Perkins+Will Exchange Final

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Customer Solution Case Study

Architectural Firm Simplifies Processes and
Cuts Costs with Unified Messaging

Overview “Unified messaging has made it much easier to keep
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Architecture, engineering, and
up with all my different methods of communication....
related services Today, I’m more inclined to listen and respond to
Customer Profile
voice-mail messages than I was before.”
Perkins+Will is an architecture and design Greg Fait, Director of IT Infrastructure, Perkins+Will
firm that has worked on projects in 43
countries. Founded in Chicago, Illinois, the Perkins+Will is a globally recognized architectural and design firm.
privately held company employs 1,300
people in more than 20 offices. In September 2006, the company learned that support would soon
end for its main PBX voice-mail system. With the system at capacity,
Business Situation
The company wanted to consolidate its and a smaller voice-mail system in use at several offices,
multiple voice-mail systems onto one at the Perkins+Will considered its options. Rather than consolidating on
corporate data center. However, that
voicemail system had reached the end of the previous voice-mail system, the company chose a unified
its support cycle. messaging solution built on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007.
Solution Currently, Perkins+Will is deploying unified messaging, along with
Rather than expanding its previous other products in the Microsoft Enterprise CAL Suite including
voicemail system, Perkins+Will deployed
unified messaging on Microsoft® Exchange Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Microsoft
Server 2007 and the Windows Server® Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server, and Microsoft Office
2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition operating
system. SharePoint® Server 2007. As a result, the company will cut costs,
boost efficiency, and simplify system administration. The highly
Benefits
 Extends staff with targeted consulting
scalable system will also enhance communication and
 Facilitates cost savings collaboration.
 Enables greater efficiency
 Simplifies system administration
 Boosts collaboration

Situation enabled with GoodLink from Good
Founded in 1935, Perkins+Will is one of the Technology.
most respected design firms in the United
States. Along with winning numerous awards As a result of corporate acquisitions,
from the American Institute of Architects, Perkins+Will inherited several voice-mail
Perkins+Will has also been recognized systems. Most of the offices in the United
internationally for its achievements in States used the Avaya Octel system; the sites
architecture, interior design, branded in Vancouver and Victoria, Canada, used
environments, and planning and strategies. other systems that came with non-Avaya
Founded in Chicago, Illinois, the privately held private branch exchanges (PBXs).
company employs 1,300 people spread
across sites in North America, Shanghai, As the company began to bring the Canadian
London, and Dubai. offices onto the Avaya network, IT personnel
discussed how they could consolidate the
The employees at Perkins+Will work on Canadian systems onto the Avaya Octel
teams that include people from multiple system. Doing so would require a significant
locations. This collaborative approach makes investment, however, because the Avaya
better use of employees’ expertise. “Probably Octel system was at full capacity.
40 percent of the work we do involves Furthermore, in September 2006,
multiple office pursuits and engagements, so Perkins+Will learned that Avaya was ending
it’s critical that we communicate and support for the Octel system. “Given our need
collaborate well,” explains Rich Nitzsche, to consolidate our voice-mail systems, we
Principal and Chief Information Officer at took a step back to see what our options
Perkins+Will. “There’s a fair number of were,” says Greg Fait, Director of IT
employees pushing data around our network Infrastructure at Perkins+Will. “We didn’t
each day. E-mail is really the backbone for want to perpetuate an Octel solution just
communications.” because that’s what we had been using.”

The messaging environment at Perkins+Will Hoping to avoid a significant investment in its
was running on Microsoft® Exchange Server previous voice-mail system, Perkins+Will
2003 Enterprise Edition, the Active Directory® looked at alternative solutions. “I’ve always
service, and the Windows Server® 2003 wanted to deploy unified messaging, but up
Standard Edition operating system. Seven until now, the options had not been
servers located across the United States and particularly attractive or well integrated with
one server in Canada hosted the company’s the Microsoft platform,” notes Nitzsche. “So I
Exchange Server environment. Employees was pretty thrilled when I saw the first blush
accessed e-mail from workstations running of unified messaging in Exchange Server
the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 several years ago at a Microsoft CIO Summit
messaging and collaboration client. Or in Redmond. Naturally, the technology has
employees accessed e-mail on the road using since been on my radar.”
a portable computer running Microsoft Office
Outlook Web Access or a Treo mobile device Solution

“Exchange Server 2007 In December 2006, Perkins+Will spoke with “PLA and Enabling Technologies offer a
Microsoft about its upcoming release of strong partnership to customers,” says Don
is transparent and built Exchange Server 2007. The product would Penland, Communication and Collaboration
on industry standards, allow Perkins+Will to create a unified voice Solution Group Leader for Project Leadership
mail system, without ripping and replacing its Associates. “We each specialize in a different
so we don’t need to call existing systems. In addition, Exchange area of messaging. PLA offers deep expertise
a consultant whenever Server 2007 offered a fully integrated unified in Exchange Server, while Enabling
messaging capability so that employees could Technologies offers deep expertise in unified
we encounter even the access, annotate, and forward voice mail, e- messaging and telephony.”
smallest of problems.” mail, and faxes from their e-mail inboxes.
Employees could also use a phone to access, Instead of deploying Exchange Server 2007
Greg Fait, Director of IT Infrastructure, forward, and save their e-mail and voice mail to everyone at once, Perkins+Will chose to
Perkins+Will messages—or access and manipulate their phase-in unified messaging in an initial
calendar, contacts, or tasks. deployment that included the company’s 30
IT employees. To enjoy all of the benefits of
“After looking at all of our available options, unified messaging, Perkins+Will also decided
unified messaging in Exchange Server 2007 to deploy Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and
was a great fit,” says Fait. “Using a speech- Microsoft Office Professional 2007.
enabled interface to access messages and
being able to sync up our mobile and local “We decided to roll out the new versions of
inboxes are great features to have.” Office Professional 2007 and Office Outlook
2007 along with our initial deployment of
“Another reason we chose to deploy unified Exchange Server,” Nitzsche explains. “Our
messaging in Exchange Server is that I was deployment of Office Professional 2007
really looking to create a more converged connects to our other IT strategies as well.”
messaging environment—one that’s well Perkins+Will is in the process of deploying
integrated with our Microsoft Office the Microsoft Enterprise Client Access
environment,” adds Nitzsche. License (CAL) Suite. Designed to boost
communication and collaboration, the
By January of 2007, the company had joined Enterprise CAL Suite includes 11 products,
the Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging including Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft
Rapid Deployment Program. With its IT Office SharePoint® Server 2007, and
department already busy with other projects, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager
Perkins+Will researched third-party vendors 2007.
and chose Project Leadership Associates
(PLA) and Enabling Technologies to help Deploying Exchange Server 2007
deploy a unified messaging solution. In March 2007, PLA began the migration to
Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, both PLA Exchange Server 2007 by using the Microsoft
and Enabling Technologies were highly Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer. The
recommended by customers who had already tool evaluated the existing Exchange Server
deployed unified messaging and Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure. “It was
Server 2007. great to be able to check the environments to
rule out any potential problems before

“Convergence is the key deployment,” says Forrest McDuffie, Senior calls. In addition, the consultants deployed
Consultant at PLA. “It turned out the Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) 2007 from
driver behind our environments were healthy, aside from some Geomant. MWI 2007 gives Exchange Server
migration to Exchange minor replication issues that we were able to 2007 the ability to light the lamp on a desk
fix. After we had completed the architectural phone when a voice message is received.
Server 2007. Because analysis, we spent several days evaluating Consultants used a series of commands in
that means . . . possible system designs. One of the goals of the Windows PowerShell™ command-line
Perkins+Will was to design an environment interface to configure each unified messaging
employees can focus that could support its long-term goals.” mailbox to allow the message-waiting light to
more on their work and work.
Perkins+Will selected an architecture built on
less on their computing three IBM x3650 rack-mount servers, located “We relied on System Center Operations
environment.” at the corporate data center in Chicago. One Manager 2007 throughout the setup and
server supports the Hub Transport and deployment of our pilot environment to
Rich Nitzsche, Principal and Chief Information Mailbox roles; another server supports the proactively identify any potential issues,”
Officer, Perkins+Will Unified Messaging role; a third server notes Fait. “We didn’t have many warnings,
supports the Client Access role. All three but having Operations Manager monitoring
systems run the Windows Server 2003 events gave me a comfort level I wouldn’t
Enterprise x64 Edition operating system and have had otherwise.”
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise
Edition, which runs natively on Windows Since the initial pilot deployment,
Server x64 Editions. Perkins+Will has migrated approximately 70
employees to e-mail running on Exchange
Setting Up Unified Messaging Server 2007. Over the next few weeks, the
At the end of March, Enabling Technologies company will be increasing the number of
spent a morning installing and configuring a unified mailboxes to 45. Over the next 6 to
Dialogic DMG2030DTIQ Media Gateway at 12 months, the company plans to migrate all
the corporate data center. The gateway of its employees to the unified messaging
supports communication between the environment running on Exchange Server
company’s existing Avaya PBX and Exchange 2007, Office Professional 2007, and Office
Server 2007. In the afternoon, Enabling Outlook 2007.
Technologies explained how the gateway was
set up and how it worked, so that IT Benefits
personnel at Perkins+Will could later scale By engaging PLA and Enabling Technologies
the gateway to support the entire company to help with the deployment of unified
and replace both previous PBX voice-mail messaging, Perkins+Will was able to
systems. supplement its IT staff with targeted help
from consultants. Although the company is
Consultants from Enabling Technologies only in the early stages of deployment,
spent the next two days working with the Perkins+Will can already see the potential
phone administrator at Perkins+Will. The benefits of the new solution—namely, cost
team configured and tested the unified savings, greater efficiency, and simplified
messaging system so that it could receive system administration. The system will also

provide for scalability and increased in a graphically dispersed cluster. CCR
communication and collaboration. provides robust failover functionality. More
importantly, because Exchange Server 2007
Extends Staff with Targeted Consulting hosts both e-mail and voice mail in a single
Because Perkins+Will had never deployed a inbox, there is no need to set up separate
unified messaging solution, it turned to PLA failover configurations for e-mail and voice
and Enabling Technologies for help. By doing mail. “We think we will have the ability to
so, Perkins+Will was able to rapidly design a introduce redundancy at a lower cost with
server infrastructure that can support the this solution compared to a PBX voice-mail
entire organization and a gateway system system,” notes Fait.
that can be easily expanded. “PLA went
above and beyond to help make sure that our Perkins+Will also expects to reduce costs by
design was going to support our future consolidating the eight servers currently
goals,” says Fait. “The company made sure running Exchange Server 2003 onto the three
we weren’t shooting ourselves in the foot with 64-bit servers supporting Exchange Server
a design and implementation that would 2007.
force us in a particular direction.
Enables Greater Efficiency
“What really impressed me about this The universal inbox made possible by unified
deployment was the amount of knowledge, messaging allows for increased efficiency.
resources, and effort PLA offered,” continues “Unified messaging has made it much easier
Fait. “PLA was 100 percent committed to to keep up with all my different methods of
making this work for us, and they worked communication,” says Fait. “I used to dial into
harder than any other consultants we’ve my voice-mail system and hear I had 16 new
worked with.” messages, and had no idea whether they
were critical or not. It sometimes took a long
Facilitates Cost Savings time listening to the messages, taking notes,
Unlike with previous PBX voice-mail systems, and deleting the messages. I was less
IT personnel can maintain the unified inclined to be responsive to voice-mail
messaging system and consequently reduce messages when I traveled, because they
maintenance costs. “Our old voice-messaging tended to be out of sight and therefore out of
system was very stable, but it required third- mind. Today, I’m more inclined to listen and
party experts to upgrade or configure,” Fait respond to voice-mail messages than I was
says. “Changing the capacity on our PBX before.”
systems was complicated and expensive, and
the procedure was riskier. With Exchange Nitzsche concurs. “Voice mail is the last thing
Server 2007, we can change capacity, I check when I’m on the road or out of the
incrementally, ourselves.” office. Now I have some visibility into the
voice-messaging space from the environment
Another area of expected cost savings is I’m in the most—and that’s e-mail.”
redundancy. Perkins+Will has been studying
the Continuous Cluster Replication (CCR) “The other benefit of our new unified
feature in Exchange Server 2007, especially messaging solution is its ability to identify

who a message is from up front so I can Unlike PBX voice-mail systems that offer a
make better use of my time,” continues Fait. single service, unified messaging provides for
“There are certain numbers that I can tell multiple communication and collaboration
right away are sales calls, so I can choose to services. The Exchange Server unified
deal with them right away or not. Another big messaging solution is comprehensive, so
benefit is that I can listen to a message I’ve companies do not have to purchase
been waiting for right away, instead of having additional third-party tools or licenses to
to listen to 20 minutes of messages from implement features like speech or fax over IP.
other people first.” Exchange Server is also compatible with
numerous PBX systems, so companies can
Perkins+Will expects to further boost extend existing investments.
efficiency when it incorporates cell-phone
services into the unified messaging solution. In addition, the Exchange Server unified
“We’re looking at strategies right now for messaging solution is part of the larger
merging our cell-phone mailboxes so that communication and collaboration vision from
people have a single mailbox for all of their Microsoft, delivered in the Enterprise CAL
messaging,” explains Nitzsche. Suite. Deploying Exchange Server 2007 and
unified messaging was one step toward
Simplifies System Administration realizing this vision. Perkins+Will has taken
Relying on a PBX voice-mail system requires other steps as well by deploying System
additional expertise and administrative tools. Center Operations Manager 2007 and
Conversely, the unified messaging Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange
environment on Exchange Server 2007 Server. Over the next two years, the company
makes use of the company’s existing will be deploying Microsoft Office
knowledge base and Microsoft system Communications Server 2007, Office
management tools such as Operations SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft System
Manager. Center Configuration Manager 2007, and
Windows® Rights Management Services.
“Once we overcame the initial challenges of
deploying the system,” says Fait, “our unified “Convergence is the key driver behind our
messaging solution has been rock solid. The migration to Exchange Server 2007,”
members of our infrastructure team have concludes Nitzsche. “Because that means
found it much easier to understand than our there are fewer moving parts to deal with,
PBX system. Exchange Server 2007 is and employees can focus more on their work
transparent and built on industry standards, and less on their computing environment.
so we don’t need to call a consultant We’re looking for simplification, so we can
whenever we encounter even the smallest of make life better for our employees. And we’re
problems. I give a lot of credit to Forrest looking for value, meaning more functionality,
McDuffie at PLA for his explanation of how better ease of use, and less cost. By
our new system works so we can monitor for, deploying the Enterprise CAL Suite, we get
and troubleshoot, any issues.” more choices and a lot of other benefits—and
that’s where the value really starts to show
Boosts Collaboration itself.”

For More Information
For 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 who are deaf or
hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text
telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800)
892-5234 in the United States or (905)
568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50
United States and Canada, please contact Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access For more information about the Microsoft
information using the World Wide Web, go server product portfolio, go to:
to: www.microsoft.com www.microsoft.com/servers

For more information about Project For more information about Microsoft
Leadership Associates products and Exchange Server, go to:
services, call (312) 441-0077 or visit the www.microsoft.com/exchange
Web site at:
www.projectleadership.net

For more information about Enabling
Technologies products and services, call
(800) 923-4310 or visit the Web site at:
www.enablingtechcorp.com

For more information about Perkins+Will
products and services, call (312)
755-0770 or visit the Web site at:
www.perkinswill.com

Software and Services  Technologies
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Active Directory
− Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise − Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access
x64 Edition − Windows PowerShell
− Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Enterprise Edition Hardware
− Microsoft System Center Operations  3 IBM x3650 rack-mount server computers
Manager 2007  Dialogic 2030 Media Gateway
 Microsoft Office
− Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Partners
− Microsoft Office Professional 2007  Project Leadership Associates
 Enabling Technologies

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

Document published June 2007

Perkins+Will Exchange Final

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