Question to solve:Write a 2 page paper (not including cover page and references) describing the problem(s) that led to the need for a Cloud Solution and how those problems were or were not solved

Case Study:

Business Needs

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Xerox Corporation is a multinational company, with 140,000 employees in more than 180 countries. With annual revenue of more than US$22 billion, Xerox provides business processes and document management to small and large companies across multiple industries from energy to healthcare to transportation.

Xerox Global Learning, part of Corporate Human Resources, analyzes the workforce to determine the best processes for educating its employees and partners. The evolution includes self-paced e-learning and video delivered to mobile devices, says Steven Rath Morgan, who is responsible for Global Learning Process and Innovation for Xerox. Delivering higher-quality, lower-cost solutions is a priority for us.

In shifting its focus from the more traditional training using course-based materials to an overall culture of constant learning, Global Learning analyzed the most compelling ways that employees learn. The answers were clear: video and mobile. There is an intrinsic value in mobile, says Rath Morgan. He explains that while people may still envision a group of co-workers in an office setting, the reality is that the workforce is becoming increasingly virtual.

The challenge of meeting the training needs of a global workforce is enormous, and the more than 1,000 formal learning courses added yearly to Xerox learning solutions is not enough. Global Learning wanted to give Xerox employees the tools to create and share video with colleagues around the world. We cant possibly rely on learning organizations to fill every content gap that exists, says Rath Morgan.

You want to enable the workforce to take ownership as content creators themselves.

With the goals of expanding the role of video in learning and serving the mobile workforce in place, the team was faced with the next set of challenges: how to help employees create video content and integrate it with learning processes, as well as how to access that content on mobile devices and scale everything for a global organization.

Solution

After completing months of proofs of concept and trying a pilot with another video platform, Xerox turned to Microsoft Azure Circle partner Ravnur in January 2012 for its Microsoft Azure cloud-based video management solution and video portal, which Xerox calls XstreamVideo.

Ravnur helps large enterprises manage their internal video. Ninety-five percent of a companys video content is for internal use, says Bruce Hudson, Chief Executive Officer of Ravnur. Often this video content is not managed, so our goal is to make it all accessible, manageable, and viewable for all the disparate devices used in companies while at the same time ensuring that its under control.

The XstreamVideo platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution uses Microsoft Azure Cloud Services, Virtual Machines, and Geo-Redundant Storage, as well as Microsoft Azure Active Directory for its video workloads and integration with corporate networks. We use virtually everything in Microsoft Azure, says Hudson. Using Azure essentially means thats three people I dont have to hire. I dont have to worry about managing data centers and virtual machines or upgrading servers.

With the Xerox XstreamVideo platform, employees can now upload and share videos and also add videos to other applications such as learning management solutions and Microsoft SharePoint. All video is accessible to all Xerox employees and partners via smartphone, tablet, or personal computer. Employees can visit their learning portal from their mobile device to find video at any time, says Rath Morgan.

Benefits

With Microsoft Azure, Xerox can empower and educate its geographically diverse workforce; reduce employee training time and increase effectiveness; avoid extra costs for third-party content and reveal employee expertise; and provide high availability and scalability without any investment in infrastructure.

Empowers a Mobile, Global Workforce

Because XstreamVideo is available on mobile devices, Xerox employees and partners can access e-learning videos from anywhere in the world on the device they always have at hand. Capturing content via video provides long-term availability and compatibility for the future, says Rath Morgan. Self-publication of user-generated content keeps information flowing on a global scale for workforce knowledge sharing.

Reduces Employee Training Time

Employees can now find and view video content posted by other Xerox people, helping them solve a business problem in a matter of minutes.

In the case of sales training, now sales employees can quickly adopt new messaging. For example, in 2014, 1,400 Xerox sales employees created their own three-minute videos of their best sales pitch and posted the videos within the XstreamVideo solution. The salesforce was able to use XstreamVideo to share best practices quickly and easily, says Rath Morgan. Managers and executives can immediately assess the readiness of their workforce, whereas before it would take longer to find out if the message was getting out to the customer, adds Rath Morgan.

Avoids New Content Costs, Reveals Employee Expertise

Now that XstreamVideo enables employees to publish their own videos, adding their knowledge to the community, Xerox no longer needs to rely solely on costly, proprietary content and delivery methods. Now its a self-service process, adds Rath Morgan. Whether we are getting ready to launch a new product or provide ongoing performance support, we can take advantage of our Azure cloud-based XstreamVideo solution to provide information quickly across the world.

Provides High Availability and Scalability

With XstreamVideo now into its third year, employees have come to depend on it to deliver valuable videos when they need them. The solutions 99.95 percent availability is extremely important to Xerox. Availability is critical, says Rath Morgan. Just as important is the native scalability in Microsoft Azure. As the platform usage has grown, Azure has scaled to meet Xerox needs. Hudson adds, Xerox benefits from proven scalability and never has to worry about resizing its infrastructure or adding investment.

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