“Rollout went to plan and the products are easy to use, so we saw instant benefits. Our IT team are now able to concentrate on strategic projects rather than spending most of their time dealing with simple queries and maintaining the servers, and with the intranet now on a hosted SharePoint system we have virtual team collaboration, and employees can access the information from anywhere, not just in the office. With everything centralized in one location, all of our offices are able to retrieve and view the same information – it’s great.”Wayne Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Glidepath

Glidepath, a global leader in airport baggage and cargo handling systems, required a solution which would increase flexibility and allow external access to emails, all while saving the company money. Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Service was implemented, which has led to significant cost savings for the company. In addition to this, with the intranet running on a hosted SharePoint system, Glidepath has virtual team collaboration, with employees able to access business information from anywhere, at any time, on any device.

Business NeedsGlidepath, established in 1972 in New Zealand, is a global leader in airport baggage and cargo handlings systems, providing cost effective solutions with a future-minded focus on optimal end results. With over 35 years experience in materials handling and postage sorting, the company understands the nature of the business and is able to offer a complete solution – from consulting services to design, manufacture and project managed installation services. Glidepath prides itself on providing state of the art

software control systems that can integrate with existing airport information and security/explosive detection systems. The company has offices around the world, manufacturing sites in Auckland and Dallas, Texas, and has completed more than 550 projects in more than 60 countries around the world.

With disparate systems in the different offices around the world, and a lack of external access to data and emails, Glidepath did not have an optimal level of collaboration. The

Customer: Glidepath GroupWeb Site: www.glidepathgroup.comCustomer Size: 200 employeesCountry or Region: New Zealand and worldwideIndustry: ManufacturingPartner: CodeBlue

Customer ProfileGlidepath is a global leader in airport baggage and cargo handlings systems, providing cost effective solutions for optimal end results. With over 35 years experience in materials handling and postage sorting, the company is able to offer a complete solution, from consulting services to design, manufacture and installation services. Glidepath prides itself on providing state of the art software control systems that can integrate with existing airport information and security/explosive detection systems. The company has offices around the world, manufacturing sites in Auckland and Dallas, Texas, and has completed more than 550 projects in more than 60 countries around the world.

Software and Services Microsoft Business Productivity

Online Services Microsoft Exchange Online Microsoft SharePoint Online Microsoft Office Communications

Online Office Live Meeting Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive Windows ActiveSync

For more information about Microsoft Cloud Services, go to:www.microsoft.co.nz/cloud

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Virtual team collaboration and significant cost savings with online software solutions

company required a solution that would enable them to consolidate and centralize its business processes, while also saving money and freeing up IT staff so they could concentrate on more strategic projects.

“The costs for tele-housing the Exchange 2007 Server we had in place were rising, and we needed to upgrade our hardware, so it made sense to investigate a solution that would save us money as well as setting us up for future expansion,” says Wayne Brown, Glidepath’s Chief Financial Officer.

“The existing Exchange 2007 system did not totally connect with Outlook 2003 beyond our corporate network, and we needed our employees to be able to access their emails externally – something that meant we had to invest in a virtual private network. The new solution needed to work globally and cost less on a per month per user basis than we were currently paying.”

The obvious choice for Glidepath was to move to a cloud-based solution to house all of its data, making is easier for the different offices around the world to access the same information more easily, and for staff to access emails outside of the office environment.

SolutionThe company investigated a number of options for replacing the on-premise Microsoft Exchange Servers. Glidepath chose to work with CodeBlue, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, who recommended a Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) solution, which would enable greater flexibility and connectivity within the company. Soft Source Hosted Email was also investigated and considered.

“We decided to go with CodeBlue’s recommendation because Microsoft’s BPOS solution is industry standard best practice technology and has unquestionable interoperability with other systems,” says Wayne.The BPOS solution was comprised of Microsoft Exchange Online for email and calendaring; Microsoft SharePoint Online for portals and document sharing; Microsoft Office Communications Online for presence availability, instant messaging and peer-to-peer audio calls; and Office Live Meeting for web and video conferencing. Exchange Hosted Archive and Windows ActiveSync (for accessing data and emails on mobile devices) were also implemented.

The project was initiated in March 2010, with a phased approach through planning, pre-configuration, mailbox migration testing and

implementation, hosted archive development and post-project training and support. The final stage was completed in June 2010. High Availability was guaranteed and achieved throughout deployment, meaning users had access to the system at all times with limited email downtime.

BenefitsThe main benefits of the Microsoft BPOS solution for Glidepath have included: Streamlined and centralized processes Cost savings of more than 50 percent ‘Freeing up’ of internal IT staff No on-premise server or software

licenses required Guaranteed datacentre security Integrated antivirus and anti-spam

solution

The main business impact of implementing BPOS has been the more than 30 percent savings in licenses and operating costs.

“Rollout went to plan and the products were easy to use, so we realized the benefits of the deployment instantly. Our IT team are now able to concentrate on strategic projects rather than spending a large portion of their time dealing with simple queries and maintaining the servers,” says Wayne.

“With the intranet now running on the hosted SharePoint system we have virtual team collaboration, and employees are able to access the information from anywhere, not just in the office. With everything centralized in one location, all of our offices are able to retrieve and view the same information.”

“Because we are always connected to email now, either on our PCs, mobile phones or through a web browser, our customers are can contact us at any time, and receive an answer much more quickly.”

As there is no longer a need for on-premise servers to host email and intranet data, the existing servers have now been repurposed for other uses within business.

Glidepath plans to extend the solution further by enhancing the capabilities of SharePoint Online to include information governance for Drawing Office and Project Office. Upgrades to Windows 7 and Office 2010 are also being considered, which would mean the company will be using the most up-to-date software solutions available.

“We want to make sure we have the flexibility and scope in our software to cope with and changes, developments or expansion our business may undergo in the future.”

Glidepath has invested in an online solution which allows the company to not only save money and centralize data for its multiple offices around the globe, but also allow its employees more time to focus on the core business. It has proven itself to be a technology innovator by using a global-reach technology to stay connected on any device in any country.

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Document published 4 Feb 2011