KPN is a major telecommunications and information and communications technology (ICT) provider in the Netherlands. Consultants from its subsidiary, Getronics, are frequently away from their offices, developing solutions at client sites around Europe. To improve knowledge sharing for resolving customer issues and to improve employee satisfaction, KPN and Getronics needed a way for employees to build and maintain internal relationships even when working in different locations. Getronics deployed Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to take advantage of new social-networking and document co-authoring capabilities. With these new solutions in place, the company has reduced the time to co-author consultancy reports and sales proposals by 15 to 20 percent, and employees can find knowledge experts 50 percent faster to resolve client issues more quickly.

1. Microsoft Office 2010
Customer Solution Case Study
Service Provider Responds to Clients Faster
with Social Networking and Co-Authoring
Solution
Overview ―Our clients rely on us to keep their ICT solutions up
Country or Region: The Netherlands
Industry: Telecommunications and ICT and running so that they have peace of mind. The
services
capabilities in Office 2010 give us the tools we need to
Customer Profile make sure that happens.‖
Netherlands-based KPN is a
Coen Olde Olthof, Vice President Marketing, Alliances, Portfolio, and Strategy, Getronics
telecommunications and ICT service
provider. Its subsidiary, Getronics, KPN is a major telecommunications and information and
designs, integrates, and manages ICT
systems and applications for many global
communications technology (ICT) provider in the Netherlands.
and local organizations. Consultants from its subsidiary, Getronics, are frequently away
Business Situation
from their offices, developing solutions at client sites around
KPN and Getronics wanted to improve Europe. To improve knowledge sharing for resolving customer
professional networking among its
employees, reduce the time it takes to
issues and to improve employee satisfaction, KPN and Getronics
develop proposals, and improve the needed a way for employees to build and maintain internal
proposal development process.
relationships even when working in different locations. Getronics
Solution deployed Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server
KPN and Getronics deployed Microsoft
Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint
2010 to take advantage of new social-networking and document
Server 2010 to improve professional co-authoring capabilities. With these new solutions in place, the
networking opportunities and to enhance
sales performance and employee
company has reduced the time to co-author consultancy reports
productivity. and sales proposals by 15 to 20 percent, and employees can find
Benefits
knowledge experts 50 percent faster to resolve client issues
 Resolves client problems faster more quickly.
 Improves client responsiveness
 Improves employee satisfaction

2. ―By staying in touch Situation consultants in the company. This had a
KPN, one of the world‘s first combined negative impact on employee satisfaction
through professional providers of telecommunications and IT as well.‖
services, is a Dutch telecommunications
networks like LinkedIn, company that serves both business and To meet this challenge, Getronics sought to
our consultants will feel consumer markets. It offers a range of improve internal knowledge sharing and
business services—from voice, Internet, and collaboration to ensure that its consultants
more connected to the data to fully managed information and work better together to reduce the time it
communications technology (ICT) solutions. takes to respond to client requests.
home office and this will The KPN subsidiary, Getronics, designs, Getronics also wanted an internal
help increase employee integrates, and manages ICT systems and networking solution that would integrate
applications for many global and local social-networking sites, such as Twitter,
satisfaction.‖ organizations. KPN has approximately Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as in-house
36,000 employees worldwide, including My Sites (a feature of SharePoint Server), so
Andries den Haan, Senior Technical
13,000 employees of the fully owned consultants could quickly learn more about
Consultant, Getronics Consulting
subsidiary Getronics. With so many each other‘s skill sets and build
employees around the world, like many relationships. ―Over 80 percent of Getronics
large companies, KPN and Getronics had employees use LinkedIn for professional
difficulty connecting different teams and networking both inside and outside of the
people in real time. company,‖ states Andries den Haan, Senior
Technical Consultant at Getronics
In 2006, Getronics successfully deployed an Consulting.
employee productivity infrastructure made
up of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Second, the Sales division at Getronics
Office SharePoint Server 2007, and spends significant time responding to client
Microsoft Office Communications Server requests for information (RFI) and bid
2007. This communication and documents. The basic RFI response takes a
collaboration infrastructure enabled team of three to six employees an average
document sharing and employee of two weeks to develop. The typical
communication across the enterprise, but response document includes independent
the company wanted to take it a step sections focused on different technologies
further in two main areas. and services, so team members can divide
the work and only work on their respective
First, Getronics has more than 1,500 sections. ―RFI response managers must
consultants who spend most of their time coordinate this effort and consolidate the
at client sites around Europe. When clients sections from each team member, an effort
have difficult requests or questions, that often forces them to work into the late
consultants often struggle to locate experts hours of the night,‖ says Harald den
within the company to help them find Houter, Principal Technical Consultant at
answers because everyone is Getronics.
geographically dispersed. Kevin Reeuwijk,
Principal Technical Consultant at Getronics After consolidation of the initial draft, the
Consulting, says, ―Our consultants were RFI response manager sends e-mail
having trouble connecting to their peers. messages, with the RFI response attached,
They had no trouble building strong bonds to the team for final review. Team members
with clients, but they were not building send their comments back to the manager,
deep relationships with other Getronics who again consolidates all the changes.

3. During this process, comments are when, and how they work and cooperate.
sometimes lost or minor formatting errors As part of this initiative, KPN and Getronics,
creep into the final draft. den Houter says, decided to participate in early adopter
―I can think of two cases where we lost the programs for Microsoft Office 2010. In
bid because of minor mistakes that we November 2009, employees from KPN and
didn‘t catch because of the difficulty of Getronics began upgrading from Microsoft
consolidating all the inputs from the team.‖ Office 2007 to take advantage of the
Getronics needed a solution that would improved communications and
streamline the review cycle and help ensure collaboration capabilities of Office 2010,
that input from the team would not be lost combined with Microsoft SharePoint Server
in the process. 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications
Server 2007 R2. By May 2010, KPN and
Solution Getronics deployed Office 2010 to
As part of a continuing commitment to approximately 650 employees. Plans are in
provide technology that makes it easier for place to deploy Office 2010 to the rest of
employees to work together, and to the 36,000 users.
improve employee productivity, KPN and
its subsidiary Getronics embarked on an Social Networking
organization-wide initiative called a ―New To solve the problems that its consultants
Figure 1 1. Outlook Social
Figure – Outlook Social
Way of Working.‖ For KPN and Getronics, had with building a network, Getronics has
Connector: Information from
Connector - Information
the New Way of Working initiative enables now provided a vehicle for professional
LinkedInfrom LinkedIn is People
is shown in the shown
employees to choose for themselves where, social interaction that employees can use to
Pane of Outlook 2010.Pane of
in the People leverage their collective knowledge and
Outlook 2010. stay in touch with each other. As part of
this solution, Getronics is deploying the
Microsoft Outlook 2010 messaging and
collaboration client to take advantage of
the Outlook Social Connector feature that
automatically appears below the reading
pane in Outlook 2010. With the predefined
connectors, Getronics has connected
Outlook 2010 to Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook, SharePoint Server 2010,
SharePoint My Sites, and the Active
Directory service. Through one centralized
view in Outlook 2010, consultants can
access up-to-date information, including
everything from e-mail threads to status
updates from colleagues in their networks.
―Now, consultants can stay up-to-date with
their professional connections—all from
within Outlook 2010,‖ adds den Haan. ―By
staying in touch through professional
networks like LinkedIn, our consultants will
feel more connected to the home office
and this will help increase employee

4. ―I don‘t have to be at the satisfaction. As consultants start to share document assembled in Word 2010,
information like what they are currently eliminating the need for someone to
office or be connected to working on, or a question they are hearing consolidate all the different versions.
from customers, their colleagues will be
the Internet to edit able to respond, just as if they were With Microsoft Office Communications
documents anymore. I chatting in the break room in the home Server 2007 R2, RFI response team
office. With Outlook 2010, we can provide members can also view presence
can make my changes the professional social networking that is information within the Word 2010
critical for our employee growth and document to see who else is editing a
offline from wherever I satisfaction.‖ document. By using the presence
am, and the changes are indicators, they can communicate instantly
Also in Outlook 2010, when viewing a with available team members from within
synchronized next time I message with multiple recipients, Word 2010 documents.
employees can see a photo for each person
connect.‖ at the top of the People Pane (Figure 1). By Also, with Microsoft SharePoint Workspace
Kevin Reeuwijk, Principal Technical clicking a photo, consultants can quickly 2010, an Office application that enables
Consultant, Getronics Consulting view more information about a coworker, users to take SharePoint Server 2010
such as communication history or status documents and lists offline and seamlessly
updates. In addition, employees can click a synchronize them back to a SharePoint site,
contact‘s name to display a quick view of employees can access and edit RFI
related Outlook content, such as recent e- responses offline, no matter where they are.
mail conversations, meetings, and shared RFI response team members can check out
documents. the content and lock the document for
editing with a click on the Ribbon, which
With SharePoint Server 2010, Getronics is helps avoid editing conflicts with others
implementing a Wiki solution where who might be working on the same
consultants across the company will be document. SharePoint Workspace provides
able to search for best practices from document-locking capability with just a
experts on a particular subject and add click on the Ribbon. Reeuwijk explains, ―I
information and lessons learned from other don‘t have to be at the office or be
projects. Knowledge experts can now edit connected to the Internet to edit
SharePoint team sites and see a live documents anymore. I can make my
preview of the changes made to the team changes offline from wherever I am, and
site with a wiki-like experience. Editing the the changes are synchronized next time I
content on a page is as simple as clicking connect.‖ With offline access to SharePoint
the edit tab and typing on the page. It also documents, RFI managers can reduce the
is easier to insert images, SharePoint lists, time it takes to consolidate the document,
and Web parts into the team site. which will reduce errors that arise due to
version control issues.
Co-Authoring for Request for
Information Responses With Office 2010, Getronics employees will
Using co-authoring in Microsoft Word stay connected to their colleagues and
2010, enabled by SharePoint Server 2010, quickly find the answers to the customer
Getronics can transform how its Sales and requests even when they are away from the
Marketing division responds to RFIs. office. Also, responses to client RFIs will be
Several sales personnel can now work assembled more quickly and there will be
simultaneously on an RFI response less chance of errors in the final document.

5. ―We expect to save two Benefits running so that they have peace of mind.
―As part of the ongoing development of The capabilities in Office 2010 give us the
or three days—or 15 to our global IT infrastructure, Getronics tools we need to make sure that happens,‖
invests in the innovative SharePoint explains Coen Olde Olthof, Vice President,
20 percent—on average platform to facilitate collaboration, social Marketing, Alliances, Portfolio, and Strategy
in the RFI response ‗person to person‘ communication, and at Getronics.
search functionality throughout the
development process.‖ enterprise.‖ explains Paul Slot, CIO of KPN Improves Responsiveness to Client
Getronics. ―Together with the unique Requests for Information
Harald den Houter, Principal Technical
Consultant, Getronics features of the full Office 2010 suites, such Co-authoring will reduce the time it takes
as co-authoring and social media RFI response managers to consolidate and
capabilities, we see big benefits by enabling gather team members‘ input on response
our workforce to generate more and better documents. ―With the collaborative nature
business results.‖ of co-authoring, the teams will be able to
interact earlier in the process to provide
With the upgrade to Office 2010 and better responses to the RFIs,‖ says den
SharePoint Server 2010, the KPN subsidiary, Houter.
Getronics, expects to improve its
consultants‘ ability to work together to Getronics anticipates that employees will
better serve clients as a dispersed save several days in the sales cycle by using
workforce. Early adopters are already the co-authoring capabilities in Office 2010.
experiencing improved productivity and ―We expect to save two or three days—or
increased responsiveness to client requests. 15 to 20 percent—on average in the RFI
response development process. And just as
Resolves Client Problems Faster importantly, we can reduce minor mistakes
Consultants are benefiting by using the because we no longer have to copy
embedded social-networking capabilities comments and changes from multiple
through the Outlook Social Connector. documents,‖ says den Houter. This
―Getronics consultants are able to improve reduction in the sales cycle will help
the time it takes to find a knowledge expert Getronics be more responsive to client RFIs.
to assist with a client issue by 50 percent,‖ Getronics will be able to complete more
says Reeuwijk. Previously, consultants proposals in a shorter period and will
would have to call or send an e-mail support revenue growth.
message to everyone on their contact list
just to find the right resource. ―We expect Improves Employee Satisfaction
the time savings to increase as employees Through the new social-networking
use the Outlook Social Connector as a features in Office 2010, Getronics expects
networking tool. Employees can build a to increase overall employee satisfaction by
network of experts quickly, and then building better relationships between
connect with them at the click of the coworkers. With access to more
mouse,‖ den Haan says. professional and social information about
each employee, interaction among peers
Getronics uses Office 2010 to resolve client will increase, no matter where they are
problems faster as it continues to deploy physically located.
consultants to new clients and existing
clients around the world. ―Our clients rely With the upgrade to Office 2010 and
on us to keep their ICT solutions up and SharePoint Server 2010, KPN and its

6. For More Information subsidiary, Getronics, expects to support Microsoft Office 2010
For more information about Microsoft their New Way of Working initiative by Microsoft Office 2010 gives your people
products and services, call the Microsoft building upon its collaborative enterprise powerful, timesaving tools to do their best
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- and helping employees to work together to work from more places. With new
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft better respond to client needs. capabilities and insightful updates to Excel,
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook, Office
2495. Customers in the United States and 2010 offers the complete package—with
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing familiar, intuitive tools. Now you can
can reach Microsoft text telephone express ideas, solve problems, connect with
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. people, and create amazing results—in the
Outside the 50 United States and office, at home, or on the go.
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access For more information about Microsoft
information using the World Wide Web, Office, go to:
go to: www.office.com
www.microsoft.com
For more information about KPN and
Getronics products and services visit the
Web site at:
www.kpn.com or www.getronics.com
Software and Services
 Microsoft Office 2010
− Microsoft Outlook 2010
− Microsoft Word 2010
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft Office Communications
Server 2007 R2
− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
− Microsoft SharePoint Workspace
2010
.
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published May 2010