Microsoft Lync Server 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Startup Uses Communications Solution to Keep Employees Connected Through Global Expansion

OverviewCountry or Region: IrelandIndustry: Telecommunications

Customer ProfileEzetop enables people who live or work abroad to recharge the mobile phone accounts of friends and family back home so they can stay in touch. The company’s service offers direct connections to more than 150 international mobile operators.

Business SituationRapid global growth exposed the inadequacies of the company's existing telephone systems and the need for a new platform to keep Ezetop employees connected.

SolutionEzetop deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to replace its private-branch exchange system and to provide a unified communications platform for employees.

Benefits Provides seamless connectivity Reduces costs Sustains rapid growth

“We have really taken to Lync, and it has given us a competitive advantage. As we enter a new phase of growth, we see it as a critical enabler.”

Jim Carr, Chief Technology Officer, Ezetop

Ezetop, a startup from Dublin, Ireland, expanded into six countries in just five years. With its rapid growth, Ezetop struggled to keep the ethos of the company consistent, and it was concerned about maintaining the organisation’s communications infrastructure. Scaling up its private-branch exchange (PBX) system was too expensive, and other systems were cumbersome for employees. Ezetop partnered with Unity Technology Solutions, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to replace its PBX system with Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Employees now enjoy easy collaboration across continents—they can instantly communicate, regardless of whether they are on the road or in an office on the other side of the world. Costs to manage and maintain Lync Server are much lower than the PBX system it replaced, and toll charges for phone calls have been significantly reduced.

SituationFounded in 2006, Ezetop enables people who are living or working abroad to instantly add money to the mobile phone accounts of friends and family back home. Ezetop started as a simple idea that tapped into a market opportunity with astonishing speed. By 2008, the company grew from 3 to 15 employees and opened offices in Dubai and Miami, in addition to the company’s Dublin headquarters. One year later, the company grew to 40 employees and opened new offices in Asia, Central America, and Europe.

Today, Ezetop is a robust international business employing 120 people in six countries. Ezetop services are available online and in more than 300,000 retail outlets around the world. More than 180 international mobile operators are directly connected to its network, with more added each month, giving the company a footprint that covers Asia Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Central/Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

Fast growth presented a number of business challenges, particularly around the company’s communications infrastructure. As Ezetop set up in different parts of the world, it was essential that the ethos of the business travelled with its growing band of employees, and that a business model based on high volume and small margin could be successfully executed in the different locations.

Telephony solutions bought in for the first wave of growth were struggling to keep up. The original private-branch exchange (PBX) system was too expensive to scale up, so a second system was bought to connect the

outlying offices. “It was a hotchpotch, with many people looking at two phones on their desks and trying to work out which one to use,” said Jim Carr, Chief Technology Officer at Ezetop. “We were constantly patching new elements onto them and they were expensive to maintain. It was all very cumbersome and becoming a barrier to growth.”

Voice calls were not the only frustration. Web conferencing and remote collaboration were difficult because employees were relying on disjointed technologies that made spontaneous online meetings almost impossible.When Ezetop grew too big for its Dublin headquarters and planned a move to bigger offices, Carr saw the opportunity to invest in a communications platform that would keep up with the business.

SolutionEzetop services are built on Microsoft products, from servers and databases to a suite of Microsoft Office tools are used in every department. Carr describes Ezetop as “Microsoft to the core,” and saw that Microsoft Lync Server 2010 was a product that could meet the company’s communication needs while integrating easily into the IT environment.

The migration was entrusted to Unity Technology Solutions, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network with a strong track record in communications and convergence. Stephen Black, Head of Operations at Unity, recognised that Ezetop was a company ready for Lync Server. “They wanted to standardise on a single PBX while building on the functionality that a traditional phone system can deliver,” he

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says. “And they wanted much greater integration with their existing Microsoft applications.”

Lync Server offers the full suite of unified communications to every employee, anytime, anywhere. Features like instant messaging and presence (for identifying who is contactable and how) are accessible through Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and other Office applications. Voice mail is accessed through the email inbox, for example, and all contacts are sourced from the same place. Because everything is so closely integrated, with a single click, Lync can be used to escalate a phone call to an online conference to collaborate over video and shared desktops. And pulling in additional people is as easy as dragging and dropping contacts.

The migration to Lync Server proved seamless. Unity ensured that the deployment took place over the course of one weekend, according to Carr. “We literally powered down the old office on a Friday and walked into the new one on a Monday,” he says. “Lync worked from day one.” Ezetop employees now use use a mix of IP telephones and softphones on their laptops to make all their internal and external voice calls.

BenefitsBy addressing its employees’ communication and collaboration needs with an integrated suite of products, Ezetop is improving the way its organisation works. In addition, with its deployment of Lync Server, the company is also facilitating its international expansion while maintaining core company values.

Provides Seamless Connectivity“Any company that experiences rapid growth risks creating isolated teams that feel disconnected from the wider organisation. It’s easy to set up an overseas office, but the hard part is doing it in a way that lets employees communicate seamlessly,” says Carr. “We had started to have knowledge silos; people in one part of the business not knowing what was going on elsewhere. Lync helped us solve that.”Company employees use Lync to instantly strike up conversations or hold ad hoc meetings, regardless of whether people are on the road, at home, or working alone in an office on the other side of the world. Lync Server also handles the high number of support calls that drive the business in every territory, and local customers always have a local number to ring.

Voice over IP telephony saves the company money, enabling people to make interoffice calls with three digit extensions rather than using the public telephone network. Calls are free to anywhere in the world.

Reduces CostsManaging and maintaining Lync Server is easier and cheaper for the Ezetop’s IT department because it is already familiar with Microsoft products. Built-in integration eliminates the patching problems that plagued the two previous telephone systems and has significantly reduced maintenance costs.

Employees are used to working in a Windows environment which means that Lync Server and unified communications were rolled out with little or no extra training. “It’s very intuitive. If you can use

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“We had started to have knowledge silos, people in one part of the business not knowing what was going on elsewhere. Lync helped us solve that.”

Jim Carr, Chief Technology Officer, Ezetop

Outlook, you can use Lync,” says Black. “It’s got the Microsoft look and feel, so there is a minimal amount of training required.”

Ezetop has still to make the cultural leap to using the full video capabilities of Lync. Right now, sharing desktops and presentations is seen as more important than face-to-face, but the plan is to take advantage of the nine-screen video wall in the Dublin headquarters, pulling all the global offices together with a connection running over Lync.

Supports Rapid GrowthThe company’s growth trajectory shows no sign of slowing down, thanks in part to Lync Server, which plays a valuable role in helping employees communicate across an expanding global footprint. “It is imperative that our technical team is able to meet with our commercial team across different geographies,” said Carr. “They need to be able to discuss strategies for bringing on board new operators. We aim to integrate 20 or more new operators every quarter. Currently, we are looking at new opportunities in Russia and China.” Carr has no doubt that Lync Server is playing a pivotal role. “We have really taken to Lync, and it has given us a competitive advantage. As we enter a new phase of growth, we see it as a critical enabler.”

Microsoft Lync Server 2010Microsoft Lync Server 2010 ushers in a new connected user experience that transforms every communication into an interaction that is more collaborative, and engaging; and that is accessible from anywhere. For IT, the benefits are equally powerful, with a highly secure and reliable communications system that works with existing tools and systems for easier management, lower cost of ownership, smoother deployment and migration, and greater choice and flexibility.

For more information about Microsoft Lync Server 2010, go to: www.microsoft.com/lync

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For More InformationFor 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 Unity Technology Solutions products and services, call (353) (1) 247 7400 or visit the website at:www.unity.ie

For more information about Ezetop products and services, call (353) (1) 630 6300 or visit the website at: www.ezetop.com

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

Document published February 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Office− Microsoft Lync 2010

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Partners Unity Technology Solutions