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March 2008
Microsoft Technology Helps Architects Go Online to Share Knowledge Across Offices
"This sharing of information has truly energized the great majority of our employees and positively impacted the profitability of our firm."
Jay Rottinghaus, BHDP Marketing Director
Inefficient processes strained BHDP Architecture’s ability to share information and manage business development among offices in three cities that focused on four markets. BHDP replaced its non-integrated technology with a platform of corporate-wide collaboration solutions centered on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. After only six weeks, more than 80 active sales opportunities, 130 new business leads, and more than 2,000 contacts were identified.
Business Needs
BHDP Architecture was a growing architectural firm struggling with its attempts to share knowledge among its employees and to apply its combined expertise to its daily work. The firm’s more than 125 staff members work from offices in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Collectively, the firm focuses on four market segments: workplace, higher education, science & technology, and retail. The firm recognized that employees suffered from issues relating both to process and technology, including:
- Managing the new-business development pipeline among three offices was very difficult.
- Staff experts found it hard to share their knowledge with others in an efficient manner.
- The offices were working as three companies, rather than one, with disjointed communication.
- Professional education for staff relied on e-mail to manage classes and spreadsheets to track credits, a burdensome and sometimes confusing process.
BHDP depended on three separate and unconnected technologies to support its business processes: Deltek Award for CRM, Novell GroupWise for e-mail and calendars, and four personal computers for storing project photos and renderings. With limited seat licenses, the CRM application was not accessible to all employees and presented an overwhelming number of features and functions. The software could not be customized to BHDP’s specific business processes. The Novell solution didn’t offer a collaboration capability and was not completely integrated with desktop tools, including Microsoft Office 2003. Dedicating personal computers as repositories for the firm’s images was a poor use of data storage and limited employee access to these assets.
The firm was operating inefficiently. Marketing Director Jay Rottinghaus noted, “From daily routines and work processes to the sharing of information, we suffered from inefficiencies and poor communication, which ultimately had a direct impact on our customer relationships and firm profitability.”
Solution
BHDP sought the help of Cincinnati-based US Digital Partners, a boutique Web-development firm, to plan the creation of a corporate intranet that would unify access to information across the three cities and among all employees. US Digital Partners centered its solution for BHDP on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which would enable development of a robust corporate intranet.
The architecture firm viewed the transition as an opportunity to change the way people work and mange their work, allowing employees for the first time to utilize fully its integrated Microsoft Office Suite of products.
The objectives BHDP anticipated attaining included:
- Easing the process of finding important information.
- Improving the effectiveness of prospecting and sales.
- Creating a searchable archive for documents, images and logos to improve knowledge-sharing.
- Implementing a better online system for training employees.
- Creating a space for employees to share best practices and stay atop industry trends.
To achieve its objectives, BHDP capitalized on a host of Microsoft products such as Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2005, virtualization with Windows Server 2003 R2, Communications Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007, Windows XP and Office 2007. This comprehensive system would allow BHDP to achieve its objectives and vastly improve corporate collaboration. Managing the project as a Web-development effort, US Digital Partners customized both the functionality and the look and feel of the SharePoint sites within the intranet. BHDP’s advertising agency partnered to brand the corporate-wide intranet with the name “Kiva,” a Pueblo Indian word for a community meeting place.
The site became very popular within the organization, leading to ongoing demand for and development of more team sites and functionality.
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Software and Services Used:
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Windows Server 2003 R2
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Benefits
Within a matter of weeks after launch, SharePoint began improving the results of BHDP’s new-business development process across all its offices. Staff began working together across market segments and geographies to bolster their new-buisiness efforts, while communication within and across teams soared. The Microsoft solutions fundamentally changed the firm’s process for pursuing new opportunities to make it much more manageable. Information-sharing has energized and empowered employees.
- In just six weeks, BHDP had more than 2,000 contacts in its business development site.
- The number of new business prospects rose to 130 and the firm identified more than 80 active sales opportunities.
- For the first time, sales staff can analyze up-to-date information in their weekly meetings, making these sessions more valuable.
- So many new ways to apply SharePoint emerged that the company created a virtual “suggestion box” to consider and track them all. Employees have been creative in their recommendations.
- The firm gained peace of mind in knowing that the latest software offers the latest security. Furthermore, with its standardized software, BHDP can more easily track and deploy security updates across the enterprise.
- Classes and credits for staff professional education are now managed through a streamlined and centralized training site.
- A research wiki, team sites and an image library allow for better project management, where employees share architecture and workplace design knowledge.
About BHDP
BHDP Architecture is a knowledge- and innovation-driven firm dedicated to the creation of human environments that impact behavior and enrich people’s experiences. Founded upon a rich tradition in architecture, BHDP has expanded to encompass the entire design spectrum connected to the creation of exceptional experiences. BHDP values a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. For more information visit bhdp.com.
About US Digital Partners
A Cincinnati web design firm, US Digital Partners helps companies capitalize on the Web. As an employee owned company, we make world-class capabilities available and affordable. Our “back to business basics” approach has helped some of the most recognizable companies in the world develop sound business strategy, world-class execution, and dependable ongoing website management. For more information visit USDigitalPartners.com.
US Digital Partners
317 East 8th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-929-4603
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