Microsoft Lync Server 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Content Provider Upgrades Communication Solution to Boost Productivity and Cut Costs

OverviewCountry or Region: United KingdomIndustry: Media and entertainment

Customer ProfileNDS is a technology leader and innovator in pay-TV. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, NDS has 5,000 employees and 26 offices around the world.

Business SituationNDS wanted to replace an aging in-house audio conferencing solution and provide a more robust communications platform that would work well with its Microsoft applications.

SolutionNDS decided to deploy Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to provide robust communications capabilities such as presence, instant messaging, ad hoc collaboration and online meetings, and enterprise voice.

Benefits Improve productivity Reduce costs

“For every new office we open, we will save about U.S.$10,000 by using Lync Server for enterprise voice and deploying an SBA to provide a redundant voice connection instead of installing a PBX.”

Martin Smale, IT Director, NDS Group Ltd.

Founded in 1989, NDS Group Ltd. provides the security, enabling technologies, and interactive applications that give TV platform operators, content owners, and broadcast channels the ability to deliver the best content, generating revenues while reducing churn—the keys to success in today’s TV industry. With 26 offices around the world and 5,000 employees who must work together across great distances, communications is vital to the company’s success. NDS wanted to replace an aging audio conferencing solution it maintained in-house, but it also wanted to extend more robust communication capabilities like presence, instant messaging, and enterprise voice that would work well with its other Microsoft applications. NDS decided to deploy Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to provide enterprise voice and ad hoc collaboration and online meeting capabilities to reduce costs and boost employee productivity.

SituationNDS Group Ltd. creates innovative technologies that allow pay-TV operators to generate revenues by securely delivering digital content to TVs, set-top boxes (STBs), digital video recorders (DVRs), PCs, portable media players (PMPs), removable media, and other mobile devices. NDS offers a full range of open end-to-end solutions for pay-TV operators using one or more delivery networks. It simplifies convergence by delivering broadcast, on-demand, and OTT content using multiple platforms to multiple devices—enabling its customers to enjoy content anywhere, anytime, on any device. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, NDS has 5,000 employees and 26 offices around the world, including Bangalore, Paris, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, and Costa Mesa, California.

With so many offices around the world, the company had invested significantly in its telephony solution, as well as an in-house audio conferencing solution. As its primary voice solution, the company relied on private-branch exchange (PBX) systems deployed at locations around the world. Employees, especially those who traveled, also relied on their mobile phones to connect with the office or customers.

Although the in-house conferencing solution worked well for the company for several years, NDS felt that it needed to upgrade the solution to one that would provide more security and be easier for employees to use. In addition to audio conferencing, it wanted to provide more communications capabilities, including an enterprise voice solution that would make it easy for people who travel to connect to

the office and to provide voice at smaller branch offices in a cost-effective way.

NDS knew it wanted a solution that would work well with desktop applications that its employees use every day. The company had deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to provide messaging, and employees used the Microsoft Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client to manage their email, contacts, and calendars. For business productivity, NDS had deployed Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which employees used for creating, collaborating, and managing content.

In July 2010, NDS deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to provide presence, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and enterprise voice capabilities for its 5,000 employees. To provide enterprise voice through Office Communications Server, network traffic is carried through an AudioCodes media gateway to and from the PBX. Internally, the company configured five-digit dialing to work with Office Communications Server; if people dial an “8” before the number, the call comes through Microsoft Office Communicator on the desktop. At its branch offices that have no PBX, employees can place calls across the company’s multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network using Office Communicator; employees who travel can do the same, as long as they have a network connection.

The company has also merged Office Communications Server capabilities with its other Microsoft solutions, so employees can view each other’s presence through Office Outlook or SharePoint Server and

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start a chat or voice conversation with one click. To extend communications capabilities with partners and customers, NDS also implemented federation, so employees can see presence and calendar information for federated colleagues and easily connect with them through instant messaging and voice calls.

With its Office Communications Server deployment, NDS also developed some custom applications to incorporate presence, chat, and voice capabilities into programs such as its employee directory or other business applications. “Interoperation across the desktop is why we chose a Microsoft solution,” says Martin Smale, IT Director for NDS. “People love having presence in all the programs.”

In terms of its communications solution, NDS believed that Office Communications Server was a step in the right direction, but gaps still existed that it wanted to fill. First, for its audio conferencing solution, the company had very specific requirements: it wanted a solution that would announce when participants joined a conference, and it also wanted employees to be able to join with a single click. Second, it wanted to provide a redundant voice connection in the case of a network outage at its branch offices with no PBX and for any new offices it may open in the future.

SolutionTo meet its remaining requirements for its communications solution, NDS decided to upgrade to Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Lync Server provides enhanced versions of the communications capabilities provided by Office Communications Server 2007 R2—presence, instant messaging, robust

conferencing, and enterprise voice—as well as improvements in topology, deployment, and management tools. It plans to deploy the solution to its 5,000 employees in November 2010.

The IT team will use the Topology Builder tool for Lync Server to design its final topology and configuration settings before beginning deployment. With the more flexible deployment options for Lync Server, NDS estimates that it can reduce the number of servers it uses in the configuration by at least five, by collocating the front-end server and monitoring server on the same hardware.

At its branch offices that do not have a PBX, NDS will deploy an AudioCodes Mediant Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA). The SBA is based on cost-effective media gateways hosting the Microsoft Survivable Branch Appliance software package. The SBA provides a public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection that continues to provide communications capabilities in the event of wide area network (WAN) failure. NDS plans to use SBAs at its branch offices to provide a redundant voice connection in the case of a network outage. It will install the first SBA at its Copenhagen office. It will install another SBA to support 500 employees at its office in Bangalore, and it plans to use SBAs at any future locations to save the expense of installing a PBX.

For its employees, NDS is currently evaluating voice hardware designed specifically for use with Lync Server to replace traditional desk phones, including the Polycom CX600 IP desk phone, which provides directory search and presence

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“Interoperation across the desktop is why we chose a Microsoft solution. People love having presence in all the programs.”

Martin Smale, IT Director, NDS Group Ltd.

information, or a Plantronics Voyager PRO headset they can use to place and manage calls and conferences through the Lync client on the desktop. For conference rooms, the company is also considering the Polycom CX3000 IP conference phone, which also provides directory search, presence information, and extended conferencing capabilities.

With Lync Server 2010, NDS can provide better ad hoc collaboration and online meeting options for employees, including its main requirements for audio conferencing: participant announcement and single click to join a conference or meeting. It will also provide video conferencing for some of its employees, based on their needs. NDS now purchases all of its portable computers with built-in cameras to support video conferencing. NDS will use call admission control within Lync Server to manage any bandwidth constraints from the use of video conferencing. “With Call Admission Control, we can set different qualities of service levels for voice and video,” explains Smale. “For high-priority voice traffic, we can use MPLS, and for lower-priority traffic like video, we can route over the Internet.”

With Lync Server 2010, the IT team can use capabilities such as Windows PowerShell scripting to easily deploy and manage Lync Server. They can also use the web-based control panel to manage Lync Server from anywhere on the corporate network. Another feature of the web-based control panel is the ability to delegate limited administrative rights using role-based access control: NDS plans to grant regional administrators and help-desk staff rights to access and manage servers based on their

needs. The IT team will also continue to use desktop sharing to troubleshoot and walk employees through issues they are having with their computers.

Employees in different regions often work together on teams, and they have been using desktop sharing extensively to collaborate on projects. Now in the Lync client they can also use the whiteboarding feature for more interactive brainstorming sessions. Another Lync client feature that employees are finding helpful is the Rich Contact Card, which displays people’s pictures as well as their managers and direct reports. People can also use Skill Search to find subject matter experts in other departments or other regions more easily. With these capabilities, NDS can better utilize its investment in its SharePoint solution.BenefitsBy deploying Lync Server 2010, NDS can provide a more comprehensive communications solution that addresses its specific requirements for highly secure audio conferencing, desktop interoperation between applications, and improved communication across the board, while also reducing costs.

Improved ProductivityBecause employees now can access presence, instant messaging, and voice capabilities through other Microsoft applications, the company directory, and other business applications, they save valuable time they can use to be more productive elsewhere. They no longer have to switch between applications—or between the computer and the phone—to search for a contact and get questions answered or start a conversation.

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“With desktop sharing, we can walk employees through a problem on their machine, so they know better how to resolve it themselves if it happens again. It saves us a lot of time.”

Tamsin Pennigton-Ellis, Senior Communications Engineer,

NDS Group Ltd.

Employees can also quickly find colleagues or subject matter experts with the Rich Contact Card or Skill Search.

With the Lync client, employees also experience more streamlined capabilities that help them save time and be more productive, especially when setting up meetings. “In Lync, it’s so much easier to book conferences,” says Smale. “We also no longer experience number conflicts, so meeting participants don’t waste time trying to find a new meeting number. They can get right to business.” With desktop sharing, whiteboarding, and interoperation with SharePoint Server, employees can also collaborate more productively across great distances. “One of our department managers told me that desktop sharing has completely changed the way her team works,” says Smale. “People don’t have to waste time to book a video conferencing room and move all their things. They can open a session right there in the desktop.” Federation also makes it easier for employees to collaborate and share with partners and work with customers.

For the IT team, desktop sharing helps them save time troubleshooting issues, but it also acts as a training tool. “With desktop sharing, we can walk employees through a problem on their machine, so they know better how to resolve it themselves if it happens again. It saves us a lot of time,” says Tamsin Pennigton-Ellis, Senior Communications Engineer at NDS. The ability to delegate rights to other administrators and help-desk operators through the web-based management

console will also help the IT team more evenly distribute tasks.

Reduced CostsNDS expects to reduce or avoid costs in a number of areas after deploying Lync Server 2010. Because less hardware is required to deploy Lync Server and provide failover, the company can avoid purchasing new hardware, and repurpose the servers it will no longer need.

The cost of daily calls will also go down. “We will decrease costs for daily telephony services in general, but especially for mobile phones,” says Smale. “Instead, people can use Lync to ping each other.” With ad hoc collaboration and online meeting capabilities widely available across the company, NDS also expects it will reduce travel expenses.

Deploying SBAs at branch offices will also help the company save money, because it can avoid the cost of deploying an expensive PBX system with high maintenance overhead. “For every new office we open, we will save about U.S.$10,000 by using Lync Server for enterprise voice and deploying an SBA to provide a redundant voice connection instead of installing a PBX,” explains Smale.

With Lync Server 2010, NDS has deployed a comprehensive communications solution that interoperates with desktop applications employees use every day.

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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 NDS Group Ltd. products and services, call +44 (0) 208-476-8000 or visit the website at: www.nds.com

For more information about Polycom products and services, call (800) Polycom or visit the website at: www.polycom.com

For more information about AudioCodes products and services, call +972 3-976-4000 or visit the website at: www.audiocodes.com

For more information about Plantronics products and services, call (800) Plantronics or visit the website at: www.plantronics.com

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

Document published November 2010

Software and Services Microsoft Office− Microsoft Lync 2010− Microsoft Office Professional 2007− Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

2007 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010− Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Enterprise Edition

Hardware AudioCodes Mediant Survivable

Branch Appliance Polycom CX600 IP desk phone Plantronics Voyager PRO headset