Software for the Agile Business. The Seven Network achieves enhanced productivity and greater efficiency with “As an organisation, we are constantly working towards Microsoft Office XP tight and unforgiving deadlines. It is imperative that Company Profile we are supported by software The Seven Network is a television broadcasting company with offices in which is reliable and robust, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and regional Queensland. and which enables us to make They broadcast free-to-air programmes across Australia with a focus on informed decisions, more entertainment, news and public affairs, sport and drama. There are effectively using our time and over 1,000 employees across the organisation with the majority of these staff having access to a desktop. resources. Microsoft is helping the Seven Network achieve Business Scenario these goals.” By the very nature of the business they are in, the staff at the Seven - Peter Whitford, Network require technology that supports them, enabling them to be IT Director, more efficient and productive. Peter Whitford, IT Director at the Seven The Seven Network Network, notes, “As an organisation, we are constantly working Organisation towards tight and unforgiving deadlines. It is imperative that we are The Seven Network supported by software which is reliable and robust, and which enables us to make informed decisions, more effectively using our time and Web Site s resources. Microsoft is helping the Seven Network achieve these goals”. www.seven.com.au www.i7.com.au To meet these demanding challenges, the Seven Network seeks to utilise software which: · Allows staff to collaborate electronically in an efficient manner; Industry · Enables the quick and easy location of information; Entertainment Media · Minimises the need for staff to re-enter or recreate information; and Business Scenario Summary · Provides a secure environment for the storage of confidential The staff at the Seven Network documents. work with very tight and unforgiving deadlines. As a result Business Solution they need a robust and reliable In a very competitive environment, the Seven Network is focused on technology to support them in finding smarter and faster ways to work. To this end, the working more efficiently and implementation of Microsoft Office XP is currently being tested by some productively. 35 users, across four different departments, with very impressive results. Office XP features a broad range of functionality designed specifically to enhance the knowledge worker’s efficiency, productivity Business Solution Summary and discipline. Furthermore, these features are interoperable with Office XP has provided a number previous and existing versions of Office ensuring a straight through, of features which has dramatically progressive migration with no disruption and incompatibilities. improved the speed and efficiency with which staff at the Seven Team collaboration 1 The Seven Network achieves enhanced productivity and greater efficiency with Microsoft Office XP In meeting the requirement for better and improved electronic team collaboration, SharePoint Portal Server is also seen as an exciting Network are able to manage their development. Katherine Ashe, the Seven Network’s Business Analyst - work flow. Functionality such as Knowledge Management states “We believe SharePoint Portal Server Smart Tags and Task Panes are has the potential to have a major impact on our people’s ability to reducing the time it takes to access, retrieve and organise both personal and public information. create and modify documents. More so than ever before, people will have the ability to manage SharePoint Portal Server further information with discipline, consistency and logic . It provides the right enables staff to store and manage environment for a team to work smarter and faster”. This further their documents in a centralised affects the rate and ease with which teams can manage and collaborate location making the electronic on joint documents. The ability to send a document for review to others collaboration of ideas and access concurrently, then merge their comments into a single document to review, dramatically reduces the time required to manage edits and to information simple and easy. changes, driving both personal and team efficiency. Partner Details Personal productivity Compaq: Simon Roller Office XP applications give users easy access to their important tasks in Tel: 13 23 93 a single integrated view. From the Task Pane, users can perform Email: [email protected] searches, open or start a new document, view the contents of the Web: www.compaq.com/sharepoint clipboard, format their documents and presentations, and even access translation and template services via the Web. Smart Tags, a range of buttons shared across Office XP applications, appear automatically to assist a user by proposing a range of actions. This functionality includes the ability to link key works to other supporting files and applic ations, as well as matching existing formatting on items , pasted from other documents – features designed to achieve maximum time savings and easier document management for the individual user. Kylie Gillies, Sports Reporter, Journalist at the Seven Network, states, “It’s very intuitive; it’s as though it knows what you’re going to do next ”. Ensuring success with a Microsoft Certified Partner In creating a test environment in which to run the tools and features of SharePoint Portal Server, the Seven Network engaged a team who could assist in delivering their desired outcomes. Compaq, a Microsoft global launch partner for SharePoint Portal Server, had early access to the technology along with the necessary and relevant training. Compaq’s Microsoft Technologist, Derek Knox, states “The Seven Network had aggressive timelines to roll out the test environment for the SharePoint Portal Server, but our experience enabled us to step up to the challenge and deliver on their vision. We see one of the key values that SharePoint Portal Server brings is the enterprise strength, searching and category system. It enables organisations such as the Seven Network to align their knowledge along business process, whilst reducing the time to find information.” Benefits One of the key benefits that the Seven Network sees in deploying Office XP is its potential to streamline the desktop. This has directly influenced all team members in the way they utilise the functionality of their desktops. Gillies makes the point, “Office XP provides me with a whole new set of tools that enhances my personal productivity levels”. 2 The Seven Network achieves enhanced productivity and greater efficiency with Microsoft Office XP Task Panes ease location and editing The introduction of Task Panes in Office XP has proved invaluable for Benefits maximising staff productivity and professionalism. To this point, Ashe One of the key benefits of notes “Ordinarily, the IT help desk receives several calls each day from deploying Office XP is its ability to users who cannot find their files within their personal directory. We see streamline the desktop. This has the introduction of the Task Pane in Word as a major step forward in delivered a solution which has empowering individual users in the retrieval of recent documents. It directly influenced team members has been one of the mo st positively received features in the pilot”. in the way they utilise the functionality of their desktops. In addition, the introduction of SharePoint Portal Server with its complete document search and retrieval functionality is well placed to The added features such as assist and promote increased productivity. Ashe adds, “Where we see improved collaboration between the greatest potential is in its ability to provide staff with the tools to users and teams, data locate information in a structured and logical manner, to retrieve and recoverability and virus protection action information with greater efficiency and speed”. have delivered an impressive and robust solution. SharePoint Portal Server improves data security The additional security features embedded in Office XP, such as digital signatures and document protection were also tested by a number of departments to verify data integrity. Ashe notes “The ability to track modifications and access to documents, along with a concise overview of all changes at the click of a button, will provide users with a greater degree of comfort and assurance around storing sensitive information electronically”. Smart Tags are incredibly clever The Seven Network sees a great deal of potential in the use of Smart Tags. The ‘out of the box’ functionality, such as linking names to Outlook Contacts, will be useful. However, the capacity for using customisable Smart Tags provides enormous scope for all departments. Gillies states, “Smart Tags are great for me . When I write the name of a person in a script, Smart Tags prompt me to link their details straight into my contacts folder: their details are always where I need them, which me ans I don’t need to go digging for them - a great time -saver”. Data recoverability One significant feature of Office XP is the data recovery tool which is now available. In the event of an error, Office XP keeps a backup of your work, giving you the chance to save and recover so you don’t lose valuable time or data. Ashe says, “It is extremely reassuring to know that documents are saved and fully retrievable so people don’t need to re-key or recreate their document, just continue from where they were”. Virus Protection The powerful new anti-virus tools which come packaged with Office XP are also designed to assist IT professionals and administrators to prevent virus attacks and avoid potential system outages and downtime. Ashe states, “Like any business, our infrastructure is critical to our operation. Now more than ever, an organisation simply can’t afford any unplanned down time as this directly affects your bottom line. The additional security features and options we’ve seen in the pilot, which are available in Office XP, would be really important to us”.