BVO

2004 Consensus Software Awards

Product Description

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ ("BVO") solution is designed to utilize the workflow and mobile/wireless capabilities of Exchange 2000/2003 in a .NET framework, together with the capabilities of SharePoint. The BVO is comprised of the following modules all accessed via a browser, or wirelessly via a PocketPC or SmartPhone:

• Customer Knowledgebase & Contact Management

• Marketing, Events & Bulk-Mail/Campaign Management

• Documents&Activities Management

• Customer-Care/HelpDesk

• Projects&Timesheet Management

• Policies & Procedures Management (ISO 9000)

• Human Resources Management

• Wireless/Unified Messaging

Towards enabling freedom for mobile management of a Customer's business and its staff, the BVO facilitates remote/wireless capability. With fully-functional wireless-enabled workflow, the BVO delivers browser & mobile-wireless access to the extensive abovementioned functionalities:

• Without sacrificing access to realtime Company information

• Without sacrificing access to workflow functionality

• Enhancing Customer Service & Response Times

Brookstone developed the BVO using XML, building on the workflow & collaboration available in Exchange 2000/2003 and the .Net Framework, creating additional libraries (eg auto escalation & reminder routines). Facilities of Outlook WebAccess were utilised to provide tight integration with the BVO enabling sending & filing of emails, integration of meeting reports into Outlook Calendar, and the ability to create action items in the BVO & save them in Task lists. Other modules (eg CustomerCare and HR) also make extensive use of this workflow.

Mobile/Wireless challenges were met utilising the capabilities built into .NET. Operatives can access data on the Exchange Server from a variety of different wireless-enabled devices & .NET-compliant cellphones

Challenges relating to the creation of web parts and attached-document-control were met with the development of a Sharepoint toolbox and the integration of the BVO into Sharepoint.

Brookstone achieved its objective of bringing to the SMB market an extensive suite of applications delivering comprehensive functionality with full collaboration, workflow and mobile access. 

Innovation

The design and nature of operation of the BVO has allowed another Brookstone customer, Marketing Success to exceed the levels of responsiveness demanded by their clients. It is now able to not only provide timely information to its clients, but to be able to gather knowledge about its client base and to use this knowledge for enhanced marketing campaigns.

Marketing Success's relationship with Brookstone Technologies has fostered innovation through Brookstone's enthusiasm to incorporate functionalities that the client has suggested, with a beneficial outcome for all concerned.

The BVO enables Marketing Success to empower its employees with up to the minute information, thus enabling them to make more informed decisions in a shorter timeframe.

By utilising the facilities provided by the BVO, Marketing Success can manage its support staff more effectively and because of the clever design and structure of the BVO it doesn't matter if these people are internal employees or external contractors.

Participation of people within or outside the organization who should participate in the business process.

In addition to the circumstances described in the preceding paragraph, the BVO solution also addresses these issues extremely well in various other ways. For example:

i. The BVO can identify the primary contacts in each organization Marketing Success deals with and nominate how all its contacts prefer to be contacted - email, fax or hardcopy.

ii. Invitations to meetings can be automatically sent to people who might be external to Marketing Success's operations.

Creating a business advantage  

One of Brookstone's customers, Unity Insurance is an SMB in General Insurance. They have a mobile marketing team that used Outlook as their mail & diary system, but where their marketing system failed to adequately address customer support needs.

Unity Insurance's needs included:

1. That a single entry for a meeting also creates a meeting report/entry and then automatically updates the diary; automatically sends out invitations; provides an auto reminder & escalation capability. These functionalities are intrinsic in the BVO.

2. That the solution be USEFUL & USABLE by the marketing team, without functionality that would never be used. The BVO does not have superfluous functions, and suited Unity's needs ideally.

3. That the solution provide wireless access by mobile devices. The .NET capabilities of the BVO amply met this requirement. In addition this installation also led the Customer to upgrade their back office system to Exchange 2000 & Office XP in order to take full advantage of the integration with Outlook & the workflow capabilities of the BVO.

4. General: The BVO enables customers to manage knowledge in the organisation as a key asset. The BVO provides immediate & timely information and empowers users with a single, mobile point of information entry & access, with workflow & collaboration techniques to ensure that follow-ups are carried out and deadlines are met.

Breaking new ground 

Customers and the marketplace generally strongly indicate that there is a major need for comprehensive "Off the Shelf" eOffice applications with connectivity via a standard browser & mobile/wireless devices. Our competitors do not have the breadth of integrated, modular functionality with similar connectivity.

Brookstone's competitors do not provide the same level of workflow including via mobile/wireless connectivity (Outlook Web Access is used for complete integration with Outlook). Founded on Brookstone's proven experience in designing & delivering powerful workflow processes, the BVO delivers significant workflow capabilities to enhance the impressive functionality available in Exchange 2000 and by integrating this with SharePoint and Office XP.

Earth shrinking potential 

One of Brookstone's US based customers; Hopeandcare International, Inc is a unique hybrid of a business/humanitarian model in the healthcare industry with its primary goal of achieving commercial success through providing services to governments, Global 2000 companies, small businesses, and individuals.

Hopeandcare International, Inc has strongly identified and responded to the widespread and growing demand for effective, low-cost, no-nonsense, quick-response healthcare delivery. With people all over the world moving towards preventative and rehabilitative healthcare to enhance their quality of life, Hopeandcare International, Inc is launching new technology to deliver healthcare products and services globally via the internet in formats which interface readily with a multitude of existing networks used by governments, major corporations, small businesses, and individuals.

Brookstone is providing the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ for Hopeandcare International and will be delivered to some 10,000 users worldwide. This includes some 7,500 therapists who will be working in Africa as part of hopeonUnity's (a Hopeandcare foundation) humanitarian programs geared for high numbers in a countrywide approach, providing treatments for those suffering from HIV/Aids delivering education for children and youth, also caring for orphans of Aids in orphan villages, as the means to reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ is the "Netcentric" software that is enabling users located in some of the remotest countries on earth, using Notebook computers with solar panels for power, PDA's and SmartPhones to combine their research and knowledge so that their peers can have access to this vital information in the fight against Aids.

Expanding user horizons

The BVO treats the knowledge gained within a business as a critical company asset that requires careful management. With this in mind the BVO has been designed to be easy to use - to serve as a useful tool that encourages an organisation's staff to embrace it in support of their employment activities rather than, for example, being completed by marketing personnel only once in a while shortly prior to an account review with their manager. This has resulted in staff readily embracing use of the software in their job functions.

Inclusive of its Unified Messaging and Wireless Messaging capabilities, the BVO is tightly integrated with Outlook Mail and utilizes Outlook messaging as the main enabler of the BVO experience. Outbound mail (email, fax, SMS, letters) can be generated from within the BVO using the familiar Outlook interface, stored under the relevant contact name, and when a reply is received back into the Outlook inbox (inbound mail - email, fax, voicemail), they can be easily filed back into the BVO under the relevant contact. In this way the typical, fragmented distribution of corporate mail across individual mailboxes is replaced by a coherent and orderly centralised Company knowledgebase which can be accessed based on security levels, and which remains with the Company when staff leave.

New business/service delivery 

Another of Brookstone's clients, Market Measure who operates in the Equities markets, utilises the BrookstoneVirtualOfficeTM to not only provide an excellent mobile/wireless service for its customers, but also to keep track of its complete client base and record details of telephone calls, meeting reports. Most importantly the BVO allows MarketMeasure to not only to send emails directly from Outlook, but also allows them to file those emails and their replies against the contact's name in the BVO. The implementation of the Unified Messaging module resulted in the ability to similarly file inbound faxes and voicemails against the relevant contact's name in the BVO.

The bulk mail-out facilities designed as an integral part of the BVO mean that MarketMeasure can be responsive to its clients by being able to provide information either by email or SMS to particular client groups depending on the information received from the Stock Exchange or various news services.

With a demanding and knowledgeable client base, the provision of responsive HelpDesk facilities is paramount. The BVO not only enables MarketMeasure to provide this service, but its cleverly designed workflow means that it can log client calls and then rely on the automated follow up and escalation capabilities of the BVO to ensure a timely response to its clients.

New technology 

Brookstone developed the BVO using XML by building on the workflow & collaboration available in Exchange 2000/2003 and the .Net Framework, creating additional libraries (eg auto escalation & reminder routines). The facilities of Outlook WebAccess were utilised to provide tight integration with the BVO enabling the sending & filing of emails, integration of meeting reports into the diary, and the ability to create action items in the BVO, and save them in ToDo lists. Other modules (eg CustomerCare and HR) also make extensive use of this workflow.

The Mobile/Wireless challenges were met by utilising the excellent capabilities built into .NET. This allows operatives to access data on the Exchange Server from a variety of different wireless-enabled devices & .NET-compliant cell phones

Further challenges relating to the design & creation of web parts and attached-document-control were met with the development of a toolbox for SharePoint and the integration of the BVO into SharePoint.

Social change or empowerment of users 

Efficient and effective interaction and collaboration within a team or community: One of Brookstone's customers, Casey Sports operates in a Sports Betting environment where its operatives are dispersed in a number of locations, but still need to keep in constant touch with the main office. They also have a requirement for information and knowledge gathered from other operatives. The BVO, with its remote working capability through Exchange and wireless connectivity through .NET not only assists this process, but encourages it.

Management / Project Planning; Knowledge Transfer: Because the BVO encourages all staff to enter into communications with clients, a history of activity is quickly established and this can be used to provide key managers at MarketMeasure with the knowledge they need to properly run their areas of responsibility.

Group Dynamics: Action items can be created simply and easily to at once enable the Actioning party to be comfortable in the knowledge that important items will be scheduled, reminders automatically sent and items escalated if they are not completed within the required times.

Responsiveness to an Event or a Request: The Customer Care module provides for multiple levels of Service Level Agreements and enables MarketMeasure as the user to set up its own escalation and reminder workflows, and all of this is now wireless-enabled. MarketMeasure could not find this level of flexibility in any of the other competitor systems it reviewed.

Performance

The BrookstoneVirtualOfficeTM provides ease of use, ready integration with Outlook mail, calendaring and scheduling systems, deployment of workflow to not only curtail knowledge loss, but to ensure an orderly and meaningful capture of, and subsequent easy and orderly access to Company knowledge, and to facilitate related follow-ups, etc. There are a large number of benefits delivered by Brookstone Technologies' innovative software. Brookstone believes the following to be the BrookstoneVirtualOfficeTM Productivity Considerations & Benefits:

• The BVO utilizes Brookstone's custom designed workflow capabilities and the power of Microsoft Exchange 2003 to ensure that Customer information is correctly stored, managed and delivered, and that Customer-related and other activities/tasks to be carried out by people in the organization can be tracked, completed within specified timeframes, or notifications generated, etc.

EXAMPLE:

• The details of a telephone conversation can be entered into the BVO and then as a result of that call, an action item can be assigned to someone else in the organization. The action item is automatically mailed to the person concerned, with a link back to the original document. A reminder can be sent by mail automatically at a predetermined date and time and an escalation notice can be sent by mail automatically if the action is not marked as complete by the nominated date. The mail can take a number of forms including an SMS Alert, an email (including to a wireless device), etc.

The BVO enables the capture and tracking of activities and correspondence within an organization, allowing management to be kept up to date with what is happening. Account Managers are automatically notified of any activity to their accounts. The system also enables them to be aware of other contact/dealings with their customers such as correspondence, meetings, and telephone call details. These documents are all readily able to be saved and filed to the Exchange Document store.

Enterprise quality system

SCALABILITY

BVO Load tests for Windows 2000/2003 accreditation show the BVO to be as scalable as Exchange 2003 with which it is completely integrated. Testing with beta Exchange 2003 shows similar scalability.

RELIABILITY

Developed in XML on .NET, the BVO has proven to be a reliable and stable product on Microsoft platforms.

TRANSACTIONAL VOLUME

The BVO will cope with as many users as can be handled on a server configured for Exchange 2003.

ROI

The BVO enables customers to manage knowledge in the organisation as a key asset. The BVO provides immediate & timely information and empowers users with a single, mobile point of information entry & access, with workflow & collaboration techniques to ensure that follow-ups are carried out and deadlines are met.

TIME-TO-VALUE

The BVO is an easy-to-install Microsoft-Certified package. Users find the BVO instinctive to use and due to familiarity with the browser-type interface, rewards are swift and Time-To-Value is short.

Enthusiastic customer support

Customer Quotation:

"Recently one of the Principals of Unity Insurance Brokers held discussions with a prominent Business Broker. When he explained what Unity were doing with the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™, the Business Broker stated that the type of client knowledge that Unity Insurance Brokers is tracking under control of the BVO will add somewhere between 20% and 40% to the goodwill value of its business."

Mr Fitzgerald explained. "The Business Broker's reason for stating this was that when a company buys an insurance brokerage or an accounting practice, they are effectively buying a set of filing cabinets. The purchaser then takes the risk of the clients and staff remaining with that company once the new owner has taken over. However with the BVO installed in such business, a substantial part of this risk is removed as the new owner is able to get closer to the clients faster, and with full knowledge of their past activities with his new company. If staff leaves the company, then the activities and interaction they have had with clients have been recorded within the BVO and become part of the company's knowledgebase, and thereby remain available for ongoing use by the company."

Mr. Fitzgerald said: "Unity Insurance is delighted with its decision to invest in the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ especially as it is adding substantial value to our organisation."

Standards and codes compliance

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ for Microsoft Exchange has been designed using XML under the .NET framework. This design enables the BVO to easily communicate with other platforms, including mobile/wireless devices such as PDA's and SmartPhones.

Exceptional product support

Brookstone provides full help desk and on-line support for the BVO from its Australian central support facilities. Full product training and support through Brookstone's distribution network is provided by Brookstone's Distributors who all receive complete training from Brookstone.

Professionally executed code

Brookstone has developed the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ using XML and Web Services. This means that there is no legacy code embedded into the system and that Brookstone has been able to take advantage of the very latest communication and integration techniques. 

Brookstone Technologies is ISO 9000 certified and as such all applications development is conducted under the Policies and Procedures defined under Brookstone's certification and managed using the Policies and Procedures module within the BVO.

Proof of real world performance 

Hopeandcare International, Inc is an organisation that will grow to have some 10,000+ users worldwide. This global operation relies on the BVO to manage all of its back office operations and to enable employees to stay in touch, regardless of where they are in the world.

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ is available in nine different languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English. The BVO is supported locally through Brookstone's existing distribution network.

The BVO for Microsoft Exchange is certified ".NET Certified" and is available for sale through Brookstone's global distribution network.

Successful beta testing

Brookstone Technologies is ISO 9000 certified and as such all applications development is conducted under the Policies and Procedures defined under Brookstone's certification and managed using the Policies and Procedures module within the BVO.

Real user benefits

Return on Investment:

The implementation of the BrookstoneVirtualOfficeTM at Marketing Success meant that their response times to customers have become almost immediate - regardless of the Account Manager's location. They are now able to handle an ever increasing call load with no increase in staff, and most importantly, their customers are kept informed at all times as to the status of their call.

Marketing Success will be looking to implement several of the other modules of the BVO to further enhance the excellent and cost-effective support that it is presently able to provide to its customers.

Other facilities of the BVO that Marketing Success are also implementing include the ability to track all interaction with clients by being able to record details of telephone calls, meetings, etc. In addition, they had seen other systems that had the basic facility to send emails out from the contact management system, but until they reviewed the BVO they had not seen the functionality that enabled their staff to manage their normal email "In Box" and then to be able to easily file any email under a contact's name in the BVO. All this completed in a couple of clicks - and when you are operating in a high pressure environment sometimes that is all the time you have.

So the BVO allows Marketing Success to carry out its functions effectively and efficiently, with the result of a better Return on Investment.

Increased Profitability:

The implementation of the BVO into Marketing Success has meant that not only has it been able to meet its Service Level Agreements for its clients, but as the workload has increased it have been able to do this without the addition of any extra staff - leaving its profitability intact.

The information gathered and presented by the BVO has also assisted to highlight (for example) that some of Marketing Success's existing clients are utilising the services offered substantially more than others. The increased focus they are now placing on the lower usage clients are increasing some areas of its profitability.

Increased Market Share:

Because of the close collaboration with Brookstone Technologies, Marketing Success has stated that they are delighted to have a number of their suggestions being incorporated into the BVO, all towards delivering a superior outcome for all concerned (Brookstone, Marketing Success, and its respective Customers).

Marketing Success regards the application of the BVO into a web services environment as a positive indication that they can bring in some of their major clients inside their extranet and so provide greater opportunities for closer relationships

The Ability to Enter a New Market:

Marketing Success is targeting new market areas for business utilising the very best of wireless technologies available. Their forays into this new and rapidly expanding area of business are proving to be both exciting and profitable for them.

Reduced Operating Costs; Improved Productivity/Efficiency:

Upon implementing the wireless capabilities of the BVO delivered through Microsoft .NET, the ability to access workflow-related functions via a wireless device gives Casey Sports' agents the freedom to be on the road whilst maintaining constant contact with the market. Its operatives can now be located "where the action is" and still have access to client information wirelessly through the BVO. For this organisation it means that it will be able to provide their currently expected high levels of service without a corresponding increase in staff.

Improved Quality of Care:

By utilising the facilities provided in the BVO, each of Marketing Success and MarketMeasure have been able to consistently meet and exceed their clients' expectations when it comes to quality of care. This has especially been achieved by the BVO providing automatic notifications of call progress and various alerts to the clients by email and by wireless notification directly to the PDA.

Marketing Success has also stated they envisage continuing to use the BVO and extend its capabilities as they take on more client support for their clients

Sets new industry benchmarks 

Potential

The BVO treats the knowledge gained within a business as a critical company asset that requires careful management. With this in mind the BVO has been designed to be easy to use - to serve as a useful tool that encourages an organization's staff to embrace it in support of their employment activities rather than, for example, being completed by marketing personnel only once in a while shortly prior to an account review with their manager. This has resulted in staff readily embracing use of the software in their job functions.

Inclusive of its Unified/Wireless Messaging capabilities, the BVO is tightly integrated with Outlook Mail, and utilizes messaging as the main enabler of the BVO experience. Outbound mail (email, fax, SMS, letters) can be generated from within the BVO using a familiar interface, stored under the relevant contact name, and when a reply is received back into the inbox (inbound mail - email, fax, voicemail), they can be easily filed back into the BVO under the relevant contact. In this way the typical, fragmented distribution of corporate mail across individual mailboxes is replaced by a coherent and orderly centralized Company knowledgebase which can be accessed based on security levels, and which remains with the Company when staff leave.

Enterprise/Corporate Systems are notorious for complex installation procedures and costly related professional services. Towards addressing this issue Brookstone Technologies has designed and developed its e@syinstallTM installation routine for the BrookstoneVirtualOfficeTM. Considering the complex nature of this environment and that the BVO is designed to take advantage of workflow capabilities, this has been a significant exercise which resulted in the creation of very innovative software to assist the installation process.

Agency Support

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ has been used extensively by various State Government departments including the Queensland Superannuation Board, The WA Department of Land Administration and the WA Department of Family and Children's Services.

Designed for international use

As referred to above in this submission, the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ has been designed from the ground up to be an internationalised and global product. Currently available in nine different languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian), the BVO is being sold through a worldwide distribution network.

Enterprise structured for growth

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ has not only been created to be scalable for enterprise size customers, but has been designed to be delivered via an ASP structure. One of Brookstone's largest customers, Hopeandcare International, Inc will be running some 10,000 users on a global network.

Global design standards

The BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ has been designed to the very latest Global Design Standards utilising XML and Web Services.

Identified potential markets

Brookstone has spent considerable time and resources in identifying the most advantageous markets to target its marketing efforts. The company is very active in several global markets including the USA, Japan, Honk Kong and Malaysia.

As the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ is a cross industry product there has not been a considered attempt to identify vertical markets, however, the software was designed explicitly with the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) market in mind and it is in this area that Brookstone has been most successful.

Other awards or recognition received

Over the past two years, Brookstone has received the following awards for the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ :

Microsoft:

• Winner - Best .NET Packaged Application of the Year 2003 Worldwide

• Winner - Best CRM Developer of the Year 2003 - Asia Pacific

• Winner - Business Productivity Solution Partner of the Year 2003 Small Business - Microsoft ANZ Partner Awards

• Winner - Microsoft Partner of the Year Small Business 2003 - Microsoft ANZ Partner Awards

• Finalist - 2002 Microsoft Tech-Ed Awards - Best Use of Workflow

• Finalist - 2002 Microsoft Tech-Ed Awards - Best Integration of the Office Product Family

• Finalist - 2002 WA IT Awards 2002 - Best Product

• Finalist - 2001 Microsoft MEC 2001 Awards - Best Productivity Solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000

IBM

• Finalist - Hot Linux Solution - IBM Beacon Awards 2004

• Finalist - Best Collaborative Solution - Lotus Awards 2004

• Winner - Lotus Beacon Awards "Best Mobile/Workplace Solution" 2003

• Winner - Lotus Beacon Awards "Best Mobile/Workplace Solution" 2002

• Finalist - Best of Showcase - Lotusphere 2003

• Finalist - Best of Showcase - Lotusphere 2002

Success in home or export markets 

Brookstone has achieved considerable success in export markets with major sales in Asia and the USA. This sales success has been described previously in this submission.

Working with international collaborators 

Brookstone works extensively with its worldwide business partners to continually enhance and update the BrookstoneVirtualOffice™ to enable it to maintain its innovation and market leadership.

Other information the judges should know

Website: http://www.brookstone.com.au 

Attached Files:

Brookstone Technologies Company Overview (PDF)

BVO for Microsoft Exchange Powerpoint Presentation (PPP)

Customer Reference Statement - Unity Insurance Brokers (PDF)

Customer Press Release - hopandcare International Inc. (PDF)

Magazine Article - CRN Magazine (PDF)

Magazine Article - .NET Asia (PDF)

Content2004Copyright©Brookstone Technologies Pty Limited
Format2004Copyright©Consensus Pty Ltd

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