Microsoft Lync Server 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Content Provider Uses Communication Solution to Stay Connected Anywhere, Anytime

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Professional services

Customer ProfileLionbridge provides translation, development, and testing solutions. The company has 4,500 employees across 26 countries, supported by a network of 85,000 virtual, in-country professionals.

Business SituationLionbridge wanted a communications solution that would help its employees stay in contact and remain productive no matter where they are working.

SolutionLionbridge deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to replace its voice systems and ran a pilot deployment of Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 to provide instant messaging and presence on employees’ mobile devices.

Benefits Enabled anywhere, anytime

communication Improved productivity Reduced costs Eased management

“The way the world works today, ten minutes makes a difference. If employees are commuting, they can easily use Communicator Mobile to get in touch.”

Nilton Giangiulio, Regional IT Manager for the Americas, Lionbridge

Lionbridge is a leading provider of translation, development, and testing solutions. The company has more than 4,500 employees across 26 countries. With program managers, linguists, and engineers working around the world, the company needed a communications solution that increased productivity and effectively connected client production teams working in different locations. In 2010, the company upgraded to Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to extend its enterprise voice capabilities. To help remote and mobile employees communicate more effectively, Lionbridge decided to pilot Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2. By using Microsoft Lync and Office Communicator Mobile, employees were able to remain connected and productive when they were away from their offices. The company has significantly reduced its telephony systems, reduced costs, and improved global communications.

SituationFounded in 1996, Lionbridge is a leading provider of translation, development, and testing solutions. Through its translation solutions, Lionbridge adapts client software products, applications, and web content to meet the linguistic, technical, and cultural requirements of users worldwide. Some of the company’s clients include Nokia, Hewlett Packard, Volvo, EMC, and Expedia. The company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, and has 4,500 employees across 26 countries, including 1,900 skilled professionals in India, China, and Eastern Europe.

Because employees can be located anywhere around the world, they need a method to communicate quickly and easily across time zones. Lionbridge also has a mix of employees who work in offices and employees who work from home offices or other remote locations. In 2009, Lionbridge deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to all 4,500 employees to provide instant messaging, presence, and conferencing capabilities to its employees, in addition to voice over IP (VoIP). The company had 45 separate private branch exchange (PBX) systems spanning several geographies—each managed separately and with varying qualities of service—that it ultimately wanted to replace. Lionbridge used session-initiation protocol (SIP) trunking to enable VoIP calls through Office Communications Server at several of its offices. SIP trunking is the use of SIP and real-time transport protocol (RTP) to pass telephony traffic from the enterprise network edge to a network service provider over an IP connection, without traversing traditional telephony networks.

Lionbridge wanted to expand its enterprise voice capabilities to more offices to replace its PBX systems, in addition to extending enterprise voice capabilities to common area and conference room phones at its office locations. It also wanted to ensure that remote and mobile employees could easily communicate with colleagues around the world from any location.

SolutionLionbridge upgraded its communications solution to Microsoft Lync Server 2010, which provides enhanced versions of the communications capabilities provided by Office Communications Server 2007 R2—presence, instant messaging, robust conferencing, and enterprise voice—as well as improvements in topology, deployment, and management tools. It deployed the solution to all 3,800 employees.

By upgrading to Lync Server, Lionbridge has taken advantage of several communication enhancements that include improved failover scenarios and more options for supported voice hardware. “With the more flexible architecture and better hardware options, we can be much more aggressive in deploying Lync Server to replace our PBX systems,” explains Oyvind Kaldestad, VP of Information Technology at Lionbridge. The company deployed Lync Server in a highly available configuration to ensure consistent connectivity. The company has already replaced PBX systems with Lync enterprise voice at 9 of its 45 offices.

As Lionbridge transitions from its PBX systems to enterprise voice, it is replacing its traditional desk phones. Employees can choose between using Lync-optimized

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headsets with Microsoft Lync 2010 on the desktop, or they can use IP-based phones. The company deployed IP-based desk and conferencing phones that are optimized to work with Lync Server, so that people can easily view and search Lync or addresses book contact lists, add multiple parties to existing calls, and transfer calls to a mobile device. Employees can also view their calendar for the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration client and search and see presence information for Outlook contacts.

Because the Microsoft Office Live Meeting client has been integrated into the Microsoft Lync 2010 desktop client, employees now have one single interface where they can view presence, send instant messages, place voice calls, or set up ad hoc collaboration sessions and online meetings. “Presence is critical for me to see when people are available,” says Jill Polanycia, Technical Lead Engineer for XML at Lionbridge. “The Activity Feed is also a great feature, because I can see instantly what people are working on.” Employees can also take advantage of enhanced contact information with social networking features like the Rich Contact Card and Skill Search. The Rich Contact Card displays people’s pictures as well as their managers and direct reports, and people can use Skill Search to find subject matter experts in other departments or other regions more easily. To help route calls internally, the IT team is using the Response Group Service in Lync Server to create internal response groups.

Employees also use desktop sharing extensively to collaborate on projects. The IT team will continue to use desktop

sharing to troubleshoot issues and to train people how to use new software. “Desktop sharing and video conferencing are critical tools for IT support,” says Ramesh Puttan, Systems Administrator at Lionbridge. “We retired our Polycom video conferencing service, and now we solely rely on Lync.”

For remote and mobile employees, Lionbridge also piloted Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 on the Nokia E7 smart phone. The Nokia E7 is configured specifically for business users with Mail for Exchange and Quickoffice, and includes support for the Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile client. Employees using the Lync 2010 client on the desktop see a “Mobile” presence indicator for colleagues who are signed in to Communicator Mobile. By using Lync enterprise voice and Communicator Mobile, employees can view presence information and send instant messages the same as if they were using their desktop Lync client. “People really like having the same Lync functionality on the phone as they have on the desktop, because it extends what they are able to do and ensures they can receive critical messages,” says Kaldestad. They can also take advantage of the Single Number Reach feature, which enables them to use a single contact number that can ring both their cell phone and Lync client to help ensure they will not miss calls.

With Lync Server, the company’s IT team will also take advantage of the extended management capabilities. Using the Windows PowerShell command-line interface, the IT team can easily deploy and manage Lync Server, and through the web-based control panel, it can manage Lync Server from anywhere on the corporate

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network. Help-desk employees will use role-based access control to delegate help-desk roles. The IT team also installed the Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager for monitoring and alerts.

BenefitsWith its Lync Server 2010 deployment, Lionbridge can more easily deploy and support enterprise voice across the organization. In addition, by using enterprise voice and Communicator Mobile, employees can be more productive no matter where they are located or what device they are using to communicate. “We have used a Microsoft communications solution from the beginning,” says Nilton Giangiulio, Regional IT Manager for the Americas at Lionbridge. “Today, Lync is one of the most important tools we use at Lionbridge.”

Enabled Anywhere, Anytime Communication By using Lync enterprise voice and Communicator Mobile, employees at Lionbridge can easily stay connected to colleagues no matter where they are. “The way the world works today, ten minutes makes a difference,” says Giangiulio. “If employees are commuting, they can easily use Communicator Mobile to get in touch.”

For employees who work primarily out of their homes, Lync is especially critical. “I use Communicator Mobile every time I leave the house,” says Jose Cotes, Multimedia Engineer at Lionbridge. “Having access to instant messaging and presence is wonderful.”

With the ability to place phone calls from their laptops or send instant messages from their mobile phones, employees can work together from most any location. “I used to lose a day or two with email. Through Communicator Mobile or Lync, I can get answers quickly no matter where I am,” says Delphine Teboul, Localization Engineer at Lionbridge.

Improved ProductivityEmployees at Lionbridge continue to see an increase in their productivity as their communication technology advances. Employees find it easy to manage meetings and conversations through the Lync client. “We are seeing a real upward trend in usage overall, which will make it easier to replace our PBX systems,” says Kaldestad.By using capabilities such as the Skill Search and the Rich Contact Cards, employees can more easily locate subject matter experts to answer questions. When they find the right person, they can view presence information and determine how best to initiate contact: phone call, instant message, or email. For the IT team, instant messaging and desktop sharing act as lifelines. “We use Lync to stay in touch with other IT teams around the world,” says Henk Thomassen, IT Systems Engineer at Lionbridge. “When I have a question, sending an instant message is the first thing I try. Everything else seems time-consuming now.”

“If someone has an issue and I have my phone, with Communicator Mobile I can easily type basic instructions to help resolve the issue,” adds Giangiulio.

Eased Management

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“We use Lync to stay in touch with other IT teams around the world. When I have a question, sending an instant message is the first thing I try. Everything else seems time-consuming now.”

Henk Thomassen, IT Systems Engineer, Lionbridge

The Lionbridge IT team can more easily scale and manage its communications solution with the more flexible architecture and management options in Lync Server. With the Monitoring Server and Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager, the IT team can also more easily collate information, view trends, and diagnose problems. With the role-based access control feature, the IT team can also more easily delegate tasks. “It is much easier for us to hand off tasks to the help desk while we focus on core management,” explains Thomassen.

Reduced CostsAs Lionbridge retires its PBX systems, it will also eliminate maintenance charges. With more employees placing calls through Lync 2010, the company can reduce toll charges and long distance charges. In addition, employees can help reduce mobile phone charges by using Communicator Mobile to send instant messages and get questions answered quickly. With Lync Server, Lionbridge also has cost-effective options—such as the IP-based phones—to replace common area and conference room phones with hardware optimized for enterprise voice, further eliminating its reliance on traditional telephony solutions.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 Nokia products and services, call +358 (0) 7180 08000 or visit the website at: www.nokia.com

For more information about Lionbridge products and services, call (781) 434-6111 or visit the website at: www.lionbridge.com

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

Document published July 2011

Software and Services Microsoft Office− Microsoft Lync 2010− Microsoft Office Communicator

Mobile 2007 R2 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Hardware Nokia E7 Phone

Partners Nokia