Harte-Hanks Cuts Email Costs 30 Percent by Moving to Microsoft Online Services

Companies of all sizes, all around the world are making the move to cloud computing, capitalizing on the immense benefits that it has to offer. Today we hear from Harte-Hanks regarding why Microsoft was the best decision for their business in moving away from Lotus Notes to embrace cloud computing!

“Time that our IT staff used to focus on email can now be refocused on supporting resources that drive revenue. We like the fact that managing email infrastructure is now someone else’s responsibility.” Robert Neill Vice President, Corporate Technology Services, Harte-Hanks

Harte Hanks

Harte-Hanks is a worldwide marketing company serving consumer and business-to-business marketers. The company provides multichannel, direct and digital marketing solutions as well as shopper advertising opportunities to local, regional, national, and international clients.  Based in San Antonio, Texas, Harte-Hanks has 4,000 information worker employees and 1,000 production employees in more than 30 offices worldwide.

IT Challenges

Harte-Hanks used the same email messaging software for many years. However, with numerous clusters of mail servers around the world, two administrators devoted to email administration, and remote-office personnel spending considerable time supporting email infrastructure, the company was concerned about rising costs. Additionally, many employees were more familiar and experienced with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server than they were with the existing messaging solution. Also, productivity functions such as instant messaging and video conferencing were not part of the existing solution, so Harte-Hanks provided them as separate applications.

“For at least five years, we had discussions about potentially switching to a new email platform, but it required significant financial commitment, and we couldn’t justify bringing in a brand new email infrastructure,” says Robert Neill, Vice President of Corporate Technology Services for Harte-Hanks

Solution

Harte-Hanks learned about the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite from its local Microsoft account team. The suite includes Microsoft Exchange Online messaging software, Microsoft SharePoint Online collaboration software, Microsoft Office Live Meeting for PC-based web conferencing, and Microsoft Office Communications Online for instant messaging.

Harte-Hanks decided to run a pilot test of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, a part of Microsoft Online Services, alongside other cloud-based email solutions providing similar functionality. Using a pilot group of 40 users, mostly in the IT organization, Harte-Hanks tested basic email functions including scheduling meetings, creating collaboration sites, checking email and calendars from smartphones, and other functions. It ultimately decided on Microsoft Online Services.

To obtain help in migrating to Microsoft Online Services, Harte-Hanks engaged Binary Tree, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a finalist for the 2010 Microsoft Notes Migration Partner of the Year Award. “Binary Tree provided Harte-Hanks with a hosted migration of user mailboxes and messaging data, so onsite consulting was not needed. We did everything remotely,” says Colleena Jazrawi, Senior Account Manager for Binary Tree. “We first performed an analysis of the Harte-Hanks environment to see if there was anything that would impact the migration. Then we successfully migrated the email messages, calendars, contacts, and to-do lists for their 4,000 users in just two weekends via our remote migration data center.”

Benefits

Today, all 4,000 information workers at Harte-Hanks use Microsoft Exchange Online for email messaging. The company also purchased 1,400 licenses of the deskless worker version of Exchange Online for its production workers. They can access email, calendars, and contacts using Outlook Web App, a feature of Microsoft Exchange Server that provides web-based email access. With Exchange Online, employees have easier, faster web access to their email using the familiar Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 messaging and communications client.

”Microsoft Online Services really expanded the array of mobile devices our staff could use,” Neill says. “Our employees have remote and on-the-go access to mail, calendars, contacts, and the company directory. This boosts productivity since such a significant percentage of our employees are on the road consulting with clients.”

By migrating to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, Harte-Hanks reduced its messaging costs by approximately 30 percent, freed up IT staff time, which can now be spent on creating and supporting revenue-producing services, and improved responsiveness to customers. It also outfitted its 4,000 information workers with a wider range of communications options.

One of the most appealing aspects of moving messaging into the cloud is that Harte-Hanks can get out of the email administration business. The IT staff no longer has to worry about keeping server hardware up-to-date, applying security updates, and deploying new messaging servers. “We are a marketing solutions company, and now we can focus our energies on what we do best,” Neill says.

Read the full case study.