Microsoft Of M ffice System m C Customer Solution Case Study

Craft Bre C ewer Stan ndardizes s on Micr rosoft T Technolo ogies to Reap R Inte egration Benefits

Ove erview
Cou untry or Region: United States Industry: Manufac cturingConsum mer ducts prod stomer Profile Cus New w Belgium Brewin ng is a premier craft c brew wery located in Fort F Collins, Colo orado. The companys 280 employees prod duce gian-style ales fo or distribution ac cross Belg the United U States. siness Situat tion Bus New w Belgium wante ed to gain better insight into its business info ormation, simpli ify its IT m better use of o its environment, and make hnology investme ents. tech Solution h the help of 3t Systems, S New Be elgium With migr rated from a Nov vell-based netwo ork and e-ma ail system to an infrastructure based b on Microsoft M technologies. nefits Ben En nhanced integra ation and in nteroperability Si implified IT adm ministration, mini imized su upport More M time for stra ategic work Be etter business in nsight

With a Microsoft-b M based inf frastructure, we sh hould s spend les ss time try ying to make thing gs work to ogether a more and e time tak king advantage of our IT i investme nts.
J Richardson, Director Jay D of Information Technology y, New Belgium Brewing

New Belgium N m Brewing, a Colorado o-based craf ft brewery with w origins i the Belgia in an style of ale a making, , has grown steadily fro om a h home-based d operation to a thriving company with distrib butors a across the western w United States. The compa any was usin ng a N Novell-base d networkin ng and e-ma ail system, which w it found i increasingly y challengin ng to integra ate with its business b an nd IT a applications s from other vendors. As A a result, the t compan ny decided t standardize on Micro to osoft techn nologies, mi igrating to Active A D Directory , Microsoft M Ex xchange Server 2007, and a the 200 07 M Microsoft Of ffice system m. With this new IT infra astructure, New B Belgium ant ticipates a significant s r reduction in n time spent t a administeri ng its IT env vironment and a a greatly improved ability to c capitalize on its wealth h of business informatio on to drive its i o operations f forward.

It required an increasing amount of energy to achieve basic integration between our business applications and our Novell environment. And there were some features we just couldnt take advantage of at all.
Jay Richardson, Director of Information Technology, New Belgium Brewing Company

Situation
Inspired by Belgian brewers during a European bike trip, Jeff Lebesch returned to the United States, set up a homebrew operation in the basement of his Colorado home, and started producing Belgian-style ales. In 1991, this basement operation became New Belgium Brewing, perhaps best known for its popular Fat Tire Amber Ale. Over the past 16 years, the homebrew operation has grown to become the third largest craft brewer in the United States. For the past 10 years, the company used a Novell-based directory, file, print, and e-mail system, primarily to share files and documents among employees and to communicate through e-mail. For some time, this infrastructure sufficiently served the brewerys needs. New Belgiums Director of Information Technology, Jay Richardson, says, Early on, the company primarily needed a way to share files and communicate electronically. Most of the files it produced were created in Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office 2003 desktop software. But in 2003, leaders at New Belgium decided that the company needed to make better use of its wealth of business information. New Belgium uses Microsoft Dynamics GP business software to manage financial information and a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database to store and analyze this information. We had been using Microsoft Dynamics GP primarily for finance and accounting purposes, says Richardson. But with the data being housed in a SQL Server database, we knew there was much more we could do to improve our insight into the business. To achieve better business insight, the company identified and, in 2004, embarked on an IT road map covering three key projects: Tapping into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 Implementing a third-party sales analysis and forecasting application Implementing a third-party manufacturing execution system (MES)

Richardson explains that it required an increasing amount of energy to achieve basic integration between our business applications and our Novell environment. And there were some features we just couldnt take advantage of at all. Managers and sales staff also experienced challenges in synchronizing information from Novell GroupWise with their personal digital assistants. With some effort, a basic level of synchronization was achieved. But we knew a higher degree of functionality was available, says Richardson. New Belgium also uses a portal solution that presented some integration hurdles. Richardson says, We have a growing amount of customer and financial data in our databases, and weve begun relying on SQL Server Reporting Services to make this data available. While weve successfully published some of these reports to Web pages within the portal, the effort required to accomplish this seemed more than what should be necessary. Also, offering customized forms within the portalsuch as a salary-change approval form used by supervisors to request pay increases for direct reportsrequired handson, time-consuming involvement from IT. The database administrator from New Belgiums IT team created the form, and other forms as well, using the Perl programming language. We have a handful of custom-built forms in our portal, says Richardson, and theyre cumbersome to support. To modify a form, a

The enhanced With a Microsoft-based infrastructure, integration between we should spend SharePoint Server less time 2007 trying and SQL to make Serverthings 2005 work will allow together us toand report more time on any taking information advantage of our IT within our investments. databases and make it accessible Jay Richardson, Director of Information Technology, New Belgium Brewing Company on context-sensitive Web pages.
Jay Richardson, Director of Information Technology, New Belgium Brewing Company

coworker has to call IT, make the request, and wait for the change to be implemented. For IT support and administration tasks, New Belgium uses a third-party solution that also had limitations in integrating with Novell, resulting in the IT team using only half of the products capabilities. Richardson adds, New Belgium is in the business of making and selling beer. Spending more and more time getting our systems to work together was starting to take away from enabling desired business outcomes. In order to overcome these challenges, Richardson says, The company needed an IT infrastructure to support an expanding business application environment that was integrated and robust enough to drive decisions in a timely fashion.

is considering a plan to use InfoPath Forms Services, a feature of Office SharePoint Server 2007, to enable employees to create their own forms, without help from IT, within SharePoint Server 2007 portal sites. The final element of this new, highly integrated infrastructure is Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007which extends the integration benefits of Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007. Change is always a risk, says Richardson, but we felt that with the proper preparation, the 2007 Office release would be beneficial to our employees. To migrate from the Novell environment to Exchange Server 2007, New Belgium first simulated an Exchange Server 2007 environment in a test lab and conducted about a months worth of proof-of-concept testing. During this time, 3t Systems helped New Belgium move from the Novell Directory Services (NDS) to the Active Directory directory service. The team implemented Active Directorybased domain controllers in a newly configured VMware environment and Exchange Server 2007 on a Dell PowerEdge 1950 server computer. Based on our previous successful migrations from Novell to Exchange Server 2007, we were confident that we could complete the migration over the course of a weekend, says Ken Lang, Senior Consultant at 3t Systems. This meant that New Belgium wouldnt have to support coexisting systems for any amount of time. The migration was completed as planned: Exchange Server 2007 was deployed to 280 employees over the course of one weekend in late July 2007. On Friday afternoon, our coworkers closed their GroupWise clients before going home, and come Monday morning, they were opening Outlook or Outlook Web Access, says Richardson. 3t Systems used tools from Quest Software,

Solution
To implement such an infrastructure, New Belgium enlisted the help of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner 3t Systems. Based in Denver, Colorado, 3t Systems is an IT consulting firm that provides strategic business and technology consulting. Travis Hevelone, Practice Director at 3t Systems, says, Our goal was to help New Belgium increase the amount of IT focus on businessenabling work by providing a simplified, reliable, and scalable IT infrastructure. After careful analysis, New Belgium decided that Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 would integrate better with its primary business applications, including its sales analysis and forecasting application and its MES. The company also decided to enhance its existing portal solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for more flexibility and improved access to data. The enhanced integration between SharePoint Server 2007 and SQL Server 2005 will allow us to report on any information within our databases and make it accessible on context-sensitive Web pages, says Richardson. The company also

also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to complete the migration from NDS to Active Directory and from GroupWise to Exchange Server 2007. Additionally, New Belgium deployed Office Professional Plus 2007 to 230 desktop and portable computers. Because New Belgiums employees relied on the built-in instant messaging (IM) functionality of GroupWise, the company also implemented Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. The companys geographically dispersed sales force, referred to as Beer Rangers, work from their home offices across the country. The Beer Rangers are some of the companys heaviest IM users, communicating frequently with each other and with sales support staff at company headquarters. IM has become an important tool for many of our coworkers. We wanted to have that functionality available right away, says Richardson. Future plans for New Belgium include implementing the Exchange Server 2007 Edge Transport server role for enhanced network security, and the Unified Messaging server role, which manages asynchronous communications such as e-mail, voice mail, faxes, and calendaring and delivers these communications to the users Inbox in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 messaging and collaboration client. The company also plans to upgrade to an IP-based telephony system from Cisco Systems, to implement Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and to upgrade to Office Communicator 2007. With this new environment, employees will be able to make voice over IP phone calls from the Office Communicator unified communications client and IP phones; take advantage of advanced presence capabilities, which participate in IM sessions; and easily transition to Web conferencing, complete with audio and video capabilities.

Finally, New Belgium is conducting a pilot of Office SharePoint Server 2007 in which coworker information will be shared using People Search and My Site functionality. Business analysts will publish information from Microsoft Dynamics GP and the companys other databases to Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites using SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services, and project teams will experiment with team workspaces as a way to improve project organization and timeliness.

Benefits
By migrating from Novell and standardizing on Microsoft technologies, New Belgium anticipates streamlined IT administration and minimized support, and it expects to see employees spending more time focusing on value-adding work. It also believes that this new, more integrated IT environment will give the company better insight into business information to achieve a higher level of flexibility and customer responsiveness. Enhanced Integration and Interoperability Through its implementation of Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and the 2007 Office system, New Belgium anticipates making better use of valuable, preexisting elements of its IT infrastructure. Because Office SharePoint Server 2007 makes it easier to expose unified and integrated views of data from SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services reports and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, the company will be better able to take advantage of the full range of ERP capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Additionally, the enhanced interoperability between the Microsoft-based environment and the companys business and IT applications will make it much easier for

Weve had a positive response to Microsoft Office 2007, especially Office Outlook 2007. In particular, the To-Do Bar gets the highest marks, as it provides a consolidated view of a users calendar, appointments, tasks, and flagged mail.
Jay Richardson, Director of Information Technology, New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium to manage and capitalize on these systems. With a Microsoft-based infrastructure, we should spend less time trying to make things work together and more time taking advantage of our IT investments, says Richardson. Simplified IT Administration and Support The improved integration means a simpler, streamlined IT infrastructure with fewer compatibility issues. IT should spend less time answering e-mail messages about things not working, and more time sending e-mails containing tips and tricks on how to best use the capabilities and features of our new tools, Richardson predicts. Many tasks, such as creating and updating forms, or accessing business data from Microsoft Dynamics GP and SQL Server should eventually require little to no IT intervention. He also says that challenges such as mobile device synchronization with GroupWise will be eliminated, reducing help desk call volume. With Office Outlook 2007 and Windows Mobile, synchronization just works, says Richardson. Smartphone users will have access to all of their e-mail, contacts, and calendar information wherever they are. Were recommending that our senior managers move to Windows Mobile immediately to take advantage of this ease of use. More Time for Strategic Work Although improving employee productivity wasnt the primary driver behind this migration, Richardson believes coworkers will feel more productive using the 2007 Office system. Weve had a positive response to Microsoft Office 2007, especially Office Outlook 2007, he says. In particular, the To-Do Bar gets the highest marks, as it provides a consolidated view of a users calendar, appointments, tasks, and flagged mail.

More importantly, Richardson says that the new programs will allow employees to focus on valuable work. He cites various features and capabilities of Office SharePoint Server 2007such as simplified collaboration, realtime presence features such as icons that tell when a user is online and available, and enterprise search functionalityas tools that streamline daily tasks, giving people more time to focus on important issues. Until now, weve really just stumbled along in the realm of collaboration. Were looking forward to using SharePoint Server 2007 to keep projects organized, keep people informed, have one place to go to find information, and with the presence features, see whos online in the workspace and be able to communicate and get questions answered immediately, says Richardson. Office Communicator 2007 will also create newfound efficiencies by simplifying collaboration. The capabilities of Communicator 2007 are so far beyond what people were used to in GroupWise. Theyll be able to transfer files, make phone calls, share applicationsits much more than just IM, says Richardson. Better Business Insight New Belgium expects to gain better insight into its business with Exchange Server 2007 and the 2007 Office system. It plans to use Office SharePoint Server 2007 team workspaces to improve collaboration on projects and keep team members better informed throughout the process. In addition, Excel Services will make it easy to use workbooks created in Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet software within SharePoint sites using only a browser. This capability, along with dashboards and other business intelligence features will enable the company to easily work with the information in its Microsoft Dynamics GPbased database through SharePoint 2007. These

We want to be able to continue to grow while keeping the business as flexible and agile as possible. To achieve this, our business applications must also be flexible and integratedthus, our move to a Microsoftbased infrastructure.
Jay Richardson, Director of Information Technology, New Belgium Brewing Company

tools will deliver instant insight into inventory levels and other manufacturing and sales variables. The integration of Microsoft Dynamics GP and Office SharePoint Server 2007 also allows stakeholders to access documents and information through personalized portals based on the role and needs of each individual. For example, says Richardson, well be able to populate a context-sensitive SharePoint Server site thats just for inventory managers, with graphs and other information relevant to them. That way, we wont have to grant them access to each individual business system to find inventory information. Also, this will give coworkers working remotely easy, Web-based access to this information. Additionally, New Belgium will be able to capitalize on the enterprise search capabilities of Office SharePoint Server 2007, which gives users the ability to find information in many different formats and repositories. Weve never had companywide search capabilities before. SharePoint Server 2007 should be great for us, says Richardson. As a company, Richardson continues, we want to be able to continue to grow while still holding on to the roots of our culture. This means keeping the business as flexible and agile as possible in order to remain responsive to customers and market conditions. To achieve this, our business applications must also be flexible and integratedthus, our move to a Microsoftbased infrastructure.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing 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 your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about 3t Systems products and services, call (800) 4437404 or visit the Web site at: www.3tsystems.com For more information about New Belgium Brewing products and services, call (888) NBB - 4044 or visit the Web site at: www.newbelgium.com

Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office system is the business worlds chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact. For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

Software and Services

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Solutions Office Business Applications Technologies Active Directory

Hardware
Dell Latitude portable computers Dell PowerEdge server computers LeftHand Networks SAN Dell OptiPlex desktop computers IBM BladeCenter chassis and server computers

Partner

3t Systems

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published October 2007