Microsoft Office SystemCustomer Solution Case Study

Swiss Telecommunications Firm Trims Costs by $7 million with Unified Communications

OverviewCountry or Region: SwitzerlandIndustry: Telecommunications

Customer ProfileHeadquartered in Bern, Switzerland, Swisscom offers customers a full range of products and services for mobile, fixed, and IP-based voice and data communications. The company employs 20,000 people.

Business SituationSwisscom wanted to replace its aging telephony system and expand the capabilities of its unified communications solution to include audio conferencing and full voice capabilities.

SolutionSwisscom deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to take advantage of full voice capabilities. The company plans to completely replace its existing telephony system by the end of 2011.

Benefits Reduced costs Improved employee productivity More flexible work environment

“We estimate that we will save about CHF4 million in travel expenses a year with the presence, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and conference capabilities in Office Communications Server.”

As Switzerland’s largest telecommunications provider, Swisscom has a challenging environment for internal communications. Teams are spread across 120 locations and depend on Microsoft unified communications technology to work effectively. In 2009, Swisscom upgraded its solution to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to take advantage of instant messaging, conferencing, and voice capabilities. Swisscom plans to continue the upgrade by replacing its aging telephony system with full voice capabilities available in Office Communications Server. With this deployment, the company will reduce travel and operational costs, as well as avoid expensive upgrade and renewal costs for telephony equipment. Employees will also have a more flexible working environment and experience further productivity enhancements through

SituationWith more than 100 years of history as Switzerland’s leading telecommunications provider, Swisscom does not take its legacy for granted. Since giving up a state-sanctioned monopoly status by privatizing in 1998, the 20,000-employee company now faces the challenge to grow in new business areas.

To continue its leadership, Swisscom aims to provide the market with the most innovative and comprehensive range of communications services available. These include fixed, mobile, and IP-based voice and data services for residential and business customers. Despite the increased competition over the past decade, Swisscom still has a sizable customer base of more than 5.3 million fixed lines, nearly 5.6 million mobile subscribers, and more than 1.8 million broadband customers. Together, these customers generated CHF12 billion (U.S.$11.4 billion) in 2008 revenues.

In 2009, the organization deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to integrate additional conferencing and desktop sharing capabilities into its existing Microsoft unified communications solution. Swisscom, its IT services organization, and its Microsoft Gold Certified and Voice Specialized Partner Webcall, first deployed a complete test environment to evaluate the enhanced capabilities.

Swisscom also tested the audio conferencing and desktop sharing capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 R2, which the company found easy to deploy and use. It tested the desktop sharing capabilities with its help-desk staff. With desktop sharing, participants in a conference can display their entire computer desktop to the other participants. Othmar Frey, CEO of Webcall, explains, “Before, the desktop support and application support teams used a third-party tool to view the display and show users what to do, but now we no longer need it.”

When it deployed Office Communications Server, the company also extended collaboration capabilities to its business partners and customers through the federation feature, which makes it possible for two or more organizations to communicate in real time in an encrypted, authenticated, and managed environment. “We often collaborate with Microsoft to give feedback in the technology adoption programs or get marketing support from the local organization,” says Andreas Arrigoni, Head of Collaboration Services for Swisscom. “Federation also helps us include partners in meetings as easily as if they were onsite or fellow Swisscom employees.”

Enterprise VoIP functions available in Office Communications Server 2007 R2, such as the Office Communicator Response Group Service and Office Communicator Attendant, were also

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“If we had decided to keep the systems and upgrade them, it would have cost us almost CHF3 million. We were able to avoid that cost by deploying voice capabilities in Office Communications Server.”

Andreas Arrigoni, Head of Collaboration Services, Swisscom

critical to the company. Using Response Group technology, Swisscom deployed two support workflows and one hotline workflow. A Response Group queues incoming calls and then routes them to designated agents based on predefined routing rules. The Office Communicator Attendant is an intuitive, integrated call management application that facilitates accurate and rapid call handling and routing. Swisscom deployed this function to about 1,400 assistants so that they could take advantage of the delegation functions that allow a manager or executive to select one or more assistants to receive phone calls.

Swisscom currently has most of the capabilities of Office Communications Server enabled for 17,000 employees. The next step for Swisscom is to deploy voice capabilities to replace the company’s existing private branch exchange (PBX) equipment, which is aging and expensive to maintain, along with a new solution for voice mail. This deployment will also align with the company’s environmental initiative by helping the company reduce office space requirements and equipment overhead and provide a truly flexible working environment for employees.

SolutionIn late 2009, Swisscom began to replace its PBX systems with the full voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities available in Office Communications Server 2007 R2. By March 2010, the company had configured the solution

for 12,000 employees, with about 2,500 of those employees using softphones—programs used for making telephone calls through a VoIP connection. “We are replacing the PBX systems by location,” explains Ruggero Crameri, Project Manager UCC, Swisscom. “Wherever we have VoIP capabilities integrated, we will remove the PBX within the next 18 months.”

Part of the integration’s success has been the SIP trunking provided by Swisscom itself, as it became a Microsoft-certified SIP trunk vendor in February 2010. SIP trunking uses the session initiation protocol (SIP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP) to pass network traffic from Office Communications Server directly to a network service provider over an IP connection. Swisscom installed two connections with 1,000 voice channels each, allowing flexible usage for its employees.

As Swisscom deploys the voice solution, it is moving employees to Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging for voice mail. With Unified Messaging, employees can receive and manage both voice-mail and email messages through the Microsoft Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client. Unified Messaging will also offer employees the option of a single-number capability, meaning that employees can share only one contact number with coworkers and colleagues. When employees receive calls through this number, all enabled phones—softphones or mobile phones, in this

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“By implementing Office Communications Server voice capabilities for all of our employees, we will save CHF400,000 a year in operating costs for telephony.”

Ruggero Crameri, Project Manager UCC, Swisscom

case—will ring when the incoming call arrives.

As it retires PBX equipment and converts to a voice solution based on Office Communications Server, Swisscom will redesign its office space so that workers no longer have a dedicated desk but can choose where they want to sit—should they choose to come into the office at all. Part of the reason Swisscom is able to support this initiative has been the success of its unified communications solution overall. “We have had no communication issues with remote employees working at home, at customer sites, or travelling,” says Crameri.

Swisscom finds that more employees are taking advantage of the capabilities of Office Communications Server the longer the solution is in place. The company has also created training programs using student interns—who it calls “ambassadors”—to help train employees who want to get up to speed on how best to use features such as conferencing or desktop sharing. “Ambassadors and younger employees have a different communication behavior than other employees,” says Crameri. “They are used to chat programs and social networking, so they pick things up quickly and are able to help people be more comfortable with the technology.”

As Swisscom moves forward with improvements to its unified communications solution, it hopes to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010

email messaging and collaboration software and to the Windows 7 operating system by early 2011.

BenefitsBy deploying the voice capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and retiring its existing PBX systems, Swisscom will reduce travel and operational costs, as well as avoid purchasing expensive replacement equipment for aging systems. The company will also be able to expand the features available to employees, such as Unified Messaging, that help make them more productive.

Reduced CostsSwisscom now sees that the possibility of eventually retiring many of the company’s 120 PBX systems is a reality. The organization believed it would save additional telephony costs by reducing administration costs and the cost of setting up or moving telephones, estimating a savings of more than CHF90,000 ($85,000) a year. In operational costs alone, Swisscom now expects to save more than four times its original estimate. “By implementing Office Communications Server voice capabilities for all of our employees, we will save CHF400,000 ($380,000) a year in operating costs for telephony,” says Crameri.

Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, Head of Marketing & Sales believes that the company will experience significant cost savings in the area of employee travel. The additional voice capabilities combined with features

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“We believe that the company will experience significant cost savings in the area of employee travel. We estimate that we will save about CHF4 million in travel expenses a year with the presence, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and conference capabilities in Office

such as desktop sharing and federation, mean that Swisscom employees have a robust collaboration solution at their fingertips, meaning they can communicate with almost anyone, anytime, wherever they have their computer. Wüthrich-Hasenböhler explains, “We estimate that we will save about CHF4 million ($3.8 million) in travel expenses a year with the presence, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and conference capabilities in Office Communications Server.”

Finally, Swisscom will avoid purchasing expensive replacement equipment as its aging PBX systems come to the end of their support. It will also avoid the cost of renewal contracts for new systems. Arrigoni says, “Our existing telephony systems were coming up on the end of life for support. If we had decided to keep the systems and upgrade them, it would have cost us almost CHF3 million ($2.8 million). We were able to avoid that cost by deploying voice capabilities in Office Communications Server.”

Improved Employee ProductivityOffice Communications Server helps Swisscom streamline collaboration by making it easier for employees to communicate from wherever they are. “We have seen improvements throughout the company as more employees are applying these functions. Collaboration has increased, and we also find the quality of collaboration has increased,” says Arrigoni. Employees also save valuable time with

conferencing, federation, and desktop sharing because they do not have to travel. Instead of spending time travelling to the airport and customer sites, employees now have more time to solve problems.

As Swisscom extends the voice capabilities, employees can take advantage of even more productivity-enhancing features, such as Unified Messaging. “Our goal is for everyone to have only one place for messages, whether email or voice mail,” explains Crameri. With one mailbox, employees do not waste time searching for important information, and they also have the convenience of responding to messages where, when, and how they see fit.

Also, Swisscom has found that the Response Groups and Attendant console have improved customer service because callers are routed to a coworker for an answer when the person they are calling is not available. Callers usually receive an immediate response, rather than leaving a voice-mail message.

Flexible Office SpaceBy switching to softphones for voice calls rather than desk phones, Swisscom will be able to reconfigure its office to a more flexible environment and reduce the amount of office space required. Whether they want to work from the office or work from home, employees can collaborate with one another and remain productive.

Strengthened Relationships

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Wüthrich-Hasenböhler believes that features within Office Communications Server have helped Swisscom employees strengthen their relationships with one another and with customers. “With the presence feature, our ability to reach out to colleagues has improved tremendously,” Wüthrich-Hasenböhler explains. “And with features like federation, we can reach customers and partners immediately. It’s especially helpful for customer care and support reasons. It’s very good.”

By continuing to improve its unified communications solution, Swisscom has been able to reduce costs while providing robust, reliable communication and collaboration tools for its employees.

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For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to:

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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 Webcall products and services, call (41) (44) 325-6633 or visit the website at: www.webcall.ch

For more information about Swisscom products and services, visit the website at: www.swisscom.ch

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 Communications Server 2007 R2

− Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007

− Microsoft Office Live Meeting Add-In for Office Outlook 2007

− Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

− Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Technologies− Microsoft Office Communicator

Web Access

Partner Webcall