Microsoft Office SystemCustomer Solution Case Study

Multimedia Publisher Chooses Proven Software Suite Over Hosted Productivity Tools

OverviewCountry or Region: United KingdomIndustry: Publishing industry

Customer ProfileTrader Media Group is a multimedia publisher focusing on classified advertising. Based in London, England, the company produces a range of publications viewed by 20 million people a day.

Business SituationWhen its parent company moved to Google Apps for communication and collaboration, Trader Media Group needed to decide whether to make the same move or continue its investment in Microsoft Office.

SolutionAfter evaluating Google Apps and Microsoft Office 2010, Trader Media Group determined that Office 2010 provided the best functionality and manageability in a cost-effective way.

Benefits The right tools for employees An investment in the future A cost-effective solution

“It’s important to us that employees of Trader Media Group understand we’re happy to invest in the best possible tools for them, and we believe Microsoft Office 2010 is the best choice out there.”

Trader Media Group is a multimedia publisher of a range of local, regional, and national publications. When its parent company, the Guardian Group, moved from Lotus Notes to Google Apps, Trader Media Group needed to decide whether or not to move to Google Apps from Microsoft Office. IT and business managers evaluated both products and determined that continuing its Microsoft investment and upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010 made the most sense for the company. Employees can now do their jobs more efficiently with new features in Microsoft Office 2010, and IT staff can rely on the stability and tight integration of its end-to-end Microsoft technology stack. Trader Media Group also deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting to improve employee communication and facilitate collaboration between

SituationWimbledon, England-based Trader Media Group is one of Europe’s largest publishers, with a portfolio of more than 70 leading classified titles including Auto Trader. The company’s website receives 10 million unique users and 20 million hits per day. Trader Media Group, a division of the Guardian Media Group, was formed in 2000 from the merger of two other companies. In addition to its headquarters outside London, Trader Media Group has a technology center in the north of England and 10 branch offices. The company employs 1,800 people, 150 of whom work remotely.

Over the past decade, Trader Media Group has transitioned much of its business from traditional print media to online channels. As a result, the company has become as much a technology company as a publisher, so it is important that employees have access to software that they can use to manage electronic data and communicate effectively with colleagues at any of the company’s locations.

Trader Media Group uses the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system and relies on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 database software for its main internal business applications. Employees use the Windows XP operating system and the Microsoft Office 2007 productivity suite on their desktop and portable computers, and the software is a key part of their day-to-day work. “There’s no doubt it’s the default product for

everyone in the organisation,” says Alison Ross, Head of Service Support at Trader Media Group. “It’s so embedded and ingrained that people don’t even think about it anymore.”

Although Trader Media Group has a long history with Microsoft products, the company was facing pressure to move to a different platform for communication, collaboration, and office productivity applications. In 2009, The Guardian Media Group, its parent, had moved from Lotus Notes to Google Apps Premiere Edition, and Trader Media Group needed to decide whether to follow suit. The company was also approaching the renewal date for its licensing agreement with Microsoft, so it had to decide whether to stay with Microsoft.

“Because we’d been using Microsoft Office for so long, a lot of people in our organisation took it for granted—you come in every day and it just works,” says Ross. “We were getting a lot of pressure from our business divisions to evaluate competitive products. In our sector, we’re very progressive with technology, so it became our goal to prove that outstanding, leading-edge technology can be Microsoft branded—it doesn’t have to be Google. And we wanted to show that Microsoft solutions are cost effective, because businesses obviously want to save as much money as possible.”

SolutionAlthough Trader Media Group is part of the Guardian Group, the company’s

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“There’s no doubt [Microsoft Office] is the default product for everyone in the organisation. It’s so embedded and ingrained that people don’t even think about it anymore.”

Alison Ross, Head of Service Support, Trader Media Group

IT staff has a high degree of autonomy when making technology decisions. The Guardian Group determined that Google Apps was the most appropriate solution for its business and technology needs, and Trader Media Group needed to make a decision for itself, so IT staff began evaluating Google Apps and Microsoft Office 2010 in late 2009. As part of the evaluation, they looked at how each solution met the company’s requirements. Evaluation criteria included: Is the solution easy to administer,

with the management features IT staff expect?

Does the solution provide the functionality employees need to do their jobs?

What would be the process of moving to the new solution?

Is the solution cost-effective?

Evaluating the OptionsTrader Media Group IT staff began by evaluating the Google Apps Premiere Edition being used by the Guardian Group. One of the most important factors in the decision was how the Google Apps functionality compared with what the company would get with Microsoft Office. “We wanted to see what the Google products would bring us that we don't have already,” says Ross. “And more importantly, we needed to find out what we would lose. For one thing, using the Google solution meant we would lose our strategic investment in a Microsoft infrastructure, and it would mean moving to an off-premise hosted

solution, which we hadn’t planned to do yet.”

IT administrators were concerned about the changes that would come by moving to a hosted Google solution. Although the light administrative touch required by hosted applications meant potentially less work for technical staff, Trader Media Group wasn’t sure about the switch. “Our model for running IT is very well structured and organised,” says Ross. “Therefore, to remove our ability to closely administer and manage the environment made us see the Google alternative as a negative, rather than a positive.”

Trader Media Group was also concerned that the level of functionality provided by the Google solution might be a step back from what employees had come to expect from Microsoft Office. “For a company without great email tools and an older version of Microsoft Office, it might be more attractive,” notes Ross. “But for us, with a mature Microsoft architecture and Microsoft Office on everyone’s desktop, I think we were asking people to lose a lot, particularly the full richness of Microsoft Office Outlook.”

The evaluation team discovered issues with the Google functionality as well, including issues with formatting and exchanging documents. Microsoft Office Word documents, Office Excel spreadsheets, and Office PowerPoint presentations are the de facto

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document standards in the company, and when these documents were opened in Google applications, native formatting translated poorly, and the user experience was difficult to adjust to. “I don’t think I would move our finance or accounts departments to Google Apps,” says Ross. “They need the Microsoft Office tools to do their jobs, so we’d end up paying for both solutions anyway.”

IT staff had other concerns, including the level of support available, recoverability of documents, and the availability of established technical resources and tools for migrating to the new solution. The ever-changing nature of the Google environment was also problematic. “I was concerned that the product is so dynamic,” explains Ross. “Features are added continuously, and in our organisation we prefer to control our releases. I wasn’t pleased that new functionality could pop up tomorrow, and our helpdesk wouldn’t be prepared to help with problems. That would compromise the high level of service we give our internal customers.”

Although a major draw for Google Apps is its low price, Trader Media Group worried about hidden costs. One concern was the likelihood that the company would need to pay for extra user licenses to maintain older user accounts since users’ data is not stored onsite. So even though the upfront costs might be lower, the full solution could be significantly more expensive.

Given the potential problems with a move to Google Apps, the IT group felt strongly that its preference was to stay with Microsoft technology and continue to move forward with new Microsoft products as they become available. As part of discussions about renewing its licensing agreement, technical and business staff from Trader Media Group visited the Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre in Reading, where they got their first look at Microsoft Office 2010. What the Trader Media Group representatives saw impressed them, particularly Outlook 2010.

“A lot of our senior people would say they spend 60 to 70 percent of their computer day working with Outlook,” says Ross. “And there were several easy-to-demonstrate features in Outlook 2010 that people can easily relate to their day-to-day work that will give them a real head start. Something as simple as grouping messages into conversation views can have a profound effect on the way people interact with email. This release is a genuine leap forward.”

Deploying Microsoft Office 2010Seeing the early preview of Microsoft Office 2010 convinced Trader Media Group that renewing its Microsoft licensing agreement and upgrading to the new version of the Office suite was the best choice for its business. IT staff began the deployment in April 2010 with an initial deployment of 60 people from both the IT and business departments. The deployment ran

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“I don’t think I would move our finance or accounts departments to Google Apps. They need the Microsoft Office tools to do their jobs."

Alison Ross, Head of Service Support, Trader Media Group

"Something as simple as grouping messages into conversation views can have a profound effect on the way people interact with email. This release is a genuine leap forward.”

Alison Ross, Head of Service Support, Trader Media Group

smoothly from the beginning. “It seemed very painless,” notes Chris Rees, Service Delivery Manager at Trader Media Group. “Our employees really put the products through their paces, but we’ve had no implementation issues whatsoever, and we haven’t had to downgrade any users back to the older version because of problems.”

As part of the deployment, IT staff solicited direct feedback from users, and it has been overwhelmingly positive. Users have found that enhanced functionality in Microsoft Office 2010 and consistency across the products has improved the user experience. Employees are more productive, especially when it comes to email. “The Conversation View really helps me keep my inbox orderly,” says Lesley-Anne Davies, SLA/OLA Manager at Trader Media Group. “The Quick Steps are great timesavers. I don’t think I could live without these now!”

“The shared calendar view is brilliant,” adds Ross Beazley, a Senior Developer at Trader Media Group. “My calendar includes my team members, so I can quickly see what the others are up to, and the inline view of my calendar in meeting requests has proved invaluable. To sum up, I can just do things quicker with Microsoft Office 2010.”

Workers noted improvements in other Microsoft Office 2010 products as well, including Paste Preview, which allows users to see what formatted

text will look like after pasting in Word 2010, or how formulas will be applied in Excel 2010. Other frequently cited benefits include the ability to more easily embed audio and video into PowerPoint 2010 presentations, and Sparklines in Excel 2010 for easily displaying trending based on spreadsheet data.

Employees have also been pleased by the improved layout and consistency of the Microsoft Office Fluent Ribbon and the introduction of the Backstage View for working with features that fall outside the functionality of the Ribbon. “The new layout is impressive,” notes Stefan Lutener, Field Support Manager at Trader Media Group. “And with the Backstage View, the user experience is greatly improved from prior versions of Office. It feels more simple and methodical with this new feature.”

At the same time as its Microsoft Office 2010 rollout, Trader Media Group has also deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Users found that the integration of Microsoft Office Communicator with Microsoft Office 2010 is a great combination. “We like the way the tools fit together, with Microsoft Office 2010 very much at the centre” says Ross. “We haven’t used Microsoft Office SharePoint very much up to now, but we plan to unleash its full power after our Office upgrade, and we expect Office Web Apps will be great for remote workers. Overall, we believe that the sum of the Microsoft

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products is very much more than their individual parts.”

BenefitsTrader Media Group evaluated competing solutions for communication and collaboration, and chose the solution it felt would best meet the needs of its employees and its business. By deploying Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Trader Media Group has provided its employees with a robust set of tools for doing their jobs. The company has also strengthened its investment in a proven technology architecture in a way that lays the groundwork for future upgrades and that is cost-effective for the company.

The Right Tools for EmployeesThe IT staff at Trader Media Group believes that it is extremely important that the company’s employees have access to the latest technology to do their jobs. Not only does this improve business workflow, but it also increases employee satisfaction. “It’s important to us that employees of Trader Media Group understand we’re happy to invest in the best possible tools for them, and we believe Microsoft Office 2010 is the best choice out there,” says Ross. “Employees generally see software upgrades as an inconvenience, but the word of mouth around this upgrade has been remarkable, and I’ve been fielding requests from all over the company for people to be upgraded. It’s absolutely going to help people do their jobs better.”

An Investment in the FutureAfter its evaluation of products, Trader Media Group determined that it made the best sense for the company to continue the investment it had made in Microsoft products over the years. Not only does the maturity of the Microsoft solution provide the company with technological stability and consistency, it also makes the company a more attractive place to work. “When we’re trying to attract people to work here, it’s great that we’re always working with the latest technology,” says Ross. “We’re a technology company, and we really want to take advantage of the possibilities of our Microsoft licensing agreement.”

Trader Media Group also appreciates the options provided by its Microsoft investment, including the possibility of eventually moving to a hosted application solution. “We’re not yet ready to move our applications into the cloud,” explains Ross. “It’s something we’ll absolutely consider in the future, but it needs to be thought out carefully. Microsoft gives us the flexibility to stay on-premise for now, but move to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite when we’re ready to move to a hosted solution.”

A Cost-Effective SolutionTrader Media Group feels that maintaining its end-to-end Microsoft architecture provides the best value for money. Although alternative solutions like Google Apps may seem

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"The word of mouth around this upgrade has been remarkable, and I’ve been fielding requests from all over the company for people to be upgraded. It’s absolutely going to help people do their jobs better.”

Alison Ross, Head of Service Support, Trader Media Group

to be less expensive up front, Trader Media Group believes the long-term advantages of an integrated Microsoft solution make the most sense for the business. “Microsoft was very supportive in helping us put together a licensing arrangement that really made sense and helped us build on our existing investment, which brings down the cost of our desktops by more than 16% on a year-to-year basis.”

As Trader Media Group moves from its initial deployment to a production deployment, the company believes that the success of the project will attract the attention of other companies in the Guardian Group. “We work closely with other companies in the group for technology procurement,” says Ross. “So I think that our choice of a Microsoft solution will definitely trickle out to other divisions.”

Microsoft Office 2010Microsoft Office 2010 gives your people powerful, timesaving tools to do their best work from more places. With new capabilities and insightful updates to Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook, Office 2010 offers the complete package—with familiar, intuitive tools. Now you can express ideas, solve problems, connect with

people, and create amazing results—in the office, at home, or on the go.

For more information about Microsoft Office, go to:www.office.com

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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 Trader Media Group products and services, call (44) (0) 208-544-700 or visit the website at: www.tradermediagroup.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published June 2010

Software and Services Microsoft Office

− Microsoft Office 2010− Microsoft Office Communications

Server 2007− Microsoft Office Communicator

2007− Microsoft Office SharePoint

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Enterprise− Windows Server 2008 Enterprise