Intergen's newsletter, Smarts, now available for online reading. Intergen provides information technology solutions across Australia, New Zealand and the world based exclusively on Microsoft’s tools and technologies.

1. < Copyright 2009 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Intergen Limited >
SHAREPOINT SHOWCASE >> 6
NEW PARTNERSHIPS >> 7
CRM SHOWCASE >> 8
MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES >> 9
THE VALUE OF SEARCH >>10
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN >> 11
TOUCH COMPUTING >> 12
>> HOT NEWS:
INTERGENITE PHOTO GALLERY >> 2
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPERS
CONFERENCE 3
INTRODUCING SHAREPOINT 2010 >> 4
As another eventful year comes to a
close, and with our longstanding SMARTS
newsletter turning 21, it’s worthwhile
looking at some of the recent highlights
about how we are engaging with the wider
world as we all look forward to 2010.
Events are a key way for us to engage with
the Microsoft community. We were larger
than life at Microsoft TechEd in Auckland
again this year, running the Hands on Labs
for the fourth year in a row. It is great to be able to share our enthusiasm for
recent Microsoft releases and give people the opportunity to gain skills and
experience the latest software firsthand.
During October we ran Dynamics Day, our own two-day conference for users
of Microsoft Dynamics applications. Due to the success of the event, plans for
Dynamics Day 2010 are already underway.
Internationally we have also been involved in several key conferences and
projects. We developed a lot of the content for the Microsoft SharePoint
Conference held in Las Vegas and our one and only Chris Auld presented a
session in front of the international audience. We have been doing a lot of
work lately for Microsoft around their new technologies and new releases.
SMARTS turns
This work has led to us helping to develop
one of the keynote demonstrations
for Microsoft’s premiere developer
event, PDC09 (Professional Developer
Conference 2009), in Los Angeles in
mid November. It is a huge thrill to see
things we’ve done on display in front of
thousands of our peers.
But it has not all been conferences and
beta software. We have continued to
execute on our strategy, and have been
working hard to improve our capability
and capacity within our Managed
Services team in order to continue to
offer you the best support possible for your solutions.
Our goal, and our main focus, is to ensure that you receive maximum return
on your investments in IT solutions. One way we can help with this is to
ensure that the Application Support and Maintenance services you receive
from us are top quality, proactive and that we are always easy to deal with.
Our recently introduced role of Client Service Manager within Managed
Services aims to provide you with a dedicated person who understands and
supports your business from day one.
As this will be the last issue of SMARTS for 2009, on behalf of all the staff
at Intergen, I would like to extend best wishes to you and your family for the
holiday season and look forward to working with you in 2010.
>> T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M AG A Z I N E I S S U E 21
>>
tony.stewart@intergen.co.nz
Intergen creates the Fastest Ticketing
System in the World
We’ve all experienced frustration with online
ticket purchasing – overloaded, crashing sites
and missing out on a ticket regardless of being
up at the crack of dawn to book. Thanks to the
scale and elasticity of the cloud, this is soon to
be a thing of the past. Built on Windows Azure
technology, the world first TicketDirect preview
site has met with international acclaim. Watch
out for the new site in early 2010.
www.ticketdirect.co.nz

2. >>2 >> I N T E R G E N I T E P H O T O G A L L E R Y < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
Hard rock, surfboards, moustaches, strawberries and
chicken challenges (and who said life was boring?)
Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and you
might not be surprised to hear we’ve been busy
mixing things up – when we’ve been away from
our computers, that is.
We’ve grown moustaches for Movember. We’ve celebrated Intergen’s annual
Rocktober celebration with our very own Golden Axes providing some very loud
entertainment. We’ve picked up an award or two, hosted international speakers,
brought IT to the world... and that’s all just since the last instalment of SMARTS.
From TechEd to the Microsoft Partner Awards, where we received the Microsoft
Partner Award for Enterprise Content Management, to the immensely popular
inaugural Intergen Dynamics Day (see sidebar), we’ve all of a sudden found
ourselves at the end of the year and wondering where the months have gone.
So here’s a flavour of what we’ve been up to, in pictures.
Intergen Dynamics Day 09
– the start of something
Recognising the market popularity of
Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM products,
and with a 40-strong team of Dynamics
professionals on the Intergen team, we
decided to host a conference in the name
of Microsoft Dynamics and bring together
existing and future users for a one and a
half day event in Wellington for a mixture
of networking, one-on-ones, Q&As and
education. With three streams comprising
more than 20 Intergen speaker slots, a
number of trusty clients on the agenda
speaking from their personal experience,
and with six key sponsors, we knew the
event would pack a punch. But even we
were surprised by a full house – more than
a hundred people, with standing room only
at the keynote, presented by Microsoft’s
Sandie Overtveld, Microsoft’s Director, Asia
Pacific ERP Partners.
The success of the event means only one thing:
there will be an Intergen Dynamics Day ’10.
And while we’re talking about news on
the Dynamics front, Intergen has recently
been named New Zealand’s only member of
Microsoft’s AxPact, a world-wide affiliation
of leading Dynamics AX partners.
Intergenites bring a touch of yellow to the
Mary Potter Hospice Annual Appeal
Intergenites get tropical at Intergen’s Surf Patrol
at this year’s TechEd
Intergen’s Rocktober festivities, featuring compères Wayne and Garth
(aka Bruce Smith and Wayne Forgesson)
arth
I
M
Intergen accepts award at Microsoft PartnerAwards: Brent Colbert (Microsoft), WayneForgesson, Tony Stewart, Kevin Ackhurst(Microsoft) Rex Wessels in Chicken Challenge
headgear at this year’s Dynamics Day.

3. >>3>> P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P E R S CO N F E R E N C E < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
When Microsoft decided on a motorsport themed
demonstration for the keynote at this year’s
Professional Developers Conference (PDC) it was
all but inevitable that they’d come to Intergen.
With deep SharePoint 2010 knowledge, a proven track record of shipping
under tight deadlines – and our very own race car – we had all the attributes to
deliver something great. A broad team of Wellington-based Intergenites worked
long hours to design and build the ‘Blue Yonder Airlines Racing’ team site in
SharePoint 2010. Working closely with the Microsoft SharePoint product group
and a US-based partner we built a site that combines many of the key features
of SharePoint 2010 with rich Silverlight visualisation and Windows Azure. The
demonstration featured the Intergen Motorsport RX7 rebranded for Blue Yonder
Airlines and includes real in car video and vehicle telemetry.
Wanted: Microsoft SharePoint Experts
with in-house motor racing team
SharePoint wasn’t the only place where Intergen shone at PDC. The Microsoft
Dynamics CRM team took the covers off the forthcoming CRM 5 release and
showed the Intergen-built ‘The Phone Company’ demonstration application
that features CRM 5 coupled with ASP.NET, Windows Azure and Silverlight in
a full xRM customer service and logistics scenario. Please get in touch if you
would like to schedule an early briefing on CRM 5.
PDC also signified the ‘Go Live’ date for the Windows Azure Platform. I
delivered a full day Azure Architecture workshop to over 300 attendees to
share many of the extensive Azure best practices that we’ve developed at
Intergen over the past 18 months. We also unveiled an early preview of a
new Azure-based application for TicketDirect. If you’re a sports or culture
fan then TicketDirect will be a familiar name – their software drove 45% of
professionally ticketed events in New Zealand this year. Ticketing really is the
canonical Cloud application – the ability to add more computing capacity on
Chris Auld is Intergen’s Director of Strategy and Innovation.
demand means that mornings of frustration
trying to buy tickets for a big event will
soon be a thing of the past. TicketDirect is
a wholly New Zealand owned company and
we’re excited to be helping them innovate
and take on the multinationals.
If you’d like to discuss anything that
was announced by Microsoft at the PDC
Conference please do feel free to get in
touch with either myself or your Business
Development Manager.
chris.auld@intergen.co.nz
TicketDirect: Fastest Ticketing System in the WorldKeynote demo: Blue Yonder Airlines Racing
Demo launching CRM 5: The Phone Company

4. >>4 >> I N T R O D U C I N G S H A R E P O I N T 2 010 < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
Mark Orange is the Practice Principal for Intergen’s
Portals, Content and Collaboration team.
People of Europe once said, “All roads lead
to Rome!” People working with Microsoft
technologies can now say, “All roads lead to
SharePoint!”
I’ve had some time to reflect now since the Microsoft SharePoint Conference,
held in Las Vegas earlier this year. While I’m excited about the new and
improved features that I’ve seen, it’s this sense of being at the epicentre
of tomorrow’s Microsoft business solutions that has really stood out to me.
Whether it’s business intelligence with PerformancePoint Services, customer
management with Dynamics CRM, procurement with Dynamics AX, it’s
happening in, on and through SharePoint. If you are managing Office files,
publishing an internet site, enabling social networking, interacting with
data from SAP, publishing reports over your data warehouse, orchestrating
business processes, you can do it leveraging SharePoint. And whether it’s
on-premise or in the cloud it all happens on, in and through SharePoint. And
the new version being released next year makes it all easier for everyone:
end users, power users, knowledge managers, developers and system
administrators.
Introducing SharePoint 2010
Power users are empowered through
improved tooling in SharePoint
Designer 2010 and InfoPath 2010. As
a small example, SharePoint Designer
workflows can now be configured and
published for use on many lists, a
personal point of frustration for me
with 2007. InfoPath, combined with
the new Business Connectivity Services
(BCS), allows rapid development of
more complex forms that can read and
write to line of business applications.
Ribbon Interface
End users get a range of social networking features and a new user interface
that introduces the contextual Ribbon, providing a consistent editing
experience across all the Office clients and Office web applications. Speaking
of Office web applications, these are now baked into SharePoint so users
can open and view Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel
spreadsheets directly in the browser within SharePoint regardless of whether
they have the Office desktop installed or not. This means access from any
device with a browser, no more waiting for a client application to load, and no
worrying about having the right version just to view a Word document!
I
write to line of business applications.
Ribbon Interface
INSIGHTS
SITES
SEARC
COMPOSITES
SHAREPO
FOUNDAT
FROM BDC TO BCS
Business Connectivity
Services is the evolution of
the Business Data Catalog
that now gives us push
and pull data capabilities
rather than just pull.

5. < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E > >>5>> I N T R O D U C I N G S H A R E P O I N T 2 010
Knowledge managers can take
advantage of significant improvements
around the management of global
metadata and content types, metadata-
driven navigation, and extended
document and records management
capabilities. A formal corporate
taxonomy can be centrally managed,
while end users can populate the
informal folksonomy, and knowledge
managers can promote folksonomy terms up to the taxonomy when
appropriate. We have improved Form Services and Excel Services and now
have the new Visio Services. Want to visualise data, processes, or architectures
through the browser using the Microsoft tool users know? Visio Services
lets users publish diagrams from the Visio client application to SharePoint,
allowing other users to view them through a browser without requiring the
Visio client. Provide these diagrams with dynamic data feeds and you now
have a rich visual reporting and monitoring tool.
Need to more easily deploy custom web parts and modules? You need a
Sandbox. Developers now have vastly improved tooling through Visual
Studio 2010 and another deployment option provided by the new Sandbox
framework, essentially a quarantine zone for custom code. There is a
new lightweight theming model, improved accessibility and browser
compliance, and additional user interface features to help improve the
editing and collaboration experience.
For those managing the SharePoint
infrastructure and platform there is improved
tooling for monitoring, backup and restore,
and geographic distribution. Shared Service
Providers (SSP) are now gone, with a more
easily managed farm services model in their
place, and there is more published guidance
and best practices.
These are a few highlights that show there
has been as much focus on improving
core capabilities, such as document
management, web content editing and
search, as there has been to adding new
features like Visio Services and social
networking tools. For more information and
demonstrations of these and all the other
new features and improvements, you’ll have
to come and see us!
mark.orange@intergen.co.nz
al
andbox
he
SharePoint 2010 capabilities
Chakkaradeep Chandran
What do you do?
As a SharePoint Developer in the Portals,
Content and Collaboration team, I build
and design SharePoint applications that
help our customers to cut costs with a
unified infrastructure and rapidly respond
to business needs.
How do you make a difference?
Being a SharePoint developer, I not
only write code but also understand the
underlying business problem and the
'hidden gems' within SharePoint.
What do you love about your job?
Working with the cutting edge
technologies! This is something I love
and I’m lucky to work on some awesome
projects here at Intergen. I also love the
challenge of leveraging other existing
technologies which complement these
new technologies.
A bit about yourself...
I am passionate about working with
Microsoft technologies and you can find me
blogging, tweeting and also speaking at
some of the SharePoint conferences. I love
movies and music, and enjoy them as I work.
I also like to explore the various walks and
reserves around Wellington during weekends.
>> INTERGENITE:
Sh P i t 2010 biliti
SITES
COMMUNITIES
CONTENT
SEARCH
AREPOINT
UNDATION
VISIO SERVICES
Publish dynamic visual
diagrams of reports and
processes from Visio to
SharePoint so any user
can view them with just a
browser.

6. >>6 >> S H A R E P O I N T S H O W C A S E < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
Mega scale events in the USA,
such as the Presidential Debate
and the Super Bowl, are well-
charted territory for emergency
management gurus E·Sponder,
LLC, based in St Louis.
New Zealand’s game of choice happens to be rugby,
yet this innovative American company and Intergen
have come together from opposite sides of the
world as partners on a common playing field – in
the Microsoft SharePoint space.
E·Sponder is a market leader in the creation of
software to deliver real-time tactical response
tools to manage large-scale events and emergency
situations worldwide, involving millions of people.
The collective eyes of thousands of emergency
response personnel, including federal and
government agencies, are brought together onto
an information hub that E·Sponder delivers on
Microsoft SharePoint Server, calling on Intergen’s
SharePoint know-how from across the world.
The hub is a real-time command centre, powered
by highly visual tools such as 3D Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) mapping and layers of
documents, web forms and communication feeds,
often represented on a Microsoft Surface table for
instant touch response to any given scenario (see
page 12 for more thoughts on touch).
E·Sponder’s President, Rob Wolf says, “Intergen
came to our attention through a successful project
involving SharePoint integration for one of our clients
in New Zealand, and they more than proved they had
exceptional SharePoint understanding and capability.
The relationship is going from strength to strength, due
largely to their innovation, willingness to get involved
and their agile way of delivering smart outcomes.”
With some runs on the board for E·Sponder, Intergen
is proud to be regarded as a partnering resource
for a company that leads the way in emergency
management and communication technologies.
As Wayne Forgesson, Intergen’s Director of
Marketing, puts it, “With technology breaking down
geographical barriers, it just goes to show you can
form deep partnerships and complete world-leading
work wherever in the world you are.”
US emergency management gurus
turn to Kiwi SharePoint talent
In this year’s Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards,
Intergen won the Business Productivity Enterprise
Content Management Partner of the Year Award,
based on Intergen’s work on the development of
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s website.
For New Zealand businesses operating
internationally, one of the most accessible vehicles
for information is NZTE’s corporate website:
www.nzte.govt.nz.
As the government’s national economic agency,
tasked with improving the international
competitiveness and sustained profitability of
New Zealand business, NZTE needed to consolidate
several existing websites into one in order to interact
with businesses on the most customer-centric footing.
Replacing ageing homegrown technology whose
maintenance costs were mounting, NZTE needed to
select a strong technology foundation for their path
ahead, with national and internationally targeted
websites on the cards. In making the decision to
Winning SharePoint solution
provides “a platform for the future”
go with SharePoint, rather than simply selecting a
content management system, they thought it more
important to look for a platform that set them up for
the future.
NZTE’s Applications Architect, Mike Gilbert says:
“SharePoint stands out as a single enterprise-wide
solution that delivers on so many levels, be it
internet, intranet, shared information or business
intelligence applications.”
Now supported by a robust and extendable
SharePoint platform – one of the first SharePoint
public-facing internet sites to be developed in the
country – the new website has provided a single,
integrated and content rich platform, reflecting the
diversity and complexity of the various business
streams underpinning it.
NZTE project sponsor, Julian Moore, says: “The
new site is all about the users, about the market
information, products and services that our clients
require, and meeting the needs of other New Zealand
businesses. The SharePoint platform enables us to
do this today, and gives us tremendous capability to
build on this in the future.”

7. >>7< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >>> N E W PA R T N E R S H I P S
Jaana Krause
What do you do?
I’m the Service Lead for Microsoft
Dynamics. Based in Wellington, I am
responsible for delivering Application
Support and Maintenance Services
for our Microsoft Dynamics customers
throughout the country.
How do you make a difference?
Our project teams are doing a great job
of delivering the best solutions for our
clients. My goal is to ensure that, after a
successful implementation, our customers
receive support services which will bring
value to their business and foster long-
term relationships.
What do you love about your job?
It’s all about people and relationships.
For me the job means making the best
use of my skills and working together
with a great team to ensure we do our
best to make customers happy.
A bit about yourself…
I grew up in Germany. After studying and
working in Kiel – which is in the northern
part of the country – for about eight
years, I decided to come to New Zealand
to gain experience and explore the
beautiful country. In my spare time I like
to be active, travel a lot and spend time
outdoors in the amazing New Zealand
countryside as much as possible.
>> INTERGENITE:
The partnerships we form with like-minded, forward-
thinking technology providers are critical to the quality,
and breadth, of solutions we offer, and nowhere is this
more evident than in the Microsoft Dynamics space.
Getting the data in is easy; using it to drive your
business decision making has always been the challenge.
Zap Business Intelligence software offers the advantages of new generation
technology – powerful, simple and practical. It is a user friendly, web-based,
highly scalable BI solution tightly integrated with Dynamics NAV, AX and
CRM. Zap unites your business with a common picture for understanding and
improving corporate performance:
Focus your business through a centralised information portal. Zap allows you
to define business objectives that are visible and measurable across the whole
company. This brings your plans and budgets to life with a central system that
can be reviewed hourly, daily, weekly.
Proactively detect issues and opportunities at the earliest possible stage.
When objectives aren’t met, the system will alert you and allow you to
analyse, understand and report on the underlying problems.
Reduce manual reports and processes with automation. Many businesses
spend a huge amount of staff time and money on creating manual reports and
spreadsheets, particularly for end-of-month financial reports. Zap lets you automate
the reporting process in a central system that can be accessed across the business.
Provide self-service information. Managers and executives can access information
anytime, anywhere. No longer do they need to make successive requests through
others who may have alternate priorities or limited resources at peak times.
Enable fact-based decision-making. With accurate company information at
their fingertips, employees at all levels can make more informed decisions to
maximise performance.
Extending the Intergen partner ecosystem, extending the value from your investment
Putting the clientclient in Client Relationship Management
Introducing CRM4Legal
Client Relationship Management (CRM) is an important business strategy that
differentiates a law firm from its competition. Historically, however, law firms have
built their structures around the services they provide – like practice groups, service
innovation, marketing and branding – rather than the client experience.
By providing a complete view of the client experience within a law firm, using
the core technologies provided by Dynamics CRM and CRM4Legal, a firm can
get a complete picture of the relationships that form the client experience.
This information can then be used to help the firm become more effective at
meeting clients’ current and future needs.
When a firm can anticipate and respond to the needs of clients, and align its
services accordingly, it can begin to build client value.
It’s important to understand that CRM is a business strategy, and a platform
with enormous potential. CRM4Legal is an application designed to help firms
achieve this strategy by providing targeted, tactical tools. CRM4Legal supports
the entire law firm through a set of modules organised by functional area:
marketing, business development and client care. These form the centralised
database through which all practice groups and service areas in the firm can
access the information and the tools they need to be more effective with clients.
By placing the client at the very centre of the CRM solution, communications
and interdepartmental teamwork and information sharing can be
improved and a winning firm-wide client relationship management strategy
implemented, ultimately increasing profits and reducing costs.
If you would like to know more about how CRM4Legal or Zap can add value to
your business, please email simon.bright@intergen.co.nz

8. >>8 >> C R M S H O W C A S E < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
Innovation at the right price
for Waikato Milking Systems
As a New Zealand-owned
business with 30% of their
equipment sold outside of
New Zealand, Waikato Milking
Systems competes on an
international playing field that
is price and market conscious to
the extreme. Key to their success
is competitive, accurate and
timely pricing.
For Waikato Milking Systems, winning contracts
is very much driven by the ability to quote and
price competitively for the unique characteristics
of each individual market, which is in turn
influenced by different market mechanisms,
currencies and dealer arrangements.
With this in mind, Waikato Milking Systems
needed to replace their ageing bespoke price
book solution for pricing management. Their
platform was increasingly unsupportable,
not easy to update and it couldn’t deliver the
rapid turnaround in quoting and pricing that
was required.
They needed a world class CRM-driven
solution capable of integrating with a
CRM provides a platform for flexibility and growth
MedRecruit stitches up the
competition in Deloitte Fast 50
Innovation and forward-thinking
in technology have been core to
MedRecruit’s business strategy –
and the benefits are striking and
quick to materialise.
Coming second in this year’s Deloitte Fast
50, MedRecruit’s Managing Director, Dr Sam
Hazledine, attributes a large part of the success
to this innovative outlook and having the right
core systems in place to make it all happen.
Whether it’s a case of matching doctors with
great jobs and great lifestyles, or helping
hospitals fill vacancies with the right doctors
and minimum fuss, MedRecruit proves it can be
done very successfully. Their point of difference
is the ease of making it happen, which again
comes down to the technology behind the
scenes, by bringing doctors and hospitals
together in a one-stop online web space where
it’s easy to connect with opportunities.
Early on, MedRecruit invested in the
latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform
to manage all the extensive interactions
and communications that happen in a job
placement process.
Sam Hazledine says, “We wanted something that
was understandable and absolutely simple because
we didn’t want the technology to get in the way.”
Having the ‘engine’ firmly in place, MedRecruit and
Intergen then came up with an interactive website
built around CRM as the core technology, creating
a site that would be the hub for smart and easy
recruitment online. With clever technology and a
great user experience combined, MedRecruit has
created a winning formula, unique to Australasia
– so winning, in fact, that they were named the
second fastest growing company, and the fastest
growing services business in the country. As a one-
stop web shop, www.medrecruit.com saves money,
time and valuable hospital administrative resources.
And the practice of matching doctors not just to
jobs but to lifestyles leads to 57% better retention.
customised pricing management system. They
identified Microsoft Dynamics CRM as an out-of-
the-box solution that could be tailored to their
specific pricing requirements through integration
with the third party Experlogix quote configurator.
Waikato Milking Systems General Manager, Dean
Bell, says: “We felt confident that we were investing
in a state of the art platform, but not one that we
had to fit our business to – rather, one that fit all
the drivers of our business.”
The upshot? A mobile salesforce can apply price
adjustments, fine-tune sales prices, currencies and
margins. Tasks that were previously measured in
days are now capable of happening automatically,
and new products can be released quickly to
the market. The downstream effects of greater
accuracy, faster turnaround of quotes and speed
to market are enormous, proving the grass really
can be greener with the right technology in place.

9. >>9< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >>> M I C R O S O F T O N L I N E S E R V I C E S
Over the course of the past two years, the
raised market awareness of cloud computing,
combined with tough economic and market
conditions, have contributed to a significant
shift in the way we think about IT services.
For years we have been used to using software installed on our PCs or within
our organisation’s walls. There is now an increasing movement towards having
these solutions delivered through online services.
One model of delivering cloud-based solutions is called Software as a Service
(SaaS). This model has been available to the market for many years and relies
completely on internet access for its delivery. Customers and organisations
do not pay for ownership of any software; instead they only pay for the
consumption of the services provided by the software that is hosted in the
cloud. The consumption of such services by the customers is only possible over
the internet through a web-based interface.
About two years ago, Microsoft unveiled a new model of cloud-based
offerings called Software + Services. This model differentiates itself from SaaS
in a number of ways. Software + Services solutions combine the scalability
and accessibility provided by cloud-hosted services with the power, flexibility
and rich experiences provided by software running locally.
Software + Services also gives organisations a “middle ground option” by
supporting the deployment of hybrid solutions. These particular solutions
deliver a portion of the services using traditional on-premise systems, while
delivering the remaining services through cloud-hosted systems. This strategic
and architectural flexibility produces a framework through which security
of information storage can be achieved by housing sensitive data on local
systems, while non-sensitive data can be stored in hosted infrastructures.
The ins and outs of Microsoft
Online Services and BPOS
Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Standard Suite
(BPOS) is a Software + Services offering made available to
the market through Microsoft Online Services. These services
are hosted by Microsoft and supplied to organisations
throughout the world over the internet.
BPOS currently comprises several products: Microsoft Exchange Online
Standard, Microsoft SharePoint Online Standard, Microsoft Office
Communicator Online Standard and Microsoft Live Meeting Online Standard.
Microsoft is betting big on online services such as BPOS and Azure (see page
3 for more information), and it’s a safe assumption that within a few years,
the applications that information workers use will increasingly have a cloud
component to them – if they’re not hosted online in their entirety. In the
meantime, however, there are a number of reasons why organisations should
at least be trialling BPOS now to see if the business case makes sense.
There are a number of opportunities to utilise some or all of the BPOS
applications, for organisations of all sizes. These include:
• Outsourcing email. For many organisations, and IT shops in general,
running an Exchange Server – or any mail server – can be a complex
endeavour, requiring significant infrastructure and skill. Migrating to a
hosted service such as Exchange Online often makes sense, and could
save significant operational capital.
• Trialling Unified Communications. If you are interested in understanding
how unified communications could benefit your organisation, trialling
Office Communications Online is the way to go: by testing out the
online presence, instant messaging and voice capabilities, you and your
organisation can quickly determine the benefits that will be accrued.
While there are some limitations (e.g. integration with PABX telephony
solutions is not currently possible),
this is an ideal way for organisations
to quickly improve productivity with
minimal effort and outlay.
• Online conferencing. Most
organisations are facing travel
restrictions, so being able to meet
virtually online, sharing desktops and
viewing presentations and documents
can all minimise the need to travel –
across town or across the country.
To find out more about how Microsoft’s
Online Services – and BPOS in particular
– can help your organisation, feel free to
contact us. Alternatively you can also visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-
nz/default.mspx.
david.porta@intergen.co.nz
David Porta is Intergen’s Unified
Communications Service Lead
>> M I C
T
nified
ead

10. >>10 >> T H E V A L U E O F S E A R C H < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
If it’s 10 times more
expensive to find a new
customer than to better serve
an existing one, then it must cost at least
that much to recreate a document instead
of searching – and finding – an existing one.
Search technologies have revolutionised how
we locate and use information.
How many of us have wanted to know the answer to something have resorted
to typing the question into a web search engine to get what we need? Forget
using our brain – searching’s so much easier.
While ‘Google’ has become a verb due to its pre-eminence in internet web
searching, the ability to search for information within an organisation is often
overlooked, even though the ability to search represents an obvious way of
increasing productivity and making better use of existing resources.
Search technologies have been around for years, but adoption is still relatively
limited – organisations that implement portal and collaboration solutions
typically implement the packaged search tools that come with their core
solution, but beyond that, there appear to be few organisations that go to
the extent of implementing a specialised search solution. And this is when
virtually all of us use a web search engine every day.
The business case is easy: While the adoption of search tools is lower than
it should be, those tools can deliver myriad ways of locating and navigating
through the volumes of information that exist, enabling reuse of information,
empowering users and increasing productivity, or even to help the legal
discovery process. Any organisation that can improve how its users locate, use
and reuse information must also achieve an advantage over organisations
that don’t allow this.
That said, search engine adoption rates are due to increase. Not only are we
likely to see an increased adoption for reasons of efficiency and effectiveness,
there are a myriad of products which are designed to solve the challenge of
locating information and data – and Microsoft is in the middle of this activity.
Over the past few years, Microsoft has invested significantly in search. At
a consumer level, Bing is Microsoft’s foray into global web search and is
growing market share against the incumbent providers – an area where it
has publically stated it wants traction and market share. At an enterprise
level, Microsoft has grown its range of search products that are designed to
search across multiple information repositories and data sources. Whether
you’re looking to search across the data contained in a SharePoint solution,
across an enterprise, or provide large-scale search services to thousands of
simultaneous users, Microsoft has a search solution to fit the requirement.
Currently Microsoft’s search solutions comprise three core offerings:
SharePoint Search, allowing search within and across SharePoint, websites
and email and traditional file stores; Search Server Express, a free solution;
and finally, at the high end, there are the Microsoft FAST offerings – designed
for high-volume, large-scale requirements where there are thousands of
simultaneous users, but also applicable for many innovative search uses.
More than text
When we think of search, many of us probably think of typing a keyword into
a text box and getting a list of textual responses in return – after all, that is
the typical way in which search engines are used. These days, search engines
can not only access and make sense of a plethora of
types of data, they can also enable different ways of
navigating this information. Spatial search in particular
has started to gain traction within the enterprise. Not
only are online mapping services useful for obtaining
directions, they also provide a real world method of
displaying and accessing information. Want to know
how many customers are located in a particular
suburb? Display a map with their addresses plotted on
it. The visualisation of data over a map enables us to
navigate and think of data in new ways.
For a solutions provider such as Intergen, we see a
growing need for search based on a number of key
drivers: the need to increase productivity and react
faster to customer and market needs; the ability
to locate and reuse information, saving hours of
productive time; and the ability to empower users –
at all levels – to access and utilise data in new and
interesting ways, allowing more informed decisions
to be made. As an organisation dependent on the
access and sharing of knowledge, we expect to
increase our investments in these areas ourselves, and
we also expect to see similar interest amongst other
organisations looking to better use their resources.
tim.howell@intergen.co.nz
ng Value Using Search
>>10 >> T H
If it’s 10
expensive
customer than t
an existing one, then it must c
that much to recreate a docum
of searching – and finding – a
Search technologies have rev
we locate and use informatio
How many of us have wanted to know the ans
into a web search engi
ng VaFindi Tim Howell is Intergen’s Marketing Manager
O N E >

11. >> INTERGENITE PROFILE
>> U S E R E X P E R I E N C E D E S I G N < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E > >>11
What have those gun UX
designers been getting up
to lately?
In short, we ve been busy! It s been an exciting year for our Experience Design
team with a full and varied workload. It s been heads down, bums up as
we have delved into some interesting and exciting projects.
Of greatest significance this year for the UXD team is the change in the way
that we now organise ourselves, with the User Experience Designers now residing
in the Portals, Content and Collaboration practice. This is a natural place for us
and strengthens our relationship with the more technology-focused disciplines
and naturally leads to better communication, providing more value to you — and,
of course, your customers!
We haven t been very good lately at bragging about what we have been doing
so thought it high time we provided a brief snapshot of the
breadth of what we have been producing over the last
few months.
Royal New Zealand Navy
As part of the Navy s recruitment activity, Intergen
has worked closely with the Navy to design, build and
deliver the new recruitment website, www.navyjobs.mil.nz.
This was an important project for Navy recruitment and
has produced an effective and tailored online channel.
The result of this collaboration is a website that provides
a wealth of dynamic content and interactive experiences
that act as a powerful tool to inspire potential recruits
to join the Royal New Zealand Navy.
Student Job Search (SJS)
In this current economic climate there are fewer job vacancies and the competition
in the market is fierce. Employers are receiving as many as 100 applicants for
single jobs that they advertise. This is where Student Job Search comes in. SJS
is a free service that pre-screens and shortlists candidates as part of their service
to employers.
The Intergen Experience Design team was tasked with designing a website that
helps SJS achieve their goal of bringing students and employers together in an
intuitive, compelling and seamless manner.
AXA
AXA s existing website had become outdated and was in need of a refresh, both
for internal content contributers and public website visitors.
AXA identified the value of their web presence and wanted to leverage it, thereby
getting closer to their existing and prospective customers. The user-centered
methodolgy that the Experience Design team employed combined nicely with
the new AXA global positioning standard which encapsulated customer-centric
values. AXA is all about people, not products, and now getting expert advice
has never been easier.
Michelle O Loughlin
What do you do?
I m a User Experience Designer. My role
within a project is to make sure that
everything looks great and is totally usable.
This often involves creating prototypes and
several design concepts before refining the
design into something that really works.
How do you make a difference?
I try to identify and understand what the
user wants or needs from a website and —
coupled with the functional requirements —
I base my designs around that. I try not to
design for design s sake and believe that
things should not only look good but also
serve a valuable purpose.
What do you love about your job?
I love the variety I get in my work. Each
project is completely different and has its
own unique challenges. I also get to
experiment with new design trends and
push the capabilities of technology within
my designs.
A bit about yourself
I m from Bristol in England and have been
a designer for almost 10 years now. I worked
in London for four years before moving
over to Wellington 18 months ago. I m now
enjoying a much more balanced lifestyle
here and trying to see as much of
New Zealand as possible.
Find out how Intergen s User-Centred Design approach can
benefit your web or application project. Contact Mark Delaney at
mark.delaney@intergen.co.nz
www.navyjobs.mil.nz www.sjs.co.nz www.axa.co.nz
Smarts 21_Final.indd 11 11/19/09 11:21:54 AM

12. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT INTERGEN:
Auckland: +64 9 966 3070 info@intergen.co.nz
Wellington: +64 4 472 2021 www.intergen.co.nz
Christchurch: +64 3 964 0017
Dunedin: +64 3 477 5648
Sydney: +61 2 9969 0088 www.intergen.com.au
Perth: +61 434 122 880
< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y O N E >
>> T O U C H C O M P U T I N G
The recent release of
Windows 7 has signalled
a wave of new devices
that support the concept
of multi-touch: the ability
to physically touch the
screen of a device, and
control and manipulate
data and images on-
screen using one’s fingers.
Both laptop and desktop
PCs are being provided
with these.
While popularised
by Apple’s iPhone, the
concept of touch-based
computing has been around
for many years; in fact, Microsoft,
through its tablet PC initiatives, has
long trumpeted the usefulness of touch
computing, albeit using a stylus instead
of a finger.
With multi-touch capabilities built into the
core capabilities of the operating system,
and major PC and notebook manufacturers,
including HP, Dell and Acer, delivering these
Touch computing: Is it the business?
devices to the market, the reality is that many information workers could
be contemplating using a touch-screen device in the near future. Whilst
the hardware manufacturers are hopeful the arrival of Windows 7 and
its new capabilities will spark a new round of PC upgrades, the question
being asked by many observers relates to the benefits these multi-touch
devices will deliver to the wider market.
No doubt consumers are a key target market for
these solutions, and there are numerous ways
in which end users can take advantage of the
multi-touch user interface – if not
for productivity reasons, definitely
for entertainment. The ability
to flick through music, videos
and documents, zoom into and
manipulate photos, and “flick” though
music album covers are all made more
enjoyable through a touch-based user
interface – as has been proven by the
widespread adoption of Apple’s iPhone
and iPod touch devices.
For business users the value is less clear.
For what uses will we replace the keyboard
or mouse with a touch-driven interface?
Those of us who are information workers
are unlikely to replace our trusty keyboards
with an on-screen version – we simply won’t
be productive enough. And while “flipping”
through files and pictures is no doubt fun – it’s
hardly going to increase anyone’s productivity.
For basic tasks, then, touch could be seen as a novelty more than anything
else. That said, there are opportunities to rethink how we interact with
complex information, such as data and volumes of information, touching
the screen to sweep, zoom and dive into data – bringing to life some of the
concepts first demonstrated in movies such as Minority Report. Right now,
scenarios such as these are still fictional, but it’s only a matter of time – and
probably not much time – before software vendors start to leverage touch to
showcase a new range of capabilities.
For user experience designers and software developers such as Intergen, we
need to become cognisant of how these technologies affect what we do. How
do people interact with pages and content now, and how could this change if
they are using a touch-based user interface? What other new usage scenarios
arise when using this kind of technology? To what extent will this type of
technology take off, or will it remain a bit player amongst the numerous other
ways to interact with applications and the web?
Regardless of the answers to these questions, the multi-touch capabilities of
Windows 7 create new opportunities for developers and users alike, giving us
all another way of creating and consuming information and data.