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IT managers don’t have it easy. They want their employees’ desktop computers to be consistently maintained, and safeguarded from malicious files and incompatible software. But they also must contend with constant updates and new software installations, plus surreptitious programs loaded by employees that may range from the necessary (specialized software applications) to the decidedly optional (Spiderman screen savers).
Microsoft aims to make life easier for IT executives with its Microsoft® Managed Solutions (MMS) service. It’s designed to help corporations solve one of their big infrastructure headaches: managing what may be thousands of desktop computers. Presently, MMS is working with Energizer to provide its 7,000 desktop computers with automated software deployment, backup and disaster recovery services, role-specific software, update management, and hosting for Energizer’s servers running Exchange Server, Office SharePoint®Portal Server, and Office Live Communications Server. Microsoft also is providing help-desk and desk-side support services.
The Microsoft move into managing corporate desktops such as Energizer’s allows companies to take advantage of Microsoft’s tremendous expertise in business-computing environments. For Energizer, it’s a chance to always have the most up-to-date software and capitalize on technology advances. By doing so, its goal is to focus internal efforts on developing a competitive advantage. Microsoft stands to gain as well by garnering additional insight into how multinational corporations work, giving it a chance to further refine its already business-friendly software.
St. Louis-based Energizer—of “Energizer bunny” fame— each year sells nearly 6 billion batteries, which drive electronics, flashlights, portable radios, and more. In addition, Energizer is the parent company of Schick-Wilkinson Sword, the second-largest manufacturer of wet-shave products in the world. In total, the company operates 24 production and packaging plants on five continents while selling product in 165 countries. Energizer shared a headache common to many big-but-not-huge firms: It has large technology demands but lacks the scale to economically manage its desktop infrastructure.
Says Randy Benz, Chief Information Officer for Energizer, “I have employees scattered all over the world, so even though we’re a midsize company, I have all the complexities associated with managing infrastructure all over the globe. We just can’t stay up to speed with technology, because we can’t deploy quickly enough to avail ourselves of new systems and take advantage of the latest and greatest.”
More importantly, Benz wanted to use his technology staff for projects that would help Energizer gain competitive advantage and distinguish it from its competitors. In his view, wrestling with generic technical problems didn’t fit into that vision. “Managing e-mail, managing desktops, setting up collaboration environments—all that consumes an enormous quantity of my brain cells and takes away from my ability to develop tools that help us solve real business problems.”
Benz considered traditional IT outsourcing as one solution but came to believe that it really didn’t solve his fundamental problem. In his view, outsourcing just traded one expense for another, without really advancing how Energizer handled its technology issues. “That just swaps our labor for someone else’s labor,” he says.
But what to do? Serendipitously, Benz and Rick Devenuti, Microsoft Senior Vice President for Microsoft Services & IT, both attended a CIO Summit—a semiannual confab of senior technology leaders. During the conference, Devenuti, who has been with Microsoft since 1987 and has focused his career on creating and managing operational excellence, spoke in a session titled “How Microsoft Does IT” about the company’s in-house work maintaining its enormous IT infrastructure. Benz was intrigued by the idea that Microsoft—which he saw primarily as a software provider—also managed and deployed software for itself, as well as ran the hard-wired part of an IT system.
Benz and Devenuti got together after Devenuti’s speech, and Benz broached an idea. “You’re already managing 160,000 of your own desktops,” he said to the Microsoft executive. “Would it kill you to handle 7,000 more?” Devenuti was intrigued. He saw that Microsoft could enter technology management not only as a business in which the company could utilize its own in-house expertise, but also use it as a way to get in even closer touch with its customers, learning how to improve its software’s functionality and effectiveness.
Out of that grew a new Microsoft division called Microsoft Managed Solutions (MMS), which is working with Energizer to assume management for the battery company’s global IT network. MMS is starting work as Energizer’s desktop computer manager in Maryville, Missouri, where Energizer has a battery plant. And MMS is managing Energizer’s global communications network, while also working to set up a global workspace based on Microsoft Windows®SharePoint®Services.
On the desktop front, MMS is helping Energizer streamline and make more secure the software residing on desktop computers in everyday use. Early on, Energizer’s information technology staff estimated that perhaps 200 to 300 applications were in use companywide. MMS surveyed Energizer’s desktops using analysis tools that counted programs in use and came up with thousands of different programs—from the standard, such as Microsoft Office, to specialized calculators, to screensavers. MMS has worked with Energizer to trim that massive list, reducing it to what is needed by Energizer’s business units and users, and developing a “manifest” of accepted programs for each desktop unit.
Now, in Maryville, Microsoft is managing desktop computers, a process that entails removing some administrative rights from users in order to make the desktops more secure and supportable. Each desktop has its hard drive backed up, then wiped clean. A new Microsoft Windows XP operating system is installed in each, along with Microsoft Office XP, and any other required programs for those desktops. Says Scott Weinstein, Microsoft Engagement Executive: “From the corporate perspective, the goal is to have desktops that are better managed and more secure so that the company doesn’t have to worry about losing a desktop two days a month because of some problem it didn’t see coming. But at the same time, we don’t want people to be angry because they can’t use their Spiderman screen saver, so we try to find a balance. Most users say their computer screen looks exactly the same as it did before.”
Energizer’s other big objective is to see MMS create a companywide information forum based on SharePointsites. These sorts of information-centric digital workspaces are part of a major push by Microsoft to show businesses how to use technology to take advantage of their greatest asset—employees—by encouraging collaboration and improving communication. When completed, Energizer’s SharePoint–based forum will give company employees around the globe a single Web site to visit where they can enter company intranets, share documents and folders, collaborate on team projects, and more. For instance, as part of that solution, Energizer desktops will automatically port manufacturing information into the SharePoint workspace, so that global managers can look into the manufacturing pipeline for a clear picture of inventory and get ahead of any manufacturing problems. Says Randy Benz, “We’re very excited about this. We’ve done some information-sharing in the past, but we really don’t have a comprehensive view into our store of information or a common way of getting at it. With SharePoint, we’ll have one searchable view of all the information we have in the world, in a multilingual format.” MMS also is now managing Energizer’s Outlook®-based e-mail system.
Benz and MMS managers both say that Energizer’s transition to an MMS-managed computing environment is a work in progress, with the SharePoint transition and the rollout of MMS-managed desktops only partially completed or piloted. But Benz says he is impressed by the technical know-how and cooperative attitude brought to Energizer by MMS. “With newer-generation products, we might be able to understand the technology, but there probably will be functional things that we wouldn’t master,” says Benz. “Microsoft really brings the ability to help us understand the nuances of the technology, so we can take better advantage of it.”
In time, Energizer believes it will benefit from MMS management of its IT because it now is assured of always having the latest versions of software, which improves productivity while enhancing security. Energizer also gets more of what it pays for in its Enterprise Agreement (EA) software contract. Energizer needed more than a year and a half to deploy Microsoft Office when it last purchased an EA contract for Office. But MMS personnel are accustomed to a constant stream of updates because they themselves regularly use beta versions of Microsoft software, acting as in-house testers for the new product before it goes into wider distribution. So Energizer’s desktops now will be updated more frequently and always current. Energizer also will be one of the first corporate users of Windows Vista™, thesuccessor to the Windows XP operating system, as well as of the 2007 Microsoft Office release.
Microsoft executives say they hope to reap some benefits as well. Says Scott Weinstein, “Microsoft wants to make it cheaper, quicker, and easier for firms to upgrade their software. At Microsoft, we’re always using the latest and greatest, and we want our customers to see the advantages of doing the same. We also want to take the learning we’re picking up from Energizer, and push it back to our product teams.”
Benz, for his part, thinks that Energizer’s partnership with MMS is bound to gain support in corporations elsewhere. “I firmly believe that this is the model for how functionality will be delivered to users in the future. It’s exciting for me and my team to be part of this evolution.”
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