Customer profile

Company: Dell

Industry: Technology

Country: United States

Employees: 115,000+

Website: www.dell.com

Business needEnhance employee productivity by implementing new tools for communication and collaboration, and reduce expenses by eliminating the need for costly telecom systems and outside services.

SolutionThe Dell IT group refreshed the Dell™ Unified Communications (UC) solution, implementing Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010, updating additional Microsoft software, and deploying new Dell PowerEdge™ servers and Dell EqualLogic™ storage.

“We eliminated a difficult-to-maintain, truck-sized PBX system, which helped us cut expenses dramatically.”

Thad Trusler, Senior Systems Engineer, Dell

A Dell Unified Communications solution helps Dell boost worker productivity and avoid potentially millions in equipment costs

Benefits

• Achieved significant savings by eliminating a large, aging PBX system and voicemail appliances

• Increased productivity and improved mobility for more than 12,500 workers with a software-based enterprise voice solution

• Cut Web conferencing expenses by decreasing the need for external services

• Reduced help-desk costs by empowering employees to resolve issues themselves

• Developed best practices for deploying the Dell UC solution for customers

• Collaboration • Messaging • Mobile computing• Unified communication

With the release of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (the successor to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007), the Dell IT group saw important opportunities to add new functions to the Dell UC solution and enhance potential cost savings. The addition of new instant messaging capabilities and the introduction of a single interface for multiple communication modes can help improve user productivity and provide greater flexibility for working anytime, anywhere. New voicemail capabilities can help organizations end the dependence on costly private-branch exchange (PBX) telephony systems and voicemail appliances.

The Dell IT team decided to refresh the Dell UC solution, beginning first with an in-house upgrade. The time was right to make the change: the PBX and voicemail systems installed at Dell were approaching the end of their useful lives. Dell would soon need to buy replacements, which could cost the company millions of dollars.

Refreshing the Dell UC solution with Microsoft Lync Server and new Dell hardware

To refresh the Dell UC solution, the Dell IT team deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010 plus the latest editions of Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint® Workspace, Microsoft Office Outlook®, and Microsoft Office. At Dell, Microsoft Lync Server 2010 runs in a virtualized environment on Dell PowerEdge R710 servers and PowerEdge M610 blade servers equipped with the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 family. With support for greater memory capacity than previous-generation server, the PowerEdge R710

and M610 servers enable administrators to maximize virtual machine (VM) consolidation. The servers also provide increased I/O bandwidth compared with previous-generation servers, helping to deliver robust application performance.

“Standards-based servers often cost less and are easier to support than the proprietary systems included with UC solutions from other vendors,” says Casey Birch, Microsoft Exchange solutions product manager at Dell. “We can save ourselves—and our customers—time and money by using Dell servers for the Dell UC solution.”

In 2007, Dell developed the Dell Unified Communications (UC) solution to help organizations improve employee productivity, increase mobility, foster collaboration, and cut costs by bringing together multiple communications modes through an existing IP network. The solution incorporated multiple Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, with Dell PowerEdge servers to provide a robust, tightly integrated solution. Deployed internally at Dell, the solution enabled Dell employees to experience the benefits of unified communications firsthand.

“Our goal was to transition 22,000 meetings per month to the new conferencing system. But soon after deploying Lync Server, we were hosting more than 250,000 in-house. Adoption has been impressive.”

Thad Trusler, Senior Systems Engineer, Dell

Technology at work

Services

Dell Global Infrastructure Consulting Services (GICS)

Dell Support

Hardware

Dell™ PowerEdge™ R710 servers with the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 family

Dell PowerEdge M610 blade servers with the Intel Xeon processor 5600 family

Dell EqualLogic™ storage area network (SAN)

Software

Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft SharePoint® Workspace 2010

Microsoft Office Outlook® 2010

The servers are connected to a Dell EqualLogic storage area network (SAN), which provides the cost-effective scalability the IT group will need as it expands the UC solution internally.

Improving communication, collaboration, and productivity

Dell employees were immediately impressed with the new Microsoft Lync Server 2010 user interface, which brings together all types of messages in a single place. “The changes made with Lync have really improved its usability,” says Trusler. “It is much easier to collect messages and respond quickly.”

Dell employees also are taking advantage of new communications options to enhance the efficiency of communication and collaboration. “Instant messaging has become the primary tool for team communication,” says Trusler. “In the past, team members primarily exchanged e-mail and voicemail messages. Now team members can find each other and connect immediately with instant messaging. Many project tasks that used to take hours to coordinate now take minutes. We can start working right away and complete projects faster.”

At the same time, the refreshed solution enables the continued use of more traditional communication modes. Dell uses Microsoft Lync as an enterprise telephony solution for more than 12,500 employees. Those employees can place and receive high-quality calls, connecting with PBX-based phones virtually anywhere in the world, using their computer and an Internet connection.

Potentially saving millions in capital

and operating expenses

The refreshed solution has delivered some immediate—and impressive—cost savings benefits. “We eliminated a difficult-to-maintain, truck-sized PBX system, which helped us cut expenses dramatically,” says Trusler. “At the same time, we avoided replacing voicemail appliances, which could have cost millions more to purchase and maintain.”

Reducing the need for outside phone and conferencing services

Since the initial in-house deployment of the Dell UC solution in 2007, the company has realized significant savings by routing long-distance calls through the Dell data network instead of using a telecom provider. Now, the new conferencing features introduced with Lync Server are reducing the need for outside conferencing services as well. “We used to employ a pretty expensive hosted Web conferencing system,” says Trusler. “Our goal was to transition 22,000 meetings per month to the new conferencing system. But soon after deploying Lync Server, we were hosting more than 250,000 in-house. Adoption has been impressive, and we’re saving quite a bit in payments to third-party vendors.”

Accelerating deployment and streamlining administration

Automation tools included with Lync Server helped the Dell IT group deploy the new solution rapidly. “With Lync Server, you build a picture of what your environment looks like. The automation tools then look at each individual server and deploy the configuration for you,” says Trusler. “It used to take us three or four hours per server, but now we

“Instant messaging has become the primary tool for team communication....Many project tasks that used to take hours to coordinate now take minutes.”Thad Trusler, Senior Systems Engineer, Dell

can deploy the application in about 45 minutes. We saved an estimated 250 hours of IT time just on the rollout. These automation capabilities will be a tremendous benefit to Dell UC solution customers as well.”

Lync Server also helps streamline the setup of new telecom equipment for employees by providing more granular delegation of security privileges. “Previously, the IT group had to send a request to the phone team to set up an employee’s softphone. That team would send a request back to IT to type in a password,” says Trusler. The alternative was to give the phone team security access to several other, unrelated tasks. “Now we can grant the phone teams privileges just for phone setup. The process is much faster. Administrators save time, and employees are up and running quickly.”

Decreasing help-desk calls

Another welcome benefit has been the reduction of help-desk costs. The updated UC solution enables workers to take the lead in diagnosing their own communication issues and assisting co-workers. “Employees experiencing connectivity problems can use the Lync interface to determine whether there is a network connectivity issue or if the available bandwidth is too low to

support a high-quality call,” says Trusler. “Employees can choose a different communication mode, or if they still need to contact the help desk, they can provide agents with information that helps narrow down the issue quickly. Providing self-diagnosis capabilities helps us speed up problem resolution and conserve help-desk resources.”

At Dell, many employees are also helping each other resolve issues. “Help-desk issues are down because users are helping each other via instant messaging,” Trusler says. “With the new instant messaging capabilities, you can immediately see all of the members on your team in the interface, and start up a conversation quickly. Sometimes, all it takes to avoid a help-desk call or dozens of e-mails is one chat session with a co-worker.”

Delivering unified support for the Dell UC solution

Organizations adopting the Dell UC solution can rely on streamlined support from a single source. “Customers using the Dell UC solution can simply contact Dell Services for support with the entire solution,” says Birch. “ With Dell, the term ‘unified’ applies to support as well.”

Offering best practices to customers

By implementing the Dell UC solution in-house first, the IT group developed a set of best practices that are now being applied in customer deployments through Dell Global Infrastructure Consulting Services (GICS). Dell GICS helps customers adopt the Dell UC solution with a phased, methodical approach that includes workshops, assessment, design, and implementation. The company’s own experience implementing the power of collaborative systems has given GICS members important insight and experience in deploying solutions that boost worker collaboration and productivity.

“As a Microsoft Global Gold Certified Partner and one of the largest distributors of Microsoft unified communications software worldwide, Dell is positioned to help customers plan, design, implement, and integrate this new technology into their existing infrastructure,” says Michael Przytula, managing director of the Global Communication and Collaboration Practice at Dell. “Our success implementing a Dell UC solution internally has enabled us to hone our methodologies so we can achieve similar benefits for our customers.”

July 2011. © 2011 Dell Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. This case study is for informational purposes only. DELL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS CASE STUDY. Reference number: G11002857

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