most of the IT component integration in less than 60 days.”

Perhaps most important, the IT staff at Pella now has confidence that it contributes to the business in meaningful ways. “When you get your team engaged and empowered to quickly see how to meet the company’s business needs as they arise, it’s pure magic,” says Printz. “The IT team really appreciates the fact that we’ve got a state-of-the-art environment. IT makes a huge contribution to the business because we are making individuals throughout the business more successful.”

Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization
With infrastructure optimization, you can build a secure, well-managed, and dynamic core IT infrastructure that can reduce overall IT costs, make better use of resources, and become a strategic asset for the business. The Infrastructure Optimization model—with basic, standardized, rationalized, and dynamic levels—was developed by Microsoft using industry best practices and Microsoft’s own experiences with enterprise customers. The Infrastructure Optimization model provides a maturity framework that is flexible and easily used as a benchmark for technical capability and business value.

For more information about Microsoft infrastructure optimization, go to:
www.microsoft.com/businessproductivity

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 Pella Corporation products and services, call (800) 374-4758 or visit the website at:
www.pella.com