London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra, one of Britain’s leading cultural institutions – has evolved over the last decade. As well as embracing 25 worldwide tours a year, it has also expanded from 50 people to around 75, with an increased focus on fundraising and tour support. As it has grown, the average age of the workforce has fallen.
Jeremy Garside, Head of Technology at the London Symphony Orchestra, says: “There are many staff in their 20s and 30s, and there’s an expectation of flexibility and being up to date with the latest technology.”
And so, the London Symphony Orchestra went about getting to grips with Microsoft Lync 2010 which, combined with Microsoft Outlook provided a strong package for employees to harness their social media and online skills for working on the move.
“From my point of view, from a top-level IT perspective telephony is not as important as the integration of presence, chat, voicemail-to-email, and the ability to work wherever you are. These are much more of a business win.” Jeremy Garside
The benefits that resulted from implementing this package:
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Support for remote users
When the orchestra goes on tour, staff can continue working as if they were still at the Barbican Centre. They can pick up their email over an Internet connection using Microsoft Outlook 2012 and they have PC-based phones that they can use anywhere
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Improved productivity
Microsoft Lync “gives us visibility about who’s available and whether they’re contactable,” says Garside. They can also collaborate on documents together using the tools in Microsoft Office 2012 for group editing and feedback
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Better teamwork
The integration of voice, IM and email gives LSO employees the kind of technology they’re used to from consumer services such as Skype and MSN Messenger, but in a business-friendly, secure and productive environment
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Reduced cost
As a charity, the LSO benefits from low-cost licensing from Microsoft, but setting that aside, the new system is cheaper than a conventional phone system
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Improved compatibility
Office 2010 documents work seamlessly with older Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats, but also with the latest ‘docx’ documents and they can export directly to PDF files. This helps LSO communicate more effectively with third parties
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High Quality documents
Using Office 2010, the LSO fundraising department can produce high quality PDF files to send to prospective supporters. “That’s been an immediate benefit for them”, says Garside