Global Furniture Manufacturer Cuts Costs, Improves Productivity with Collaboration Tool

Microsoft Office System Customer Solution Case Study

Overview “I have a 10-person team, based in six different Country or Region: United States countries and speaking seven different languages, Industry: Manufacturing to coordinate and work with. Groove [Virtual Office] Customer Profile is exactly what we needed.” Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steelcase is a global furniture Serena Borghero, Steelcase.com Internationalization Team Leader, Steelcase manufacturer and service provider with approximately 14,000 employees and a Although a leader in helping organizations maximize the presence in more than 100 countries. effectiveness of physical office space, Steelcase found that it Business Situation needed a solution to help it maximize its virtual space. Virtual The company’s global, cross-functional, multicompany business groups needed business groups—spanning offices, geographies, time zones, to remain productive and efficient in a and companies—had become commonplace at Steelcase. But virtual work environment. coordination among the groups was difficult and costly, so Solution Steelcase implemented Groove Virtual Office, now part of the Steelcase implemented Groove Virtual ® Office, now part of the Microsoft® Office Microsoft Office System. Cross-office and cross-company System, to help dispersed groups meet groups now use Groove Virtual Office every day to work virtually, manage projects, share data, and communicate in context. together as if they were in the same location. Selected because of its simplicity, flexibility, extensibility, low cost, and “human- Benefits  Up to 10 percent savings on project centric” approach, Groove Virtual Office has helped Steelcase costs improve collaboration and cohesiveness. Steelcase groups also  More productive meetings  More frequent group interaction and have saved up to 10 percent on project costs through reduced collaboration travel expenses and increased productivity.  Improved cohesiveness  Better information access and mobility Situation required a technology solution that would Steelcase, a global leader in the office allow dispersed groups to work together furniture industry, helps people have a and interact naturally, just as they would if better work experience by providing they were in the same place. Its current IT products, services, and insights into the infrastructure, however, was not optimized ways people work. The company has three to support virtual work. Steelcase North primary divisions: Steelcase North America and Steelcase International, for America, headquartered in Grand Rapids, example, each have their own IT Michigan; Steelcase International division, environments, making it difficult for one tool headquartered in Strasbourg, France; and to be used across offices or geographies. Steelcase Design Partnership, a federation Basic collaboration tools, such as Lotus of wholly owned yet autonomous Notes databases and online team rooms, companies. Including its subsidiaries, are in place but are used primarily by Steelcase employs approximately 14,000 sedentary groups that work in one office people, has a presence in 100 countries, and have mainly document needs. These operates manufacturing locations in 20 tools cannot easily be extended across countries, and sells its products through a offices, to outside consultants and worldwide network of more than 900 customers, or to support process, project, dealers. or communication needs.

Business Challenge Without an effective virtual office solution, To maintain its market leadership, dispersed Steelcase groups relied on “what Steelcase has evolved into a truly global works”: e-mail and frequent business. Common processes have been teleconferences. But these tools do not established companywide to support its provide the context and shared increasingly global customer and dealer environment virtual groups require, causing base. Work occurs across floors, buildings, delays and confusion. In-person meetings geographies, business functions, and were needed just to keep different groups companies. Subject matter experts lend on the same page, resulting in increased their skills wherever and whenever they are travel expenses. Steelcase quickly found needed. Project groups span lines of that the benefits virtual work groups business. Contractors are tapped to fill provide can easily be nullified by expertise gaps on specific projects. The productivity declines and increased costs. byproduct of such a decentralized structure is the virtual work group, which has Solution Requirements become commonplace at Steelcase; many In the beginning of 2004, the Steelcase Steelcase groups are global, cross- International E-business group, led by functional, multiorganizational, and often International CRM Team Leader Florent multicultural and multilingual. Buiron, analyzed the specific pain-points faced by its virtual groups and defined a set Virtual work provides efficiencies, but it of requirements for its next-generation also increases coordination costs and can collaboration platform. The requirements erode cohesion and morale. Steelcase included: multiple functions, including file sharing,  Simplicity. Provided users are sufficiently online meetings, project management, trained, a collaboration tool must make data capture, presence awareness, the task of virtual working easier, not communication, and alerts. more complex. “Simplicity encourages  Security. Because much of its virtual usage of the tool, which encourages work occurs across firewalls and over the dissemination of the tool—and then you open Internet, security is important for have a very powerful, network effect that “peace of mind.” “We’re not dealing with takes place,” says Buiron. “One person highly sensitive or classified information,” invites another, that person invites says Buiron. “But still, as an IT team, we someone else, and soon you have quite would not want to release a tool that a few people working with the tool in would lack sufficient security features.” different places.”  Low, initial infrastructure commitment. Solution Steelcase hadn’t budgeted for a new, For its next-generation virtual group server-based infrastructure to support a collaboration solution, Steelcase selected collaboration solution. Groove Virtual Office, now part of the  Mobility. Increasingly, Steelcase Microsoft® Office System. Currently, employees are mobile or working with Steelcase uses Groove Virtual Office to others outside the company. A support workgroups within five lines of collaboration tool’s ability to support business: e-business, corporate IT, dealer mobile and external users was key. “It’s tools, marketing, and consulting. all the underlying features that support Approximately two-thirds of the users are mobility—offline working and firewall within Steelcase International, the other traversal. Wherever I am, whether I am third within Steelcase North America. The able to access the network or not, I can company uses Groove Hosted work,” says Buiron. Management Services and Groove Hosted  “Human-centric.” Although he calls it a Relay Services, but plans to deploy its own “soft requirement,” Buiron says that onsite management and relay servers as facilitating natural human interaction and its Groove Virtual Office deployment grows. behavior is crucial. “We are experts in the physical space. So, for us, it’s always Steelcase International E-business Group interesting to see that physical space The International E-business group initially and virtual space are not completely introduced Groove into Steelcase in 2002. different. Collaboration software must Led by Buiron, this 10-person workgroup of provide cues to users in the virtual world IT, sales, and project management to help them get their bearings, just like executives is charged with implementing e- in the physical world.” business and e-procurement solutions for  “Toolbox” approach. When Steelcase Steelcase customers. Its challenge: employees work at the same location, members are based in Italy, France, the key collaboration need is document- Germany, and, for a time, Japan. To work sharing. But virtual groups require a together effectively around common goals, palette of integrated tools to support processes, and activities, the group uses one Groove workspace. Specific activities development, posting, and Web site launch include: process, requiring only one in-person meeting. Specific activities included:  Developing and sharing specifications using the Groove Files and Document  Content building, including copy and Review tools. visuals, using the Groove Files and  Managing the testing and validation of Document Review tools. the e-procurement tools using a custom  Managing tasks associated with the Groove Forms application. project’s various stages including  Accruing and sharing knowledge with the updating content, launching content, and Files and Weblinks tools. go live, using the TeamDirection Project  Managing monthly and quarterly and Dashboard tools. meetings and resulting action items with  Frequent virtual communication using the Meetings tool. Groove Chat, instant messaging, and  Planning communications strategies and Voice over IP. developing materials—training plans, sales kits, collateral, and press releases SAP Implementation Group —using the Files and Document Review SAP is deployed throughout most of tools. Steelcase as its corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. The Building on the successful use of Groove exception is Germany, which is the last within the E-business group, Steelcase region for deployment. A group of 20 elected to conduct a formal pilot in June located across Germany and France was 2004. Buiron and others identified four formed to lead the ongoing, multistage SAP groups within the company whose structure project in Germany. The German required a virtual office solution: component is made up of business, Steelcase.com Internationalization, SAP operations, and local IT specialists; the Implementation (Germany), EasyComS French members of the group are ERP Dealer IT, and North American consulting. implementation specialists. Though the business language is English, the German Steelcase.com Internationalization Group and French group members come from Until recently, the Steelcase.com corporate different backgrounds. Groove Virtual Web site had mainly North American Office provides a virtual “common ground” content. An international marketing project in which they can work. management group of 10 was formed to localize the Web site for each Steelcase The key problem areas for the SAP geographical hub: France, Germany, Italy, Germany group are document versioning Spain, the United Kingdom, and other and the coordination of hundreds of project European markets. Group members are tasks. Before using Groove, the group highly distributed and multicultural; some struggled using e-mail and two had never met in person. Under severe disconnected share drives to share and time constraints, the group used Groove work together on documents, as well as in Virtual Office to manage the entire content using a combination of Microsoft Office “Groove provided us Project 2003, Microsoft Office Excel® 2003 throughout Europe; the other half are spreadsheet software, and e-mail to track external consultants working remotely. The the collaborative project tasks. Groove solves both issues by key problems are sharing information and solution we had been securely crossing the Steelcase France managing project tasks across various IT and Germany network firewalls, providing environments. seeking for a long time. the group one workspace in which to It has definitively collaborate on files and manage project “You could open virtual private network tasks in context. Specific activities include: access into our network,” says Buiron. “But replaced the use of e- we found that to be cumbersome and mail to share the  Creating and working together on complicated, not always reliable, and, from hundreds of documents (business specs, a bandwidth perspective, not satisfactory.” project information.” R&D information, business cases, test As a solution, this dispersed group works Christophe Brun, International SAP SD cards, qualification specs, training as one inside four Groove workspaces— Projects Team Leader, Steelcase documentation, and project planning one main workspace with all internal and documents) using the Groove Files tool external members, and separate and Document Review tool. workspaces devoted to each external  Establishing a common project consultant’s activities. Specific activities methodology to channel group members’ include: work and initiatives using the Team Direction Project and Dashboard tools.  Sharing and collaborating on software Group members are empowered to take specifications using the Groove Files tool ownership of their individual project and Document Review tools. tasks, resources, and milestones. The  Managing project timelines and lead project manager occasionally rolls deliverables using the TeamDirection up the TeamDirection tasks into a Project and Dashboard tools. Microsoft Project document for  Collaboratively analyzing dealer executive-level reporting. business needs using the Groove  Managing daily and weekly meetings, Discussion tool (replacing weekly and tracking group members’ action conference calls). items in the context of ongoing projects  Tracking development requests using a using the Meetings tool. custom Groove Forms application. EasyComS Dealer Tool Group  Developing meeting agendas, tracking With a network of more than 200 dealers, minutes, and assigning action items with Steelcase International has a line-of- the Meetings tool. business IT group dedicated to developing and evolving its EasyComS Dealer Tool. Consulting Group This tool allows international dealers to The mission of the Consulting group is to place, manage, and track orders; run help large Steelcase customers with the reports; and check invoices. The 12- transformation of their corporate culture member group comprises developers, IT and behavior, as well as develop integrators, and support staff from four innovative workplace strategies. This companies. Half the members of the group group had two primary challenges. First, are Steelcase employees scattered as a new group, they had to develop an “I work with three identity, yet they were rarely working Groove is really making our work not only a together in the same place. lot easier, but also more fun!” different Second, as consultants, they frequently subcontractors —all work onsite with customers, struggling Up to 10 Percent Savings on Project Costs with slow connections or, in some cases, Steelcase groups using Groove Virtual remote. ‘Coordination’ lacking connectivity. Office saved up to 10 percent on project is really the key word costs by reducing travel expenses and Groove solved both problems by providing increasing productivity. of this project. I find in the group a “virtual office” where members Groove a way to build could communicate and share best More Productive Meetings practices whether they were in the office, at Like many companies, Steelcase has this team synergy and a client site, or disconnected entirely. frequent meetings. Every group using to manage the Specific activities include: Groove Virtual Office commented on their ability to have more structured and coordination of this  Aligning objectives by sharing best productive meetings using the Groove project.” practices and knowledge using the Meetings tool. Says Buiron, “We’ve tried to Groove Discussion tool and Files tool. encourage more discipline and more Guillaume Jacob, Dealer Tools Specialist,  Tapping online members for problem- effectiveness in managing meetings. The Steelcase solving by taking advantage of the feedback we’ve gotten so far is really good Groove presence awareness feature, —collaboratively producing agendas, Discussion tool, and instant messaging. preparing themselves before the meetings,  Conducting virtual meetings and tracking and managing information in context.” action items with the Groove Meetings tool. More Frequent Interaction and Collaboration  Developing client proposals Many pilot groups experienced an increase collaboratively using the Document in interaction and productivity as a result of Review tool. the contextual nature of Groove Virtual  Planning engagements using the Office, which puts all group members, tools TeamDirection toolset. and information in one, common workspace. “The fact that Groove provides Benefits a ‘contextual glue’ around work is very Based on the initial usage of Groove Virtual clear to all users,” says Buiron. Office within the E-business group and subsequent pilot groups, Steelcase has Guillaume Jacob, Dealer Tools Specialist, identified a number of benefits. says, “I work with three different subcontractors—all remote. ‘Coordination’ Serena Borghero, Steelcase.com is really the key word of this project. I find Internationalization Team Leader, says, “I in Groove a way to build this team synergy have a 10-person team, based in six and to manage the coordination of this different countries and speaking seven project.” different languages, to coordinate and work with. Groove is exactly what we needed…. Improved Cohesiveness Buiron believes the key to enabling virtual 50 percent have a need to use Groove in a workgroups to function as cohesively as disconnected mode. Because users can those who share the same worksite is to “take Groove with them,” processes and provide them with a collaborative projects don’t come to a halt or get bogged environment that emulates attributes down. “In these types of situations, it’s typically present in a physical office. “There always the weak link that can create a are many features in Groove—presence problem. Even if you had a team of 10 awareness, alerts, communication—that people with only one needing offline are really reminiscent of the cues you’d capabilities, because he or she is always typically have in a physical office. Groove on the road, not having offline access does a fairly good job of providing these would be a real issue. We conducted a cues to users in the virtual world, which survey with Groove pilot users, and a large helps them get some bearings in that majority indicated that the offline virtual environment to work as human functionality is either valuable or very beings.” valuable.”

Better Access to Information Future Use Before Groove, groups were forced to rely Steelcase plans to roll out Groove Virtual on e-mail for information sharing since Office to additional business groups. The shared drives are rarely accessible by company also envisions expanding its use employees in other offices or by external of Groove from a basic collaboration tool to contractors. This practice led to versioning a virtual office platform for providing issues as groups often had multiple copies structured and unstructured data to the of documents residing in individual e-mail “right people at the right time”—whether accounts or hard drives. Buiron says they work for Steelcase or not, and whether Groove Virtual Office “automates the they are connected to the network or not. sharing of information,” across the To accomplish this expansion, the company’s multiple offices and with company plans to build a series of Groove external contractors. Forms applications that match its business needs, and connect these applications to Christophe Brun, International SAP SD existing systems and data sources. Projects Team Leader, says, “Groove provided us the collaborative solution we Buiron explains: “We’ve got lots of had been seeking for a long time. It has information residing in back-end systems definitely replaced the use of e-mail to that no one can see except for very few share the project information…. I am very people in the organization—yet this confident in using it in a more sophisticated information can be quite critical in the and effective way.” decision-making process. Groove Forms, Web services, and the Enterprise Data Improved Mobility Bridge provide a great way to push the Buiron identifies the Groove Virtual Office right information to the right people inside support for mobility as a key benefit. Out of their work environment, which today we the 100 pilot users, he says approximately cannot do.” For More Information Microsoft Office System For more information about Microsoft The Microsoft Office System is the products and services, call the Microsoft business world’s chosen environment for Sales Information Center at (800) 426- information work, providing the programs, 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft servers, and services that help you Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- succeed by transforming information into 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- impact. of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) For more information about the Microsoft 892-5234 in the United States or (905) Office System, go to: 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 www.microsoft.com/office United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. For more information about Microsoft Office To access information using the World Groove® 2007, part of the 2007 Microsoft Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office/preview/program For more information about Steelcase s/groove/highlights.mspx products and services, call (800) 333- 9939 or visit the Web site at: www.steelcase.com

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Document published June 2006