Manufacturer Implements New Global Web Presence to Serve Customers, Help Drive Sales

Microsoft Office System Customer Solution Case Study

Overview “SharePoint Server 2007 offered the ideal combination Country or Region: Finland Industry: Manufacturing— of Web content management capabilities, search Construction features, and vendor support.”

Customer Profile Simon Green, Director, Sales Development, KONE KONE provides elevators, escalators, and innovative solutions for modernization and maintenance, and is one of the global leaders in its industry. The company has 34,800 employees, KONE is a leading elevator and escalator manufacturer. The operates in more than 50 countries, global company sees the Internet as a channel to provide and is based in Helsinki, Finland. information needed by customers, but its content management Business Situation solution made it difficult to keep Web sites around the world KONE wanted to make better use of the Internet as a way to reach current. KONE built a new global Web presence—including 48 customers, but its old Web content Web sites in 16 languages—based on Microsoft® Office management system made it too hard to keep content up-to-date. SharePoint® Server 2007. Today, content coordinators around the globe can easily keep Web sites up-to-date—a capability Solution The company implemented a new that, when combined with the search functionality provided by global Web content management Office SharePoint Server 2007, enables prospective customers to solution using Microsoft® Office find the information they need and is helping drive new sales. SharePoint® Server 2007, and also deployed Office SharePoint Server KONE also deployed Office SharePoint Server 2007 for a new 2007 for its new global intranet. global intranet, which will enable the company to support both Benefits internal and external Web sites with a single technology solution  Fast, easy content publishing and skill set.  Improved customer service and sales  Strong reliability and scalability  Synergy across Internet and intranet solutions “Since implementing Situation couldn’t drag and drop content, and KONE is a global leader in manufacturing couldn’t see what a Web page would Office SharePoint Server elevators, escalators, and innovative look like until after it was published. solutions for modernization and Because it was so hard to publish 2007 for our Internet maintenance. The company strives to content, the Web as a means of reaching presence, we’ve seen a offer the best people-flow experience by customers was discounted out-of-hand. developing and delivering solutions that We have approximately 45 Web content significant increase in the enable people in buildings to move coordinators across the world, and smoothly, safely, comfortably, and needed to provide a solution that they quantity of sales leads without waiting. KONE’s key customers would want to use.” from the Web—and in are builders, building owners, facility managers, and developers; the company Search capabilities were fairly poor as the quality of those leads also works closely with architects and well, making it hard for customers to find consultants. KONE has approximately what they needed even if that content as well.” 250,000 customers globally, of which the was on the site. In addition, because it Simon Green, Director, Sales majority are maintenance customers that was based on technologies from multiple Development, KONE account for roughly 60 percent of vendors, the company’s global Web KONE’s revenues. presence was expensive to maintain, required varied and specialized IT skill KONE sees strong potential in the Web sets, and was hard to tune for good as a channel to provide technical performance. specifications and other information needed by customers. “People don’t Solution come to our site by accident; they want KONE chose Microsoft® Office information, and the online channel is SharePoint® Server 2007 as its new well-suited for providing it,” says Simon strategic environment for Web content Green, Director, Sales Development at management, and has since rolled out its KONE and business owner of the new Web presence on Office SharePoint company’s customer-facing online Server 2007 worldwide. “SharePoint properties. “However, our previous Server 2007 offered the ideal global Web solution was dated—and not combination of Web content up to the task. We wanted to do more management capabilities, search than it was capable of supporting.” features, and vendor support,” says Green. “We examined several options but Deployed about 7 years ago, that SharePoint Server 2007 came out ahead solution was based on Vignette and on all fronts.” Solaris, with third-party software for search. Its main problem was the high The company’s adoption of Office level of expertise—and effort—required SharePoint Server 2007 as its new global to publish content. “Our old Web standard began in early 2007, when solution was very user-unfriendly, KONE began looking at the strengths requiring a significant level of technical and weaknesses of different approaches. knowledge to change anything but basic “Given the strategic importance of the text,” says Green. “Content contributors solution and the scope of a worldwide “Before, most content deployment, it was important to have a System 2008 Team Foundation Server, technology partner of a certain size,” with automated builds every evening. coordinators updated says Green. “We briefly considered open- source software, but realized that it “When I came into work each morning, I their Web sites once per would only get us so far—and that we could see the progress that had been month, and the process also needed a solution with a solid made the previous day,” says Green. product roadmap and strong support “Constant iteration provided the usually took a day. ecosystem. Lots of medium-sized opportunity for lots of feedback and was companies offer Web content quite valuable to me as the project’s Today, people update management solutions, but most of business promoter, in that I was able to the same sites two or them have fairly weak product roadmaps, easily keep other stakeholders up-to- and there’s no way to be sure those date. We’re an engineering company, so three times per week, vendors will be around in a few years.” people like to see what’s been done instead of just hearing about what’s and only spend a few KONE validated its decision to use planned.” hours per month doing Microsoft software through a two-week Proof-of-Concept workshop, during The project team staged the solution’s so.” which Microsoft Services built a simple rollout by country, beginning with the imitation of KONE.com on Office United States in February 2008. A few Simon Green, Director, Sales Development, KONE SharePoint Server 2007. “Everything went months later, the centralized solution well, and we really liked working with the supported an additional four countries. Microsoft team,” says Green. “We saw “Our goal was to roll out our core that we could implement a fully solution globally within a year, and we functional Web site very fast, and met that objective,” says Green. content coordinators really liked the Web content publishing capabilities; they New Global Web Presence could see using SharePoint Server as a Today, with its worldwide rollout now part of their daily routine. We also saw complete, the solution hosts 48 different that it would be easy to support multiple Web sites in 16 languages, as well as a languages and to build standardized corporate site. Combined, the sites are templates from which new Web sites one of the largest sources of leads into could easily be created.” the KONE CRM system. Edit-in-place content management capabilities enable Development and Rollout content coordinators around the globe After the Proof-of-Concept, KONE to easily maintain the solution’s 12,000 assembled the rest of the team it would pages of content. “Content coordinators need, augmenting the technical are usually the junior people on architect/lead developer from Microsoft marketing teams,” says Green. “Office Services with project management SharePoint Server 2007 is easy enough to resources from Accenture and use that they’ve been able to come up to developers from Avanade. The speed and start publishing content with development team implemented a a single day of virtual training.” continuous integration methodology using Microsoft Visual Studio® Team “Part of any solution’s KONE also is taking advantage of the Green. “Now that the Internet and built-in search functionality in Office intranet solutions are fully deployed, we reliability depends on SharePoint Server 2007. Through the still feel that we’ve made the right Enterprise Search feature, customers can decision.” the support provided by quickly and easily access more than its vendor, and… we’re 16,000 documents and drawings that Benefits KONE has indexed. “SharePoint Server With Office SharePoint Server 2007, glad that we chose search works better out-of-the-box than KONE has revitalized its use of the Web the search functionality on our old site as a means of reaching out to customers. Microsoft.” did after extensive tuning,” says Green. Today, content coordinators around the Sirkka Tuominen, Project Manager, KONE “Within the next six months, we plan to globe can easily keep their respective take advantage of some of the more Web sites current—a capability that, advanced search features in SharePoint when combined with the improved Server—such as Best Bets—to further search features provided by SharePoint improve the search experience.” Server, enables prospective customers to find the information they need and is From an architectural perspective, the helping KONE to drive incremental sales. solution resides on five 64-bit HP “We recently had a big agency review of ProLiant BL465c G1 server computers. our Web site, and they said it went from One application server runs the Windows among the worst in our industry to Server® 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition among the best,” says Green. “I’m quite operating system; two Web servers run happy with how everything turned out, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and and with the business results we’re now Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 seeing.” Edition; and two database servers run the Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 Enterprise Fast, Easy Content Publishing Edition data management software and For KONE, the greatest benefit of its new Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 solution is an editing environment that Edition. enables nontechnical personnel to quickly and easily publish content on the Current Technology Initiatives Web—including the ability to preview With its new Web presence fully new or changed content before it goes deployed, KONE is busy building upon it live. “From a content publishing to implement extranet sites for strategic perspective, SharePoint Server 2007 is customers. KONE also recently replaced radically better than our old solution— the company’s existing SAP-based people couldn’t wait to start using it,” intranet portal with a new global says Green. “Furthermore, as a Microsoft corporate intranet based on Office product, they understood it straightaway, SharePoint Server 2007, with country- with many users already having specific intranet sites to follow in the experience with SharePoint team sites. coming months. “One of the key reasons Content coordinators around the world we chose SharePoint Server 2007 for our now can focus on which information Internet presence was the ability to use it customers need, without having to worry for our corporate intranet as well,” says about the technical intricacies of Web sites, 12,000 pages of content, and publishing that content.” 16,000 indexed documents. “Being able to support our global Web presence with As proof of the site’s easy content a single solution helps minimize costs,” publishing capabilities, Green cites the says Green. “SharePoint Server is scalable frequency with which content is updated. in other ways as well, in that it only takes “Before, most content coordinators hours to bring up an entirely new Web updated their Web sites once per month, site.” and the process usually took a day,” he says. “Today, people update the same Reliability has been strong as well. “The sites two or three times per week, and solution has been quite stable,” says only spend a few hours per month doing Sirkka Tuominen, Project Manager at so. The Web is now a channel for KONE. “We ran into a few early problems reaching customers that we can work related to our internal network with.” infrastructure, but they were all overcome. Microsoft Services has been Improved Customer Service and Sales great at helping out, even if the More current Web content—and problems were not SharePoint Server– improved search capabilities that help related. Part of any solution’s reliability customers more easily find what they depends on the support provided by its need—are helping drive incremental vendor, and this is an area where we’re sales for KONE. “Since implementing glad that we chose Microsoft.” Office SharePoint Server 2007 for our Internet presence, we’ve seen a Synergy Across Internet and Intranet significant increase in the quantity of Solutions sales leads from the Web—and in the Moving forward, thanks to its decision to quality of those leads as well,” says use Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Green. “In fact, we’re seeing tens of both its Internet and intranet sites, KONE millions of dollars in sales opportunities will benefit from strong synergy across per year come from the Web. An the two solutions. “With a single improved Web presence also helps us in technology platform and tool set for the market in other ways, in that we both our Internet and intranet sites, we’ll spend a lot of time on the user require fewer technology specialists and experience for KONE products consultants,” says Green. “Having both themselves—and user experience we solutions on SharePoint Server also will provide on the Web only helps reinforce help reduce system administration costs, the value of our brand.” increase software development synergies, and allow the same people Strong Reliability and Scalability we’ve already trained for content With the scalability provided by Office management on our public-facing Web SharePoint Server 2007, KONE is able to sites to maintain our intranet sites. I’m support its global Web presence with a not sure we could accomplish all of that single, consolidated solution. A single with any other product.” farm of five server computers hosts all 48 For More Information Microsoft Office System For more information about Microsoft The Microsoft Office system is the products and services, call the business world’s chosen environment for Microsoft Sales Information Center at information work, providing the (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the programs, servers, and services that help Microsoft Canada Information Centre you succeed by transforming information at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the into impact. United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach For more information about the Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) Microsoft Office system, go to: services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the www.microsoft.com/office 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 KONE, visit the Web site at: www.kone.com

Software and Services Hardware  Microsoft Office  Five 64-bit HP ProLiant BL465c G1 − Microsoft Office SharePoint Server server computers 2007  Microsoft Server Software Portfolio − Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise X64 Edition − Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard X64 Edition − Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published August 2009