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Microsoft Lync Server 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Software Company Saves $200,000 Annually with Communications and Contact Center Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Manufacturing—High tech and electronics

Customer ProfileBentley Systems provides engineering and architecture design software for bridges, buildings, roads, and many other types of infrastructure assets. Founded in 1984, Bentley has grown to nearly 3,000 colleagues and is based in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Business SituationBentley Systems needed a unified communications solution that could support its worldwide presence and complex contact center needs.

SolutionThe company deployed an integrated solution based on Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Customer Interaction Center from Interactive Intelligence.

Benefits Unified solution for voice, instant

messaging, chat, and online meetings Increased productivity Reduced call times and improved client

service Decreased costs Easy deployment, monitoring,

troubleshooting, and customization

“We’re saving an average of four minutes per call across 2,600 calls per month—equal to 2,080 hours per year that are no longer spent looking up client information at the start of each call.”

Greg Rhoads, Vice President of Worldwide SELECT Support, Bentley Systems

With offices in more than 45 countries and more than 300 products in dozens of languages, Bentley Systems needed a communications environment capable of supporting its global presence and complex contact center routing needs. The company chose Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Customer Interaction Center from Interactive Intelligence, which together gave the company an integrated solution for voice, instant messaging, online meetings, desktop sharing, and all its contact center needs. The solution delivers many benefits, including increased colleague productivity, improved voice quality and client service, and lower costs. Bentley Systems now enjoys improved monitoring, troubleshooting, and programming, making it easy to keep its global communications infrastructure running smoothly and adapt to changing business needs.

SituationBentley Systems provides innovative software and services for the enterprises and professionals who design, build, and operate the world’s infrastructure—from bridges, buildings, and campuses to factories, roads, and utilities. Each software application is tailored to the needs of the various professionals who work with an asset through all stages of its lifecycle, including engineers, architects, planners, contractors, fabricators, IT managers, operators, and maintenance engineers. The company has more than US$500 million in annual revenues and approximately 3,000 colleagues—whom Bentley calls its employees—in 45 countries.

The company’s global presence is partly due to the unique skills and experience required to build and support its offerings—from design software for power plants in arctic climates to software for highways that sit on the 120-degree sands of the Middle East. “Many of our colleagues are highly specialized and highly mobile—it’s just the nature of our business,” says Janie Gordon, Director of Global Infrastructure at Bentley Systems. “Our clients are just as specialized and distributed, perhaps even more so.” In 2007, the company began searching for a unified communications solution capable of supporting its global presence. At the time, almost every office had its own private branch exchange (PBX), for which there were no companywide standards. “We had a Nortel PBX here and an Avaya PBX there, many of which were obtained through acquisitions,” says Gordon. “Our instant messaging infrastructure was just as fragmented, consisting primarily of

consumer-grade services, such as Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger.”

Bentley Systems began its move toward a unified communications solution in 2008, when it deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for instant messaging. Colleagues soon realized that they could also use it for internal calls, with the added benefit of being able to see someone’s presence information before calling. By mid-2010, Bentley Systems used Office Communications Server for all internal calls and also for external inbound and outbound calls at its headquarters and at other strategic locations.

The company then began searching for a way to build on Office Communications Server to meet its contact center needs. Up until then, its Avaya contact center solution had remained separate from its rapidly expanding Office Communications Server infrastructure—resulting in the need to maintain two entirely separate systems and skill sets. “We already had plans to upgrade from Office Communications Server 2007 to its successor, Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and wanted a contact center solution that could integrate with Lync Server 2010 to help us bring the entire company onto a single telephony solution,” says Gordon. With some 300 products in more than 40 languages, the company’s contact center needs are even more complex than its global presence. “We have hundreds of associates in dozens of countries who provide client support, which makes it critical that we can determine the nature of a call, prioritize it, and route it to the right person at the right time—such as to a

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“Our upgrade to Lync Server 2010 was straightforward—and well worth the effort. Ninety percent of our colleagues reported an immediate improvement in call quality, and many have said that it’s now easier than ever to collaborate with other colleagues.”

Janie Gordon, Director of Global Infrastructure, Bentley Systems

nuclear engineer who understands our eB Insight nuclear application and speaks French,” says Gordon.

Support for complex routing rules was not the only requirement that the company’s existing contact center solution was not delivering. Bentley Systems also needed: Improved call quality. The number-one

complaint with the existing contact center solution was call quality—including frequent dropped calls and broken-up audio.

Integration with its CRM system. Integration with SAP—the company’s client relationship management (CRM) system—was nonexistent, forcing client service representatives to spend three to five minutes looking up a client manually at the start of most calls.

Multi-channel communication solution. Bentley Systems already supported voice, chat, remote desktop support, and other communication channels, but it wanted to consolidate on a single, unified approach to delivering and routing all methods of communication.

Increased functionality. The company wanted more functionality, including better reporting and more powerful features for monitoring calls and training client service and telesales representatives.

Flexible, easy customization. With more than 300 products in dozens of categories and languages, the company needed to be able to easily adjust or augment call routing rules—for example,

when products are rebranded or in support of new languages, new products, corporate acquisitions, or reorganizations.

Ease of administration and trouble-shooting. Administration and troubleshooting required an understanding of Avaya, which meant that Bentley had to bear the burden of maintaining yet another complex skill set to manage the system and addressissues such as call quality.

Lower costs. Maintaining a separate telephony system solely for its contact center was expensive. Bentley Systems knew that creating a single, integrated communications infrastructure for the entire company would be significantly less expensive.

SolutionBentley Systems considered several options for a new contact center solution, including Customer Interaction Center (CIC) from Interactive Intelligence, a Microsoft Partner Network member. All of the solutions considered by Bentley were screened against several criteria, including price, ease of integration with SAP, vendor flexibility, financial stability, and technical merits.

Bentley selected CIC in December 2010, giving the company a rich, all-in-one IP communications software suite for its contact center. “CIC’s proven ability to integrate with Lync Server was a major factor in our decision, as was the ease with which it could integrate with our CRM system,” says Gordon. “Finally, we saw how CIC offered the greatest ease and flexibility in changing call routing rules.”

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“People really like how they can connect to the Internet at an airport or hotel and have their phone number follow them wherever they go.”

Janie Gordon, Director of Global Infrastructure, Bentley Systems

ImplementationIn March 2011, Bentley Systems began the upgrade from Office Communications Server 2007 to Lync Server 2010 running on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. After the server software upgrade, the company used its existing Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 infrastructure to distribute the Lync 2010 client to colleagues.

“Our upgrade to Lync Server 2010 was straightforward—and well worth the effort,” says Gordon. “Ninety percent of our colleagues reported an immediate improvement in call quality, and many have said that it’s now easier than ever to collaborate with other colleagues.”

Bentley Systems worked in parallel with Interactive Intelligence to design, implement, and test its new contact center solution. Locations in North America went live on CIC in June 2011, followed by locations in Europe in September 2011. “All colleagues now use Lync 2010 for internal communications, and we plan to have most contact center personnel around the globe converted to CIC running on Lync Server 2010 by the first quarter of 2012,” says Gordon. During its rollout of CIC, Bentley Systems used language packs from Interactive Intelligence to support integrated voice response in 17 languages—far more than the five languages it had fully implemented with Avaya. “We just created one standard menu and a folder for each language—the entire process couldn’t have been easier,” says Gordon.

Comprehensive Unified Communications

Bentley Systems now uses Lync Server 2010 for virtually all its supported workloads. All colleagues use it for internal calls and 80 percent also use it for external calls, with new locations being converted to Lync Server 2010 for external calls at a rapid pace. “Lync 2010 is proving especially useful to mobile colleagues,” says Gordon. “People really like how they can connect to the Internet at an airport or hotel and have their phone number follow them wherever they go.”

All colleagues also use Lync 2010 for internal teleconferencing and online meetings. The company plans to set up dial-in capabilities so that clients and other external parties can join Lync meetings in the first quarter of 2012, when Bentley Systems will be able to move off the existing third-party services that it currently uses for conference calls with clients.

Lync Server 2010 also supports unified messaging for colleagues, which includes voice messages delivered to email inboxes, companywide instant messaging, presence, and desktop-sharing. In November 2011, the system handled 360,000 peer-to-peer sessions, 202,000 IM sessions consisting of 1.6 million individual messages, and 125,000 audio calls.

Integrated Contact Center SolutionCIC uses Lync Server 2010 for its voice path, which is currently deployed to 450 computers in 23 countries, where strong integration between the two products has led to significant gains in contact center efficiency and client service quality. Here’s how a typical inbound support call works today:

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“By using Lync Server 2010 and CIC, we’re saving more than $200,000 in annual communications and contact center–related costs.”

Kelly Mitchell, Global Operations Manager, Bentley Systems

When a call comes in, an interactive voice response (IVR) front end prompts for basic information, such as whether the call is about a new or existing issue, whether the caller has a case number or contract number, the caller’s language, and which product the call is about.

CIC uses the information captured by IVR to find the client in SAP, route the call to the right client service representative, and display the SAP screen for that client on the representative’s PC, thereby eliminating the time that used to be spent manually querying the caller and searching for the client in SAP at the start of each call.

During the call, client service representatives can use CIC call controls embedded in the SAP screen to put calls on hold, transfer callers to other colleagues using Lync 2010, and conduct other actions.

Client service representatives can place outbound calls to clients from within the SAP screen. This capability is also used heavily by salespeople, who conduct outbound telemarketing efforts.

All calls are recorded for coaching and call quality purposes. A “silent coach” feature lets supervisors listen in to the call and make suggestions, which can be heard by the client service representative but not by the client.

Chat sessions originating on the company’s website can also be converted to a call and routed by CIC.

Comprehensive Reporting and TroubleshootingWith CIC running on Lync Server 2010, management has real-time visibility into the system at all times—a capability that Gordon says is “working wonders” for behavior modification. “In the past, supervisors couldn’t monitor the behavior of representatives from their own desks,” says Gordon. “Today, with CIC, we have full visibility into call flow and the behavior of contact center representatives.”

Bentley Systems can also take advantage of the solution’s troubleshooting capabilities, such as the ability to capture each call’s Mean Opinion Score (MOS), a measure of voice quality. This data flows into Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, which the company uses to continually monitor its IT infrastructure. “Other solutions may offer some voice quality reporting, but it’s usually stand-alone,” says Gordon. “For us, the real value lies in being able to feed voice quality data from Lync Server 2010 into System Center Operations Manager for real-time monitoring and, if needed, immediate escalation.”

Continued MomentumBentley Systems expanded its new contact center solution to India and the Asia Pacific region in January 2012 and plans to deploy it to other locations. It also plans to add support for more languages and to incorporate additional client interaction channels beyond telephony and chat, such as a click-to-call feature on its website.

“We plan to roll out these remaining channels throughout 2012,” says Gordon. “The end result will be all technical support personnel and salespeople working within

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“We added support for the Portuguese language in two days—a task that would have taken more than two weeks in the past.”

Janie Gordon, Director of Global Infrastructure, Bentley Systems

the SAP CRM screen, with CIC orchestrating the flow of communications on Lync Server 2010. A single, unified communications environment will be a huge benefit to our nearly 3,000 colleagues and to all of our clients.” BenefitsBy adopting a unified communications infrastructure with rich contact center functionality, Bentley Systems has seen many benefits. Its colleagues are more productive, voice quality is better, client service is improved, and costs are lower. Just as important, the company is taking advantage of the solution’s ease of management, troubleshooting, and customization to keep everything running smoothly as it continues to roll out the solution to additional locations and adapt to changing business needs.

Increased ProductivityBentley Systems uses the myriad communication and collaboration features in Lync Server 2010 to help colleagues work more productively. They can easily connect with other colleagues around the world through IM, share a desktop, schedule or join a meeting, or place a quick voice call after checking presence information. Contact center and telesales personnel are also more productive because they can work completely within the company’s SAP CRM system, with CIC and Lync Server working together behind the scenes to route calls and handle voice traffic.

Reduced Call Times and Improved Client ServiceBentley Systems reduced the amount of time required to handle client calls by about 2,000 hours per year. The company

receives 4,000 to 5,000 technical support calls per month, and in the past, client service representatives spent an average of four minutes finding a client in SAP at the start of each call. In November 2011, approximately 1,800 calls were identified by phone number, 600 were identified by service ticket number, and more than 200 were identified by contract number. “We’re saving an average of four minutes per call across 2,600 calls per month—equal to 2,080 hours per year that are no longer spent looking up client information at the start of each call,” says Greg Rhoads, Vice President of Worldwide SELECT Support at Bentley Systems. “Even more important, clients aren’t kept waiting and their calls are answered in the right language. What’s more, all these numbers are for technical support—our sales team is seeing similar benefits.”

Bentley Systems is further reducing call times via client service representatives’ ability to use presence information to quickly find and engage the right resources—and, once found, to forward the call to that person with a few clicks. Decreased CostsBy using a single, integrated communications and contact center solution, Bentley Systems has been able to keep costs to a minimum in several ways:

Headcount. Had the company kept its Avaya system for its contact center while the rest of the company moved to Lync Server 2010, it would have needed an additional one or two full-time colleagues to support the second telephony environment.

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“We now have an infrastructure that enables contact center personnel to work solely within our SAP CRM system—in turn helping us optimize business processes, reduce costs, and deliver better client service.”

Janie Gordon, Director of Global Infrastructure, Bentley Systems

Teleconferencing. Over the past three years, as colleagues have transitioned to Lync 2010 for all internal conference calls, third-party teleconferencing costs have decreased from $40,000 per month to $20,000 per month. This number will drop to essentially zero after Bentley Systems deploys dial-in capabilities and transitions conference calls with clients onto its new unified communications infrastructure, resulting in a total annual savings of approximately $500,000.

PBX costs. Costs will continue to decrease as Bentley Systems transitions additional locations to Lync Server 2010 for external voice calls. “Every office that we convert to Lync Server saves us approximately $10,000 per year in PBX costs,” says Gordon. “We’re converting about five per year and have 32 more to go, resulting in the potential to reduce infrastructure costs by an additional $320,000 or so over the next few years.”

Compared to 2008, the company’s communications and contact center infrastructure costs have decreased significantly. “By using Lync Server 2010 and CIC, we’re saving more than $200,000 in annual communications and contact center–related costs,” says Kelly Mitchell, Global Operations Manager at Bentley Systems.

Easy Deployment, Monitoring, Troubleshooting, and ProgrammingBy taking advantage of its Microsoft System Center solutions infrastructure, Bentley Systems was able to easily deploy the Lync 2010 client—and can just as easily monitor its new unified communications

infrastructure for issues ranging from server failure to voice quality. The company has also found it easy to change routing rules in CIC and support new languages. “We added support for the Portuguese language in two days—a task that would have taken more than two weeks in the past,” says Gordon. “We’re positioning the gateways for the APAC region now, to be followed by South America and support for French Canada. The greatest delays are in getting the necessary telecommunications connections in each country. With Lync Server 2010 and CIC running in our data center, the rest is easy.”

“Our relationship with Microsoft and Interactive Intelligence has been very rewarding. We now have an infrastructure that enables contact center personnel to work solely within our SAP CRM system—in turn helping us optimize business processes, reduce costs, and deliver better client service. We’re extremely pleased with how everything has worked out,” he says.

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Microsoft Lync Server 2010Microsoft Lync Server 2010 ushers in a new connected user experience that transforms every communication into an interaction that is more collaborative, and engaging; and that is accessible from anywhere. For IT, the benefits are equally powerful, with a highly secure and reliable communications system that works with existing tools and systems for easier management, lower cost of ownership, smoother deployment and migration, and greater choice and flexibility.

For more information about Microsoft Lync Server 2010, go to: www.microsoft.com/lync

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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 Interactive Intelligence, visit the website at: www.inin.com

For more information about Bentley Systems, visit the website at: www.bentley.com

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

Document published March 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008 R2− Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

Microsoft Office− Microsoft Lync 2010

Third Party Software Customer Interaction Center (CIC) from

Interactive Intelligence

Partners Interactive Intelligence