Case Studies

Luck Stone envisioned a “one-stop-shop” where users could access business reporting tools and other back-end systems. With a business model spanning 4 distinct brands, more than 30 geographically dispersed offices and an enterprise content management strategy that was entirely dependent upon file shares, public folders, and email, Luck Stone required a platform for both content management and collaboration that could help the organization better leverage its existing data and expertise. Luck
Stone was also in need of a platform for disseminating corporate news and announcements that could drive the organization’s values-based culture. Finally, Luck Stone identified a need for
implementing a consolidated platform for hosting line of business systems.

Leveraging SharePoint 2010, Ironworks delivered a custom intranet that will serve as a unified platform for content management and collaboration while also paving the way for significant business process improvements. In the area of content management, the solution leverages the new managed metadata service, document sets, and content type publication to apply a custom taxonomy developed by Ironworks. Ironworks used SharePoint Search to build a comprehensive information access solution to reduce the time to find information and increase productivity and end user adoption. Luck Stone’s goal of developing greater interaction and discussion among employees was enabled by developing a cohesive use of blogs, discussion boards, wikis, and team sites, all branded with a unified look and feel. The solution also features a number of custom
components all of which deploy using the WSP standard, including:

• Audience-targeted look and feel that renders a different page design based upon the current user’s profile properties.
• An Inbox Link control that ties into Luck Stone’s OWA server to surface a link to the logged on user’s mailbox and a count of unread emails.
• A suite of connected web parts that deliver weather, traffic, safety incident data, and driving directions specific to each of Luck Stone’s office locations.
• A custom interface for managing Google Analytics integration through the intranet’s site settings page.
• A newsletter utility that stores all newsletter content, including attachments, in SharePoint lists and comes complete with an easy to use administrative interface that supports different
  levels of access for authors and editors. The utility scales to support multiple newsletters

A return on investment was achieved in the following areas:

• Infrastructure cost savings based upon the transition away from shared drives and public folders built on top of fixed infrastructure to a virtualized environment that leverages SAN
  storage.
• IT resource productivity gains through the introduction of self-service site creation and a role-based security model that frees up IT resources.
• Process automation by moving the dissemination of key data out of manually distributed reports and into Excel Services.
• “Findability” improvements driven by the implementation of a comprehensive enterprise search solution.
• Cross-business collaboration with the new ability to discover resources and expertise across the organization.
• Cultural cohesion now that the business can better coordinate companywide communications, foster brand identity and build corporate loyalty.