CASE STUDY : CENTRALIZING THE PLATFORM OF A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Centralizing the Platform of a Multinational Organization

„We chose Advania for their green operations, their ability to deliver a one stop shop solution and their pricing. But what has been key for us is that they have the right people with the right attitude.”

- Jens Erik Rasmusen, IT Manager for Nordic Ecolabel

jointly owned and run by five . Each Nordic country has local national offices with the responsibility for criteria development, licensing, marketing and audits for the organisation. In Denmark Nordic Ecolabel is administered by Ecolabelling Denmark at Danish Standards Foundation, in by Ecolabelling Sweden AB, in Finland by Finnish Nordic Ecolabel Standards, in by The Foundation for Ecolabelling, and in by The Environment Agency.

The Nordic Ecolabel is the As a measure of the extensive product development taking place official Ecolabel of the within the organisation, Nordic Ecolabel manages 63 product Nordic countries and was groups under the Nordic Ecolabel and a further 31 under the EU established in 1989 by the Ecolabel that companies can apply for. About 2000 companies Nordic Council of Ministers and brands have successfully applied for certification which is with the purpose of known as the “Swan.” These include such household brands providing an environmental such as, Samsung, Sharp, Fujitsu, Scandic Hotels, and SCA. labelling scheme that would contribute to a sustainable In January 2011, Jens Erik Rasmusen joined Nordic Ecolabel as its consumption. It is a IT manager. The organisation was, like it is now, run from five voluntary, positive different governmental organisations from five different Ecolabelling of products and countries with a staff of well over one hundred employees. Most services. The Nordic Ecolabel of the employees also work for their respective Nordic parent was also initiated as a organisation of Nordic Ecolabel. practical tool for consumers to help them actively choose The main issue facing Jens Erik was that there was no common IT environmentally-sound platform used by the organization. Like when he joined the products. It is an ISO 14024 organisation, Jens Erik is currently the only employee type 1 Ecolabelling system responsible for “corporate” IT at Nordic Ecolabel. and is a third-party control organ. The Nordic Ecolabel, , “The first thing I did when I joined The Nordic Ecolabel was to has around 130 employees create a comprehensive analysis of our IT requirements. It in Iceland, Norway, Denmark revealed that we had a clear need for a common and integrated Sweden, and Finland. IT infrastructure to increase efficiency that allowed our employees to work together on projects for Nordic Ecolabel. This Website: document was approved by our senior management group in www.nordic-ecolabel.org/ April 2011,” comments Jens Erik.

From this document a “Request for Information” (RFI) was created and sent to several Scandinavian IT companies. These recipients were nominated by the different organisations that are responsible for Nordic Ecolabel in their respective countries. The Business Need The Nordic Ecolabel is

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CASE STUDY : CENTRALIZING THE PLATFORM OF A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION

The RFI had three distinct common IT platform that was missing were the requirements for components. Along with the environmentally friendly operations and criteria for pricing of crucial chapter on the the solution Nordic Ecolabel was looking for. Being an organisation that actively advocates the use of environmentally friendly products it needed a correspondingly green IT supplier. Nordic Ecolabel is largely run by public money and needs to be prudent when it comes to expenditure. The Solution When reviewing the response from the RFI it was noticed that Advania was unique among the IT companies that responded and offered a hosting and cloud solution powered with renewable energy. All other hosting companies had data centres were powered by fossil fuels. Following a due diligence process that included a visit to Advania Centre it was felt that Advania would be the right partner for implementing and running an integrated IT platform for Nordic Ecolabel.

“We asked a lot of questions during our selection process and were pleased with the answers we received. It was clear that Advania met or exceeded all of our requirements. In addition in using green power and having a state of the art data centre Advania could provide a one stop shop for us and competitive pricing for the solution they were offering,” says Jens Erik.

In June 2012 Nordic Ecolabel decided to work with Advania in creating an integrated IT platform.

User and technical Support Advania hosts all central IT systems and software. First, second and third level support is also provided by Advania.

Dedicated Hosting Advania hosts the following solutions and software:

• Microsoft Domain and Active directory • Microsoft Distributed File System • Microsoft Exchange • Microsoft SharePoint • Windows and Linux Webhosting • Business Benefits • Microsoft Lync • Microsoft CRM

This implementation is a radical change for Nordic Ecolabel. It now has a shared and dedicated platform for its operations, project management, quality processes, document management and communications that enables its staff to work seamlessly across the five Scandinavian countries. This has the desired effect of increasing efficiency significantly in its operations. Close Partnership Advania and Nordic Ecolabel have been able to work closely together this implementation according to Jens Erik: „We chose Advania for their green operations, their ability to deliver a one stop shop solution and their pricing. But what has been key for us that they have the right people with the right attitude. Everybody at Advania are flexible and eager to co-operate with us in any way they can. Things aren´t always perfect but there is a great willingness on both sides to learn and react quickly to whatever comes up.” Want more information? Contact Advania by e-mail, [email protected] or visit us on www.advania.com

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CASE STUDY : CENTRALIZING THE PLATFORM OF A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION

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