Taylor and Francis
Company: GordanoCustomer: Taylor and FrancisSubmitted by: two one communicationsDate: July 2002This case study looks at a multi-site UK company and its implementation and use of mail server software and complementary messaging products. It demonstrates how large companies with complex IT systems can purchase and install mission-critical software in order to reduce costs.
Background
Academic publishing house Taylor and Francis has been using Gordano’s messaging software since downloading a trial copy in 1996. The company has upgraded progressively from NTMail version 3 and is currently awaiting NTMail version 7, scheduled for release in summer 2001. This rapidly-expanding publisher of scientific, educational and medical books and journals operates across six UK sites in Basingstoke, London, Abingdon, Reading and Hove, all linked through the main IT department on the Basingstoke site.
With a total of over seven hundred employees, reliable internal communication, as well as external communication, is vital. Gordano’s suite of messaging solutions ensures that all the company’s needs are answered.
Execution
IT Manager, Paul Messer, explained how Taylor and Francis has gradually moved to rely on Gordano’s software for all its messaging services. “We were already using NTMail as our mail server, and Gordano’s GLList turned out to be the ideal addition for internal announcements and communications, as the size and number of our sites increased.” GLList is also the tool that enables Taylor and Francis to keep in touch with academics who want immediate notification when a new publication in their area of expertise becomes available. Messer comments: “They are able to subscribe to a list via the Taylor and Francis website and receive immediate targeted updates of new material.
This function has proved so useful in developing customer relationships that we have now invested in Gordano’s GLCommunicator in order to send personalised emails to all of our 5,000 subscribers.”Browser-based client GLWebMail completed the suite in Autumn 2000. Messer recalls how the decision was made to move away from desktop-based to server-based email access and storage. “We evaluated the beta version and were so impressed, particularly by the very user-friendly front end, that we opted for a 1000-user licence to give everyone in the company the opportunity to use GLWebMail. It enables staff on the road to dial into the network in Basingstoke using a laptop, and go straight into the mail server to keep up with their email.
If required, we can also give staff access to files and other material when working away from site. All Gordano’s products are WAP enabled, so this will give us further flexibility in future. We use the VPP anti-virus function supplied by Gordano to ensure that email is never a hole in our defences against intrusion.”With Gordano messaging solutions Messer is confident that Taylor and Francis will continue to communicate efficiently both inside and outside the business. But Messer makes it clear that Gordano really does understand all about the power of communication and reaps the rewards of listening to its customers through their enduring loyalty. He commented: “Gordano really does listen to its customers, unlike some companies, and has actually introduced features that I suggested into its products.
“System upgrade and maintenance is a high-profile activity for any server, since user expectation is for 100% uptime. Messer states that for this reason a ‘belt and braces’ approach is always taken when upgrading any of the company’s servers. Messer reports that for NTMail “upgrades are only a ten minute job” and invariably spare him the stress of swapping in the emergency backup server. Routine maintenance is effectively unnecessary. Messer is now itching to bring the last of the company’s email systems into line, with the migration of 600 users at its head office in London from a legacy package to NTMail.
