Microsoft Lync Server 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Global Manufacturer Promotes Innovation with Communications Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: GlobalIndustry: Specialty chemicals

Customer ProfileDow Corning is a global leader in silicone-based technology and innovation. Headquartered in Midland, Michigan, it has more than 25,000 customers and 10,000 employees.

Business SituationDow Corning wanted to drive innovation and take full advantage of the diverse expertise of its global workforce by improving knowledge sharing, expert identification, and communications.

SolutionDow Corning deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010 for instant messaging, presence, desktop sharing, and ad hoc collaboration and online conferencing capabilities.

Benefits Improved innovation process Reduced training costs by 20 percent Reduced IT and overhead costs

“Lync is the next evolution of our communications solution. We are an innovative company, and it gives us the ability to take advantage of the unique specialties of our people required to innovate across geographic boundaries.”

Steve Hershauer, Senior Applications Engineer, Dow Corning

Dow Corning has been inventing products, creating markets, and innovating new ways to serve customers since pioneering the silicone industry in 1943. Headquartered in Midland, Michigan, Dow Corning offers more than 7,000 products and services to more than 25,000 customers worldwide. The company depends on effective communications among its global workforce to develop innovative products. To improve existing capabilities for instant messaging, presence, and ad hoc collaboration and online meetings, the company deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010 as part of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program. In addition to facilitating its employees’ ability to share expertise while developing innovative products, Dow Corning expects to reduce costs, including training costs by 20 percent.

SituationEstablished in 1943, Dow Corning is a global leader in silicones, silicone-based technology, and innovation. Headquartered in Midland, Michigan, Dow Corning has 10,000 employees worldwide, serves more than 25,000 customers around the globe, and had sales over U.S.$5 billion in 2009.

Dow Corning has researchers and developers at locations around the world, so it depends on an effective communications network to take advantage of their diverse expertise to develop innovative products. The company often requires subject matter experts to be available quickly to support products and processes. “Dow Corning’s brand promise is that ‘we help you invent the future.’ To make that possible, employees need to innovate and work effectively across our entire value chain with customers, suppliers, and partners,” says Jerry Burns, Enterprise Architect at Dow Corning.

Dow Corning needed a communications solution that would better support two key company initiatives: teleworking and its High-Efficiency Workplace initiative. The company wanted its teleworkers to be more visible and connected with the rest of the organization, even though they work remotely. Dow Corning designed its High-Efficiency Workplace initiative to help employees solve issues faster through greater adoption of diversified collaboration and communications solutions.

In 2007, Dow Corning deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. With Office Communications Server, employees could

use presence and instant messaging (IM) capabilities to find and communicate with coworkers. They could also hold audio conferences on their computers with other employees. When they needed to meet with external partners or customers, they could use the Live Meeting conferencing service.

Overall, employees found that the new solution helped them to be more productive. They could quickly locate coworkers to get questions answered through an IM session or an impromptu conference. However, even with all the benefits to productivity employees were experiencing, they sometimes found the user interface confusing. While capabilities like desktop sharing made it easier for them to discuss design documents or project milestones, they had to launch Live Meeting from Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 to open a sharing session, which was not intuitive to them.

For scheduled meetings, employees frequently did not know when to set up a meeting in Office Communications Server versus Live Meeting. “With two distinct options for conferencing, employees were not sure which one to use, so they required additional training,” says Steve Hershauer, Senior Applications Engineer and Unified Communications Strategist at Dow Corning. In addition to supporting two products for conferencing, IT administrators also had to support the conferencing add-in for the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 messaging and collaboration client.

Employees also needed to record online meetings. With employees located in so many time zones around the world, they

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could not always attend online meetings at their scheduled times. Because employees often found it difficult to record the audio and video from conferences with Live Meeting and sub-optimum audio conferencing integration, employees who could not attend meetings typically had to follow up with the meeting leader for a summary.

SolutionIn November 2010, Dow Corning began evaluation of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 in hopes of providing its employees a single solution for instant messaging, presence, desktop sharing, and ad hoc collaboration and online conferencing capabilities. Dow Corning projects deployment of the solution to all 10,000 employees in the first half of 2011.

The organization has deployed an edge server, which it did not have with Office Communications Server 2007. By deploying the edge server role, Dow Corning enables its employees to access Lync communications capabilities when they are outside the corporate network. It also provides access for external users to participate in conference calls and chat sessions.

Dow Corning is taking advantage of server virtualization to better leverage hardware and for greater flexibility. “Office Communications Server 2007 was limited in roles that could be virtualized. With Lync Server, we can use server virtualization for every role, which provides failover redundancy and helps us deliver a higher service level in a cost-effective way,” says Jason Lykins, Infrastructure Engineer at Dow Corning.

Dow Corning employees are taking advantage of desktop sharing in Lync Server 2010. “Lync will be a significant step forward with desktop sharing,” says Burns. “All of the functionality, such as desktop sharing, whiteboards, polling, and application sharing, is built into a single application, and we can run any of these with just a single click.” Engineers in the United States can use Lync to share new product design ideas with colleagues around the world. They can also use the whiteboard to have a virtual brainstorming sessions to draw and explain things as if sitting in the same room.

Dow Corning has tested the use of Microsoft LifeCam HD webcams with the video conferencing capability in Lync. With improved video controls and high-definition video, the picture quality has improved. “Solution engineers can look at the application of our materials in the field and actually see the process and products at work,” says Hershauer. Executives at Dow Corning will also use video conferencing to interview job candidates if they live in a different city or country. The sales team can also use web and video conferencing instead of traveling to some meetings.

Employees can easily record meetings within the Lync client and save content as Windows Media files or in XPS format. “Lync provides an easy way to record meetings,” says Hershauer. “We frequently will have meetings with global teams regarding corporate priorities. The ability to capture and record the meeting information is critical for us to share knowledge effectively and sustain a good work-life balance for employees.”

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“With Lync Server, we can use server virtualization for every role, which provides failover redundancy and helps us deliver a higher service level in a cost-effective way.”

Jason Lykins, Infrastructure Engineer, Dow Corning

Dow Corning has deployed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to its global workforce and will benefit from how it interoperates with Lync Server 2010. Employees can search SharePoint for experts right from within Lync client to identify the best person available to help with an issue.

Teleworkers will especially benefit from the activity feed in Lync. By using the activity feed, they can see coworkers’ latest activities, such as office moves, new personal photos, or status notes. Employees will also use the Rich Contact Card feature to help familiarize themselves with coworkers outside their departments. Rich Contact Cards display pictures that have been loaded into the Active Directory service or posted on the Internet, and they also show a person’s manager and direct reports. “Pictures are a simple yet powerful way to help better connect our employees and give more visibility for the remote worker who may not work from an office location with their team,” says Hershauer.

BenefitsBy deploying Lync Server, Dow Corning expects employees to share knowledge and expertise more easily across its geographically diverse workforce. “With the single client, Lync simplifies the experience for the end user and the administrator,” says Hershauer. The company expects to improve innovation and reduce costs.

Improved Innovation ProcessThe employees of Dow Corning depend on solid communications and collaboration to share expertise on new product innovations. “With Lync, you have one

solution to provide instant messaging, desktop sharing, and web and video conferencing. This is completely consistent with our desire to achieve meaningful connectivity from anyplace, anytime, with anyone, which is crucial to being effective in the global market,” says Burns.

Engineers can brainstorm ideas more effectively when collaborating remotely with the desktop sharing and whiteboard capabilities. They can involve more of the right people at the right time during projects. Employees can find product and process specialists faster with expert search. “Identification of experts is a critical factor to help us truly harness the power of innovation across geographies,” says Burns. “The inclusion of social-media capabilities within Lync becomes integral to our strategy to better tap into the diverse expertise within the corporation.”

Because employees can more easily share knowledge, they can reduce the time it takes to develop a product from initial idea to product or service offering. “Now, more than ever, we must fully exploit the benefits of collaboration to achieve optimal effectiveness in the global market,” says Burns.

Reduced Training CostsWith the upgrade to Lync, employees have a single client to manage their instant messaging, presence, web conferencing, and video conferencing. From one interface, they can complete tasks such as scheduling conference calls, initiating instant messages, and sharing their desktop. Employees can share their desktop, open a whiteboard, or transfer a file in real time with a single click. Dow

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“All of the functionality, such as desktop sharing, whiteboards, polling, and application sharing, is built into a single application, and we can run any of these with just a single click.”

Jerry Burns, Enterprise Architect, Dow Corning

Corning expects to reduce training costs for employees by 20 percent.

Reduced IT and Overhead Costs By deploying Lync, Dow Corning expects to reduce IT and overhead costs in the following ways: Because web conferencing is a part of

Lync Server 2010, the company expects to save considerable annual expense dollars by eliminating the Live Meeting service.

The company expects to virtualize most of its Lync Server deployment, which will help it defray future hardware costs and service downtime.

With increased use of video conferencing, the company expects Lync to support reduced travel costs.

Because Lync aligns with the company’s teleworking initiative, it expects to reduce office space costs and improve employee satisfaction.

Dow Corning believes Lync Server is a key solution in its High-Efficiency Workforce initiative. Hershauer says, “Lync is the next evolution of our communications solution. We are an innovative company, and it gives us the ability to take advantage of the unique specialties of our people required to innovate across geographic boundaries.”

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 solution 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 Dow Corning products and services, call (800) 248-2481 or visit the website at: www.dowcorning.com

For more information about Jabra products and services, call (800) 826-4656 or visit the website at: www.jabra.com

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

Document published November 2010

Software and Services Microsoft Office− Microsoft Lync 2010− Microsoft Office Professional 2007

− Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010