“I’ve now got complete confidence for the rollout of Office Standard 2007 to other areas of the business and it’s reassuring to know that Microsoft has the resources and the commitment to help us...”

Gavin Cullum, U.K. Network Services Manager, Group M

The rebranding of leading United Kingdom marketing agency Mindshare involved updating dozens of existing document templates with new logos. The company saw this as an opportunity to upgrade to Microsoft® Office Standard 2007, deploying the software in just six weeks. The in-house IT team added customised features to make employees more productive from day one, while training days, hosted by Microsoft, ensured a smooth transition.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published December 2008


Business Needs

With more than 6,000 employees, Mindshare—part of the media investment management organisation Group M—is a leading global communications agency. In mid-2007, Mindshare underwent a rebranding exercise to reinforce a restructuring of the business that took place earlier that year.

An important stage of the rebranding project involved updating dozens of document templates with a new logo. At the same time, the business wanted to refresh its existing desktop software, the Microsoft Office system, to more up-to-date applications in keeping with its status as a major communications and creative agency.

The first phase of the rollout involved 600 U.K. employees. But this presented a number of challenges. Any desktop upgrade had to support dozens of customised applications developed by the Group M Network Services team. For example, complex spreadsheets that employees use to consolidate and analyse huge amounts of financial data from multiple business systems needed to remain operational throughout the upgrade.

Gavin Cullum, U.K. Network Services Manager, Group M, explains the technical challenge facing his team when it was asked to upgrade computers used by Mindshare employees. “Apart from the fact that we had only six weeks to make the switch, we had to make sure that applications written in pre-XML code, including early versions of Microsoft Visual Basic, were compatible with the upgrade.”

In addition, Cullum was asked by IT Director, Alan Race, to ensure that employees who transferred to the new software would see little or no impact on their day-to-day work. “There was no point switching overnight and then watching employees struggle for days to come to terms with the new applications,” he says. “Leaving aside the impact on the overall business, we didn’t have the budget or the resources to handle dozens of helpdesk calls in the early days of the deployment.”

Solution

As an existing Microsoft customer, moving to Microsoft Office Standard 2007 was the logical choice for Mindshare as it upgraded its logo and overall brand identity. But Cullum identified features of the software that gave it an obvious advantage over alternative productivity suites. This included the opportunity to add customised tabs to the Microsoft Office Fluent™ Ribbon that could be used to support activities unique to Mindshare employees. For example, drop-down menus and tabs that offered quick links to document templates and even a flash movie demonstrating new Office Standard 2007 features.

It was clear that the Office Fluent interface, which makes common application features more accessible, would help employees to be more productive when working with colleagues and clients. In addition, it would also reduce helpdesk calls and general comments from end users.

But with one week to go until the September deadline, Cullum faced his biggest challenge of all. “We used the Microsoft Visual Studio2005 development system to configure the additional tab and menus in the Office Fluent Ribbon. However, this meant that we had to install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System and the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 on end-user devices at the same time as Microsoft Office 2007 itself.”

A pilot group of end users were confused when they switched on their computers to discover a series of messages asking them to confirm installation of this additional software. “Many of them simply closed the message windows and cancelled the download,” says Cullum.

But when he put out a call to Microsoft, the response was swift and highly effective. “Within a day we had one person on site working alongside two of my engineers. They quickly worked out how to do a silent install of the additional software in the background to avoid disrupting employees.”

That wasn’t the end of Microsoft’s assistance. It also sent in a team on the first two days of deployment to host workshops. These “Buzz-Days” were an opportunity for Mindshare staff to attend an informal training session, learn key features, and ask questions.

Benefits

The deployment of Office Standard 2007 in less than six weeks was an enormous achievement by the Group M IT team. And there’s little doubt that the difference between success and failure came down to close collaboration between Cullum and his colleagues, and the Microsoft support team. In addition, Cullum customised the Office Fluent Ribbon, adding a tab that includes customised help menus, a Flash movie demonstration of new Office features, and a drop-down menu of branded templates for Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office PowerPoint®, and Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet software.Says Cullum: “I’ve now got complete confidence for the rollout of Office Standard 2007 to other areas of the business and it’s reassuring to know that Microsoft has the resources and the commitment to help us troubleshoot any issues should they occur.”

The deployment of Office Standard 2007 to more than 600 Mindshare employees played a critical role in reinforcing the rebranding of the company.

A rapid support team from Microsoft ensured that the software was deployed to all employees in just six weeks.

Microsoft staffed on-site workshops, which ensured that employees got the most out of the new software from day one of the deployment.

The Group M IT team added a tab to the Office Fluent Ribbon, which includes a drop-down help field, drop-down menu of branded templates, and flash movie demonstrating new Office Standard 2007 features. This empowered employees to find answers without consuming IT resources.

Employees can access their documents and templates at the click of a mouse and no longer have to spend time searching the network for relevant files.

Rapid access to document templates accelerates the creation of standardised and more complex documents that contribute to better client relationships, new business and overall profitability.

Existing applications are compatible with Office Standard 2007, ensuring a smooth transition for business-critical processes and activities.

The successful deployment of Office Standard 2007 on time and within budget has given the Group M IT team a robust model for the rollout of the software to the rest of the business.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published December 2008