While year over year revenue and employee growth
presented Russell Investments Group – a leading US
headquartered multi-management investing company –
with various business opportunities, the situation also
created two immediate challenges, including making a
decision about a data center that had reached capacity and
a need to upgrade its technology infrastructure.
- Dennis Grant, Associate Partner, Infrastructure Architecture and Engineering,
Russell Investments
The company’s IT leadership team decided to tackle both
issues at once. First, a decision was made to relocate its
headquarters and existing data center from Tacoma,
Washington to a new, state-of-the art facility located 30
miles away in Seattle. At the same time, Russell
Investments would upgrade the company’s overall IT
infrastructure, including its operating system.
This technology improvement was designed to boost
employee productivity and enable associates and other
employees to leverage and access the same company
technology whether they were working in their respective
office or remotely.
The technology overhaul included a move to Microsoft Office Communicator, an integrated communications client,
enabling Russell Investment’s associates to communicate
efficiently in real time. In addition, Russell Investments
also made a strategic decision to move to a 100 percent
laptop environment to provide employees with better
telecommuting and mobility options.
Another major technology decision involved a desire to
move a majority of the company’s associates to softphones,
eliminating the hardware from traditional phones and
improving compatibility with other devices, including web
cameras and headsets.
Already using headsets in many departments throughout
the organization, Russell Investments’ technology team
set up a month long evaluation process so associates – the
primary users of the headsets – would test between 20-30
different headsets from four or five vendors, including
their existing vendor.
“We spent about a month testing competitive products on
headset models that we thought would work,” said Dennis
Grant, Associate Director, Infrastructure Architecture and
Engineering at Russell Investments. “The process was
crucial because we received a lot of feedback from the
associates on what worked and what did not.”
According to Grant, whose team was largely responsible
for the overall technology migration, associates commented
on a variety of challenges with some of the headsets,
including audio quality to the physical headset configuration
that, simply put, hurt the associates’ ears.
In the end, the associates favored the Jabra products –
largely due to better integration between the Jabra
solution, Microsoft Office Communicator and the enterprise
phone, Grant added. Moreover, the Jabra solutions are
more comfortable and consistently more reliable than any
of the competitive products. One of the tested and selected
Jabra solutions include the Jabra BIZ™ 2400 headsets, a
suite of headsets that provide an unparalleled corded
headset quality and performance experience.
The Jabra BIZ 2400 Series proved to be ideal for Russell
Investments associates, who often work in an open area
environment, because of the greater call clarity and
compatibility with different microphones and noisecanceling
systems. Other Russell Investment associates are
using Jabra GO™ 6430 – a cordless Bluetooth® headset
option that also delivers state-of-the-art noise-cancelling
which eliminates background noise and offers great range
to increase associate mobility.
“We provided our associates with various headset choices
to test because it was important that we selected a solution
that would enable them to do their jobs to the best of their
ability,” Grant said. “The reliability and audio quality of the
Jabra solutions blew our team away. In our environment,
we live inside Outlook. The integration with Microsoft OC is
extremely transparent – improving associate productivity
and greatly reducing our trouble ticket volume. And the
functionality where OC “remembers” the headset device is
amazing”
During the testing process, the Jabra team also offered a
level of customer service that gave Russell Investments
confidence in their ability to ensure a smooth transition,
Grant said. From providing on-site training and support to
developing product fact sheets, the Jabra team provided
the necessary hands-on support so associates would have
little to no ramp up time on the headsets. Today, the
company is standardized 100 percent on Jabra.
“We are confident we selected the best quality headset in
the market,” Grant said. “The headsets are easy to put on
and take off, the voice experience is better, and the simple
configuration means my team spends far less time dealing
with headset related IT issues.”
CUSTOMER
Russell Investments Group
WEB SITE
www.russell.com
COUNTRY
United States
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
PROFILE
Russell Investments Group is a leading multi-management
Investing company, providing products and services in more than
40 countries around the world. Managing more than USD 200
billion in assets, Russell advices clients worldwide, representing
USD 2.4 trillion. The company, founded in 1936, is a subsidiary
of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Seattle. The
company’s 1,200+ associates work in offices from Toronto to Tokyo
and Singapore to Sydney.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Russell Investments were faced with two immediate challenges –
a physical relocation of company headquarters and existing data
center and a need to upgrade its technology infrastructure.
PHONE SYSTEM
Microsoft® Office Communicator
JABRA SOLUTION
Jabra solutions were ideal because of their quality, unprecedented
performance and compatibility with Microsoft OC. Russell
Investments chose Jabra BIZ™ 2400 and the wireless Jabra GO™
6430 for those prioritizing mobility. An important feature is that
Microsoft OC “remembers” the Jabra headset.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
- Increased employee and associate productivity
- Customer service which secured smooth transition
- Jabra offered best possible integration with Microsoft OC