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Overview

Coperion develops and amanufactures a diverse and highly advanced range of components, machines and complete manufacturing systems for the plastics and chemicals industries. The company has its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and employs 2,000 people worldwide, generating annual revenues in excess of ?420 million.

Challenge

Coperion had grown in part through acquisitions, and as a result the group had gradually accumulated multiple e-mail and calendaring systems. With many different software packages in use, support and administration expenses were rising, with little or no integration between locations.

"The aim was to have one messaging solution for our 22 offices worldwide," said Andreas Karsten, Systems Engineer at Coperion. "This would help us cut costs and would then enable us to integrate our communications with our CRM system, to capture valuable customer data. We wanted to make this information globally available, across the entire organisation."

Novell Solution

Working with Camos, its CRM vendor in Stuttgart, and CND Schug, a Novell Business Partner in Stuttgart-Freiberg, Coperion implemented Novell GroupWise 7 across all 22 branch offices. GroupWise now provides mail, calendaring and groupware services throughout the company, replacing its former mixed estate of disparate e-mail systems.

With only a single, standardised system to maintain, Coperion benefits from lower licensing costs, reduced administration workload, and improved and more reliable company messaging services. When travelling, users are fully supported though the use of caching mode and/or Web access. The solution also enables mailboxes to be moved easily when employees change from one office location to another.

"The main advantage of using Novell technologies is the ability to administer all main office resources centrally," said Roland Krauss, Chief Information Officer of Coperion. "We are able to extend services to each different branch office, providing access to the same core GroupWise functionality, then tailor the system to each location's precise needs."

Using GroupWise on Open Enterprise Server, Coperion has enabled employees to share information easily and rapidly. Employees who work at multiple offices now enjoy simple access to their e-mail and calendars, and can more easily check the availability of colleagues for meetings.

Coperion is now increasing the integration of its administrative systems to eliminate duplication and reduce costs. Coperion worked with Camos & Advansys to enable data to be shared with GroupWise, including changes to customer information. Now that the Camos CRM system is tightly integrated with GroupWise, employees spend less time on data administration and more time on customer-facing responsibilities.

Results

Implementing GroupWise on Novell Open Enterprise Server has enabled Coperion to standardize its global messaging systems, cutting administration and maintenance costs.

Coperion is also considering further investments in Novell technology. Novell Open Enterprise Server provides a stable foundation for future plans to implement Novell ZENworks Asset Management and Novell Identity Manager. In the coming years, Coperion plans to migrate Novell Open Enterprise Server from the NetWare kernel to the Linux* kernel, which will enable the company to run additional applications on Linux and concentrate know-how by reducing the number of operating systems it uses.

For the entire success story, see:
http://www.novell.com/success/coperion.html

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