About Centrotherm
Centrotherm provides technology and services to the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries, helping to develop and manufacture new products. The company is based in Blaubeuren, Germany, and employs approximately 1,000 people to work on projects across the globe.
Challenge
Much of Centrotherm's business is based on providing services to other companies, often sending teams of consultants and engineers to work at client sites for long periods. To improve management and store documentation for these projects, the company was using a Microsoft SharePoint solution, hosted and managed by an external company.
"Our business has grown rapidly and we now have project sites all over the world," said Peter Haag, Head of IT at Centrotherm. "We began to find that the SharePoint solution was not able to provide the level of performance we needed to support large project teams, especially if they were working in remote locations."
Centrotherm decided to move to new solution hosted in-house: installing a solution on its own servers would solve issues with bandwidth and performance, and would also reduce costs.
Novell Solution
Centrotherm considered upgrading to a new version of SharePoint, before deciding to move to Novell Teaming + Conferencing.
"We have been a Novell customer for decades, and we know the quality of the software," said Haag. "We use Novell GroupWise for e-mail and realised that the integration with Novell Teaming + Conferencing would create a relatively future-proof solution."
Novell recommended that Centrotherm work with G+H Netzwerk-Design, a Novell Platinum Partner with considerable experience in Novell Teaming + Conferencing solutions.
"The G+H team are not only knowledgeable about Novell software and networking, but also have a lot of expertise in Web design," said Haag. "They were able to create a customised Web front-end to access Novell Teaming + Conferencing. The solution is fully integrated, and there is no need to install client software, so we can access it from any PC."
G+H also helped integrate the Novell Teaming + Conferencing portal with Novell Access Manager™, which provides secure sign-on. In the near future, the company intends to deploy Novell Identity Manager, which will further simplify the provision of role-based access.
"By enabling us to include our suppliers and customers in the project team and giving them access to the same resources as our own employees, Novell Teaming + Conferencing will improve project management and increase efficiency," said Haag.
Centrotherm is now conducting training for 30 key users, who will then share the knowledge with the remainder of the company's 1,000 staff. The Novell solution can be used to share and edit documents, set tasks, manage joint projects, create team workspaces, and run video and voice conferencing sessions.
Results
The simplicity of Novell Teaming + Conferencing is such that Centrotherm's in-house IT team can maintain and customise it without external help. By contrast with SharePoint, which required the incumbent service provider to carry out even routine administration tasks, the new solution is considerably more cost-effective for Centrotherm.
A second benefit is improved performance. By bringing the solution in-house, Centrotherm has been able to resolve its response time and connectivity issues, helping employees work more productively whether they are at headquarters or working at a customer site. Equally, better performance means that the solution is more scalable–and as the company is currently adding staff at a rate of 30 or 40 per month, this is vital for supporting business growth.
"We are very pleased with the solution, and are looking forward to the completion of the full roll-out," said Haag. "We are also eager to upgrade to the latest version of Novell GroupWise®, which should deliver even better integration with Novell Teaming + Conferencing, and help our users to work more productively."
Centrotherm is also investigating the possibility of using the social networking features of Novell Teaming + Conferencing to help employees build relationships and communicate informally across the company. This will not only make life easier for new employees, but should also encourage idea-sharing and innovation.
"Working with G+H on this project was absolutely the right decision–they did an excellent job of building the right solution for our needs," said Haag. "Novell Teaming + Conferencing opens up a wide range of possibilities for promoting teamwork and enhancing project management across Centrotherm's rapidly growing operation."