1. Microsoft Office Live Meeting
Customer Solution Case Study
Raymond James Saves Money While
Continuing Enhanced Customer Service
Overview “Recently, a client was traveling in Asia on extended
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Financial services
vacation. Office Live Meeting allowed the financial
advisor to connect with him and review his portfolio as
Customer Profile
Raymond James Financial (NYSE-RJF) is a
if they were sitting in the same office.”
Florida-based diversified holding company Rob Schwartzberg, Technology Product Manager, Raymond James Financial
providing financial services to individuals,
corporations, and municipalities through its Raymond James Financial is a leading financial services company
subsidiary companies.
with more than 4,600 financial advisors providing services from
Business Situation 2,200 locations throughout the world. Part of its success depends
Raymond James needed to provide
employees across the globe with audio and upon its advisors’ ability to provide personalized one-on-one service
video conferencing and collaborative to each of their clients. Raymond James needed a communications
document sharing.
solution that would permit it to provide this individualized service
Solution regardless of the physical location of the advisors or clients. The
Raymond James is implementing
Microsoft® Office Live Meeting as a fully company adopted Microsoft® Office Live Meeting, taking advantage
integrated communications system of its fully integrated audio and video solutions. Raymond James
throughout its offices and affiliates.
continues to provide enhanced client service and enjoys increased
Benefits collaboration with its offices and affiliates worldwide.
 Enhances customer service
 Advances office communications
 Saves time and money
 Increases environmental conservation
 Adds a competitive recruitment tool

2. “Office Live Meeting will Situation collaborative document sharing. “We have
Florida-based Raymond James Financial offices all over the world. We were looking for
provide a total provides financial services for a multitude of a way to build the relationships between our
communications entities throughout the world. It manages in home office, second office, and branches,”
excess of U.S$35.4 billion dollars for says Rob Schwartzberg, Technology Product
solution that should individuals, pension plans, and Manager, Raymond James Financial.
help us save money municipalities. It currently has more than
4,600 financial advisors providing services at Solution
through reduced travel 2,200 locations throughout the United States In February 2006, Raymond James
costs both domestically and internationally. considered Microsoft Office Live Meeting
(2005) along with competing products such
and overseas.” Because the company is known for providing as WebEx, GoToMeeting, and more specific
Rob Schwartzberg, Technology Product “Individual Solutions from Independent solutions such as software-based and
Manager, Raymond James Financial Advisors,” it relies heavily on travel and face- hardware-based dedicated conferencing
to-face meetings to provide these services, systems. It chose Office Live Meeting
and sometimes logistics make these because of its ability to integrate well with the
meetings very difficult. Raymond James’ Microsoft Office system, its easy
financial advisors and employees wanted a implementation, simple licensing, and
better way to provide clients this same level corresponding cost savings. Raymond James
of personalized services remotely. then performed a targeted deployment
primarily in its IT department prior to the
Raymond James also wanted to enhance its arrival of Office Live Meeting (2007).
communications effortlessly, seamlessly, and
accurately between its two main offices—its In June 2007, Raymond James implemented
headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Office Live Meeting (2007) in various offices/
corporate location in Southfield, Michigan. departments. The company can use it to run
Because the distance makes interoffice interactive, collaborative meetings and
communications more challenging, the firm presentations with anyone from anywhere
wanted a solution to reduce some travel while producing high-fidelity recordings of the
without affecting the development of its meetings for future use by employees. There
current employee relationships and are currently 151 originators taking
productivity. advantage of Office Live Meeting throughout
the company. These users are located in
To fulfill both the office and client more than 15 offices and performed more
communications needs, Raymond James was than 232 total meeting sessions in July
using a variety of products, including a mix of 2007. Users may alternate control of
Microsoft® NetMeeting® conferencing documents used during the meeting and
software and a dedicated hardware-based essentially give presentations in tandem.
conferencing system supplemented with a Additionally, originators may send an
custom-framed plug-in to deliver the video invitation to meeting attendees giving them
conferencing. Raymond James wanted a all necessary information to participate in the
more comprehensive communications meeting. The attendees need only internet
solution that would provide audio, video, and access. By October 2007, Raymond James

3. “With Office Live plans to have the desktop client on all its in our Michigan and Florida offices, but we
workstations. It will be able to run generally have someone who is traveling who
Meeting, we can set up collaborative meetings effectively with every needs to attend. Office Live Meeting allows
a session with our one of its branches, affiliates, and them to participate as if they were present,”
subsidiaries worldwide. says Schwartzberg. Employees increase their
technical staff, thereby productivity with the enhanced
saving money and communications features in Office Live
Meeting.
avoiding an on-site Benefits
vendor meeting.” Raymond James has enhanced client service, Raymond James was able to bridge the
increased employee collaboration and saved distance between its headquarters in Florida
Rob Schwartzberg, Technology Product time and money with Office Live Meeting. and its second corporate location in Michigan
Manager, Raymond James Financial and give its employees face-to-face
Enhances Client Service interaction without actual travel. “Using Office
Raymond James prides itself on providing Live Meeting gives the Southfield, Michigan,
personalized service. With Office Live associates the feeling that they are part of
Meeting, advisors can meet with clients more our headquarters,” says Schwartzberg. Also,
frequently, continuing to provide them with should some employees be unable to make a
personalized service. Sometimes a client is meeting, they can take advantage of the
unable to come into the office, but a phone recording ability in Office Live Meeting
call will simply not provide enough without installing any additional software.
information or the level of personal service “The product is good because they can view it
the client has come to expect from Raymond when it is most convenient. They don’t need
James advisors. Office Live Meeting improves any special players or viewers to do it. It
communications by providing clients— integrates directly into the rest of our
regardless of where they are—instant, desktop,” says Schwartzberg.
personal access to their financial advisors,
without requiring them to obtain additional The ability to review new products and
software. “Recently, a client was traveling in provide comprehensive presentations to
Asia on extended vacation. Office Live branch offices has been important too,
Meeting allowed his financial advisor to especially when there needs to be more than
connect with him and go over his portfolio as one presenter. Using Office Live Meeting,
if they were sitting in the same office,” says presenters can switch control of the desktop
Schwartzberg. to provide the necessary visual cues. “We’ve
had a remote financial advisor and someone
Advances Office Communications from our home office give a joint
Meetings using Office Live Meeting are presentation. This would have been
interactive and make possible the sharing of impossible using our previous system,” says
documents and instant collaboration. Schwartzberg. Employees can use Office Live
Raymond James has more than 2,200 Meeting to conduct multipoint video
branch offices and many mobile financial conversations—an important feature for
advisors. “Every Friday we have an IT Raymond James.
management meeting, run by our CIO. It’s run

4. “We love Office Live Meeting. Everyone I show Less use of common forms of transportation
it to absolutely raves about it,” says (for example, airplanes, cars, and trains) will
Schwartzberg. result in decreased environmental strain and
related cost savings.
Saves Time and Money
Employees can use Office Live Meeting to In addition, the company’s branch offices will
improve collaboration and reduce the time not have to worry about missing important
needed to finish documents that require meeting documents or receiving unnecessary
multiple reviews. “The software allows people paperwork for those meetings. With Office
to collaborate on a document at the same Live Meeting, the attendees are now in
time, resulting in a lot less necessary rework. control. They can choose to print out relevant
Everybody works together instead of having parts of a presentation or simply save a local
to work in shifts,” says Schwartzberg. copy of the handouts that result from the
meeting. The result is less use of paper and
Financial advisors and many employees of saved costs.
Raymond James travel extensively throughout
the world to provide personalized client Adds a Comp etitive Recruitment Tool
service and keep their interoffice The ability to recruit and retain successful
communications optimized. While important, advisors is essential to the success of
this is expensive and time-consuming. “Office Raymond James. By offering Office Live
Live Meeting will provide a total Meeting as a communications tool to its
communications solution that should help us advisors, Raymond James gives them the
save money through reduced travel costs ability to provide face-to-face service when a
both domestically and overseas,” says physical meeting is impossible. In addition,
Schwartzberg. the relationship between Raymond James
and its advisors is highly supportive. “We
Raymond James engages thousands of have a one-on-one relationship with every
vendors. These vendors generally must one of our financial advisors. Having Office
provide support and training for their Live Meeting makes it easier for us to
products. This used to involve travel and on- maintain those relationships. We can
site meetings. “With Office Live Meeting, we communicate with them, share things with
can set up a session with our technical staff, them, and do it on a much more frequent
thereby saving money and avoiding an on-site basis,” says Schwartzberg.
vendor meeting,” says Schwartzberg.
Moreover, much internal training regarding “Live Meeting will help us in our recruitment
new systems within Raymond James is being efforts because it provides advisors with
performed using Office Live Meeting. increased independence and connectivity at
the same time. It gives them the best of both
Increases Environmental Conservation worlds. They love it because it lets them get
People can use Office Live Meeting to provide in contact with their clients when occasionally
personalized communication that in the past it might be very difficult,” says Schwartzberg.
could only be matched by actually traveling to
meet with a colleague, client, or partner.

5. Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office system is the business
world’s 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

6. 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
your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access
information using the World Wide Web, go
to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Raymond
James Financial products and services, call
(727) 567-1000 or visit the Web site at:
www.raymondjames.com
Software and Services
 Microsoft Office
− Microsoft Office Live Meeting
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published September 2007