Customer Solution Case Study
/ Outsourcer Boosts Productivity, Expects to Save IT Time and Money with Smartphone
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Professional services
Customer Profile
Vangent is a global provider of information management and strategic business process services. It has more than 7,000 employees in offices on four continents.
Business Situation
Vangent wanted a cost-effective smartphone that employees could use for work and personal purposes, and that would be easy for IT staff to administer.
Solution
Vangent added Windows Phone to its select list of corporate-sanctioned and supported smartphones.
Benefits
· Boosts productivity
· Unifies business and personal lives, simplifies tasks
· Expected reduction in IT administration and costs / “Windows Phone provides exactly what we need: integration with Office programs and SharePoint Server, a unified social and work presence, and a simple, fun way to manage everything at once.”
Antonio Poggi, Directory Services Manager, Vangent
Vangent, an IT and consulting services firm, wants employees to work very efficiently so that they can be more responsive to customers. However, the smartphones that many workers used did not offer all the business and personal capabilities that Vangent would have liked and were costly and time-consuming to maintain. To rectify this, Vangent added Windows Phone to its corporate-approved smartphones list. By using Windows Phone to seamlessly interact with Microsoft Office programs, the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration client, and Microsoft SharePoint Server files, employees are more productive. Instead of needing separate phones for business and personal use, workers can use Windows Phone for both, accessing all information from the main screen. As Windows Phone use rises, IT expects to eliminate the additional infrastructure needed with other phones, saving time and money.
Situation
Based in Arlington, Virginia, Vangent provides information management and business process outsourcing services to government, commercial, education, and healthcare organizations. The company’s success is evidenced by its 2010 revenues of U.S.$762 million—which represented a 30 percent increase over 2009—and its ranking as a top government contractor by both Washington Technology and Washington Business Journal.
To help its customers succeed, Vangent is committed to combining the right people, knowledge, and technologies for each engagement, and operating at a pace that enables rapid response to customer needs. One way it accomplishes this is by encouraging the use of smartphones to keep its employees connected. Of the approximately 700 employees who have smartphones, about 500 had been using BlackBerry devices; the rest were a mix of Apple iPhone and Android-based devices.
“BlackBerry provides the email connectivity that employees want, but it also requires a lot of IT overhead. After the BlackBerry device is purchased, our help-desk staff has to get it enabled on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server [BES] and wait while the device does the initial sync and test. Depending on the size of the user’s mailbox, this can take some time. Because of the way the BES interacts with Microsoft Exchange Server, we have to be aware of the load that this adds to our servers and storage as we approach upgrades. It also costs more than Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which runs on existing servers,” says Antonio Poggi, Directory Services Manager at Vangent. In addition to having to train IT staff on setting up BlackBerry phones and maintaining BlackBerry server technology, he estimates that Vangent has been spending about $100,000 per year on BlackBerry licensing, network connectivity, support and server computer costs for approximately 500 devices.
Vangent uses Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to enhance productivity and communication, but employees could not work with SharePoint sites from their smartphones. “We rely heavily on SharePoint for everything from team sites to self-service workflows for many of our internal processes, such as the ordering of laptops and desktops. We wanted employees to be able to use their smartphones to access shared files and workflow, but instead they had to use their desktop or portable computers to connect to SharePoint sites,” says Poggi.
The company was also aware that many employees had two mobile phones: one for work and one for personal use. “Our business and personal lives are so integrated these days, particularly with the growing use of social media. Carrying two phones to make sure you’re current on all aspects of your life is really cumbersome, but a lot of employees ended up doing this because there was no way to get everything they needed in one phone,” says Eric Sollars, Configuration Support Manager at Vangent.
Vangent was looking for a smartphone that would provide unified office and personal productivity capabilities, without the high costs and management required with other devices.
Solution
In June 2010 at Microsoft TechEd, Vangent IT staff saw a demonstration of the upcoming Windows Phone. “I had been using smartphones for about 10 years and was pleased with how the technologies were evolving. However, I was even more impressed with Windows Phone and the innovative way that it merges the office and personal worlds, and makes it easy to see everything at a glance,” says Poggi.
Vangent received an evaluation phone from Microsoft and then, when Windows Phone became publicly available in November 2010, it purchased four devices for testing purposes. Vangent knew that having the right types of features would not be sufficient if the smartphone was not reliable and easy to use.
“When the BlackBerry Storm first came out, Vangent employees who started using it had a lot of usability issues. So we knew that getting the latest and greatest product wasn’t always the best course of action,” says Poggi. “If it turned out that Windows Phone was good for social purposes but not for the office, or that it was hard to use, we wouldn’t invest in it. We wanted to make sure it worked well for our business and that our employees would be able to depend on it.”
Five IT team members began using Windows Phone as their everyday mobile device for business and personal use to experience how well it worked. It did not take long for Vangent to determine that Windows Phone was both robust and simple to use. “Four weeks after our evaluators began using Windows Phone, we agreed that it would be a great fit for Vangent. It had all the business and personal capabilities that we wanted and was very intuitive,” says Poggi. For instance, the Start screen with Live Tiles—animated icons that display real-time content from applications, contacts, and services—made it very easy to navigate the phone and get an instant update on status.
Vangent liked that, in addition to being able to use the Microsoft Outlook Mobile messaging and collaboration client for tasks such as sending and receiving emails, viewing contacts, and accepting meetings, employees could use the Office hub feature to view, edit, and comment on Microsoft Office documents, and access the Microsoft OneNote Mobile note-taking program. And by using the People Hub feature, they could easily communicate with colleagues and friends. The IT team also appreciated that, unlike with BlackBerry devices, there is no additional infrastructure required for Windows Phone, making it easy to set up for widespread use.
By January 2011, Vangent had added Windows Phone to its list of company-supported smartphones. It had also changed its corporate policy so that, instead of only sanctioning particular phone types such as BlackBerry, Vangent would offer vouchers to reimburse employees for any smartphones compliant with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology, which was already running on its servers. “That opened the door to making Windows Phone available. By using Exchange ActiveSync, we can safeguard information that resides on Windows Phone. We can enforce password policies, put a PIN on each device, and remotely wipe data if the phone is lost or stolen. Users can also remotely wipe the device via webmail, eliminating the need to call the help desk” says Poggi.
Vangent was also eager to take advantage of Microsoft SharePoint Workspace Mobile so that employees could access, revise, and save documents stored on SharePoint sites from Windows Phone. In May 2011, it began configuring Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010, which enables remote client endpoints to access corporate resources such as SharePoint sites. It expects to make SharePoint Server accessible from Windows Phone devices by the end of June 2011.
The company is also looking forward to having Microsoft Lync 2010 capabilities on Windows Phone when Microsoft makes the Lync mobile client available for the device. “Our employees use Lync on their desktop computers for instant messaging and voicemail, so it’s a natural extension to be able use Lync from the Windows Phone as well. It will make communications even easier,” says Poggi.
As of May 2011, about 20 employees have switched to Windows Phone. “We expect that number to grow significantly as employees’ two-year contracts for BlackBerry devices expire. At some point, we may even shut down the BlackBerry service because Windows Phone provides the capabilities we need and is much more cost-effective and easy for our IT staff to manage,” says Poggi.
Benefits
By using Windows Phone, Vangent employees work more efficiently and can use one phone for personal and business purposes, simplifying everyday tasks. The IT department expects to spend less time and money administering smartphones. “Windows Phone provides exactly what we need: integration with Office programs and SharePoint Server, a unified social and work presence, and a simple, fun way to manage everything at once. It’s a great smartphone,” says Poggi.
Boosts Productivity
Vangent employees who use Windows Phone can work much more efficiently. “No other phone makes working with Microsoft Outlook and Office programs as seamless as Windows Phone. Not only can you get everything easily from the Office hub, but the interfaces for email and documents are virtually the same on the desktop and phone,” says Poggi. “Unlike other devices, with Windows Phone we don’t have to switch from one format—and one mindset—to another when we move between form factors. There’s a continuity that employees really appreciate. And the ability to access SharePoint sites and do tasks like approving work orders while we’re walking down the hallway will make for an even greater advantage.”
Sollars is looking forward to using OneNote Mobile and SharePoint Workspace Mobile on Windows Phone. “I use OneNote on my computer quite a bit and sync with SharePoint so that people can easily access my notes. By extending SharePoint to Windows Phone, where I have OneNote Mobile, I’ll be able to maintain information in one location and make it accessible from anywhere—Windows Phone, my computer, or a web application. That’s much easier and faster than how I managed notes when I used a BlackBerry and had to copy and paste notes from my phone and download them onto my computer,” says Sollars.
Using Windows Phone gives Vangent the speed it needs. “Employees want to do the best job they can as fast as possible. Virtually everything we need to stay productive is accessible through Windows Phone—and it’s all incredibly easy to find. When we’re more productive, our customers get better service, and that’s what it’s all about,” says Poggi.
Unifies Business and Personal Lives, Simplifies Tasks
Vangent employees no longer need two mobile phones. “With Windows Phone, I can use one device to stay on top of my work and personal lives without compromise—and get to everything I need quickly. It really simplifies my life,” says Sollars.
Employees get a complete view of all outstanding actions from the Start screen. “I can see how many unread work and personal emails I have, how many phone calls I missed, and what meetings are coming up, all on the same screen. I don’t have to dig for anything. And the interface is fantastic. I love the animation and the lively way that information is presented. It’s the best I’ve seen in any phone,” says Poggi.
Vangent is not restricting which devices employees can use as long as they are compliant with Exchange ActiveSync, nor is the company promoting one smartphone over another. However, according Poggi, “If an employee asks me personally which smartphone is the best, I recommend Windows Phone.”
Expected Reduction in IT Administration and Costs
Vangent expects to save IT time and money as more employees adopt Windows Phone and more BlackBerry contracts expire.
By using Windows Phone, Vangent can take advantage of existing technologies and investments. “There is no extra software or server needed, like there is with BlackBerry. We already have the infrastructure in place for webmail with Microsoft Exchange Server and ActiveSync, and Windows Phone just piggybacks on top of that—without additional effort or cost. Given that we’re spending about $100,000 per year on BlackBerry, we expect our savings with Windows Phone to be considerable,” says Poggi.
IT and user training requirements are negligible. “Our IT staff already knows how to maintain the technologies that Windows Phone uses and our employees are intimately familiar with both the Windows and Office look and feel. We don’t have to invest in training even when new staff members come on board because Windows and Microsoft Office are so ubiquitous,” says Poggi.
Windows Phone