Microsoft Lync Server 2010Partner Solution Case Study

Technology Provider Helps Customers Standardize Communications to Boost Productivity

OverviewCountry or Region: GermanyIndustry: IT services

Partner ProfileHeadquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, Damovo provides information communication technology (ICT) services. It employs 1,150 workers in 12 countries.

Business SituationDamovo needs to ensure that it can offer customers the latest communications solutions.

SolutionDamovo joined the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to gain insight into the product and provide feedback on product development.

Benefits Boosts productivity Helps to reduce communication costs Simplifies deployments and

management

“Microsoft Lync Server offers many benefits, such as ease of implementation, user familiarity, and also delivers a significant ROI that enables us to build a strong business case for our customers.”

Alexandra Hanke, Alliance Manager, Damovo Group

Damovo Group has 35 years of experience deploying solutions and services across the complete information communication technology spectrum. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Damovo facilitates business process efficiency improvements for its customers through the provision, management, and support of Microsoft communications solutions. It delivers a range of conferencing, collaboration, and messaging technologies to help organizations of all sizes to standardize communications and offer employees the tools they need to be more productive at their jobs. In November 2010, Damovo began deploying Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to provide customers with presence, instant messaging, robust conferencing, and enterprise voice capabilities to help them simplify deployment, reduce costs, and improve productivity.

SituationDamovo Group provides information communication technology (ICT) services and solutions for the enterprise. Damovo has 1,150 employees and 5,600 customers worldwide, and in 2009, it recorded €225 million (U.S.$313 million) in revenue.

With years of experience in providing communication infrastructure and support for its customers’ businesses, Damovo understands the importance of delivering services that are tuned to the demands of a business and not the technology. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Damovo facilitates business process efficiency improvements for its customers through the provision, management, and support of Microsoft communications solutions. It offers a consolidated approach to IT and communications services, and also provides its customers with a clear migration path to a state-of-the-art communications platform.

Damovo works closely with its customers to determine their communications strategy. It examines current communications methods, business processes, and future business goals to develop solutions that deliver maximum benefits and are aligned to the requirements of its customers now and in the future. It also examines the existing network infrastructure to understand its current capabilities and determines what is required for a successful solution deployment. Highly-skilled and experienced engineers transform the final communications design into a practical, deployable solution, in addition to providing proof-of-concept deployments and testing to ensure success.

Damovo designs, deploys, and manages solutions built around Microsoft Office Communications Server. It also helps its customers manage the technical and configuration issues related to integrating private-branch exchange (PBX) systems into Microsoft communications solutions. It supplies and configures voice over IP (VoIP) and IP gateways that enable customers to use the voice, messaging, and telephony features in their Office Communications Server deployments. Damovo implements all features from enterprise voice to remote call control, instant messaging, and presence. Damovo also provides a range of training and management services to help its customers maintain their investments and remain productive.

SolutionIn November 2010, after participating in a Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP), Damovo added Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to the list of Microsoft communication technologies it supports for customers. Lync Server 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. “Microsoft communications solutions help us deliver significant savings in terms of both time and money, while at the same time improving communication and efficiency for our customers,” notes Alexandra Hanke, Alliance Manager at Damovo. “Microsoft Lync Server offers many benefits, such as ease of implementation, user familiarity, and also delivers a significant ROI that enables us to

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build a strong business case for our customers.”

With the more flexible deployment options in Lync Server, Damovo can also offer its customers better choices for configuring their environment. They can choose to run Lync Server in a fully virtualized environment, or they can collocate server roles on the same physical servers to reduce the amount of hardware they deploy. Damovo can also offer customers more options for replacing legacy private branch-exchange (PBX) systems or connecting their PBX systems to Lync Server to provide enterprise voice capabilities and connectivity to the public switched telephone network. Small businesses or larger companies with small branch offices can deploy a survivable branch appliance (SBA), which is based on cost-effective media gateways and hosts the Microsoft Survivable Branch Appliance software package. The SBA provides a public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection that continues to provide communications capabilities in the event of WAN failure. Customers will also have their choice of IP phones, headsets, and web cameras that are optimized to work with Lync Server and that can help their employees be the most productive.

Another important feature of Lync Server that will help Damovo to optimize Lync Server for the customer’s environment is call admission control, which it can use to maintain call quality at sites that have limited bandwidth. Damovo can also use call admission control to help customers set up call routing to take advantage of least-cost routing. For instance, for one customer, it routed calls within Germany

over the PSTN to avoid toll charges. Instead, the customer can save bandwidth on the network for international calls. Damovo can also help customers limit the number of concurrent voice or video connections people can make at a given site.

Damovo also believes that customers will appreciate the web-based management console, which administrators can use to manage Lync Server through a browser on any computer with a network connection. With the ability to set permissions through role-based access control, administrators can also more easily define help desk support and administration roles for their organizations.

With Microsoft Lync 2010, Damovo customers will have a single, unified user interface to access capabilities like audio conferencing, video conferencing, and desktop sharing. Organizations can 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. Customers who have deployed Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 can use Skill Search to find subject matter experts in other departments or other regions more easily. They can also easily set up call-forwarding to mobile phones, which is extremely important for users in Europe. Customers can also use the location feature, which automatically updates people’s locations based on their network connection.

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“We provide services for global businesses operating across a number of countries, and they are all looking for a way for their people to communicate and collaborate more effectively. With Lync Server 2010, they can improve flexibility."

Alexandra Hanke, Alliance Manager, Damovo Group

BenefitsDamovo believes that with Lync Server 2010, it can provide more flexible options for varied customer environments. “We provide services for global businesses operating across a number of countries, and they are all looking for a way for their people to communicate and collaborate more effectively,” says Hanke. “With Lync Server 2010, they can improve flexibility, collaboration, and productivity across the organization.”

Boosts ProductivityFor its customers who deploy Lync Server 2010, Damovo can help dramatically improve how employees collaborate across offices and companies. Lync Server provides customers with easier access to ad hoc and online meetings, because people can easily connect through the Microsoft Lync 2010 unified client interface. Customers will also find application sharing through Lync useful when they are working together on documents.

The interoperation between Lync Server and the other Microsoft solutions like Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Exchange Server 2010 will also help Damovo customers who deploy Lync Server to improve productivity. With presence information available in most of applications employees are using, it becomes more natural to merge communications into daily processes.

Helps to Reduce Communication CostsBy deploying Lync Server 2010, Damovo customers have more options for reducing costs, whether through simplified deployments, reduced travel, or reduced overhead costs from reduced office space.

Damovo can deploy Lync Server in a fully or partially virtualized environment, or it can collate server roles on physical servers to help reduce hardware requirements, so that customers can reduce or avoid costs associated with complicated deployments. Many Damovo customers can also save money by deploying SBAs to replace expensive PBX systems with high maintenance costs at branch offices.

Simplifies Deployments and ManagementWith Lync Server, Damovo can provide its customers with more flexible deployment solutions that are optimized specifically for their environments. Damovo engineers can use tools like the topology builder and certificate wizard to ensure that they have all of the information they need to begin the deployment. Damovo also believes overall system management will be much easier for IT administrators at organizations it supports. With the Windows PowerShell command-line interface, administrators can much more easily make changes to their Lync Server deployments. With features like call admission control, Damovo can help customers optimize their networks and ensure that critical communication channels are always available.

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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 Damovo Group products and services, call (44) (0)870 420 6300 or visit the website at: www.damovo.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 Communications

Server 2007 R2

− Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010