Fitness Giant Upgrades Conferencing
Solution to Improve Communications and
Collaboration
“I am very excited about Lync Server
2013. With the new high-availability
options, persistent chat, improved
conferencing options, and enhanced
mobile capabilities, it has a lot to
offer us.”
Michael Spruel, Telecommunication Manager, LA Fitness
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Health
Customer Profile
Founded in 1984, LA Fitness operates sports clubs at more than 500 locations throughout North America.
Business Situation
LA Fitness wanted a unified voice platform that would help it reduce costs and meet its large-capacity needs while also providing a reliable, flexible solution that was easy to manage and maintain.
Solution
LA Fitness is upgrading its unified communications solution to Microsoft Lync Server 2013 for its robust enterprise voice capabilities.
Benefits
• Ensures communications availability
• Resolves customer issues faster • More efficient operations • Builds stronger employee
relationships
Going to the gym is a process of continuous
self-improvement. LA Fitness helps its
customers achieve their goals for personal
improvement by providing excellent facilities
and highly motivated trainers. Internally, LA
Fitness also has goals to provide excellent
service. One way it has achieved this goal is
by continually improving its communications
capabilities so staff members in the clubs have
access to the right information and systems to
handle customer interactions professionally and
efficiently. LA Fitness uses Microsoft Lync
Server 2010 to provide voice, conferencing,
instant messaging, and presence. It recently
tested Microsoft Lync Server 2013 to understand
how it can continue to improve employee
communications and collaboration. With the
deployment, LA Fitness plans to improve
mobility support, add conferencing
capabilities, and use advanced
high-availability options.
Lync 2013 Customer
Solution Case Study
“Delivering video
is something our
employees have
been asking for
and it works
great. Our
corporate staff
will use it to
deliver more
robust
presentations to
the staff in the
clubs.”
Michael Spruel, Telecommunication Manager, LA Fitness
Situation
LA Fitness operates state-of-the-art fitness clubs across the United States and Canada and is always seeking innovative ways to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of its members. LA Fitness prides itself on its highly trained staff, who handles customer requests
professionally and efficiently.
To help its staff provide excellent customer service, LA Fitness has invested heavily in its communications systems. Efficient communications are essential to help LA Fitness employees increase sales, promote customer loyalty, and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction. LA Fitness first deployed a Microsoft
communications solution in 2009 and subsequently upgraded to Microsoft Lync Server 2010 in 2011. LA Fitness uses Lync for all of its
communications needs—from voice and conferencing to automated programs. Lync also interoperates with the other Microsoft products LA Fitness uses, such as Microsoft SharePoint Server and
Microsoft Office, to provide presence and enable communications. LA Fitness improves productivity by integrating Lync presence and communications options into its line-of-business applications to foster communication. “Lync is tied into everything I do—customer service, front-desk management, updating billing information, and renewing memberships. With the presence information I get from Lync, I can reach out to a colleague and resolve customer issues much faster,” says Lea Roelle, Member Service Manager at LA Fitness.
Outside of its clubs, LA Fitness has additional communications needs to support. Many employees spend a great deal of time traveling to various clubs they manage or support. These employees
need mobile options to help them stay in touch, and LA Fitness needed better support for mobile devices, especially through Lync Server. It also wanted to promote the use of video conferencing between employees. In addition, LA Fitness sought to ensure redundancy of Lync because so much of its staff relies on Lync to get work done quickly and efficiently.
Solution
After testing Microsoft Lync Server 2013, LA Fitness sees many reasons to deploy it. “I am very excited about Lync Server 2013. With the new high-availability options, persistent chat, improved conferencing options, and enhanced mobile capabilities, it has a lot to offer us,” says Michael Spruel, Telecommunication Manager at LA Fitness.
Management and High Availability
Lync Server 2013 expands on the high-availability options that were available in the 2010 version. While Lync Server 2010 had pools that provided extra server capacity, Lync Server 2013
introduces the concept of linked pools
Lync Server 2013 also expands the role of the front-end server to store contacts. In the event of a Microsoft SQL Server database failure, LA Fitness employees will no longer lose access to their contacts. “I’m glad we can configure Lync Server so that we are no longer dependent on the database for critical functionality,” says Spruel. LA Fitness is also happy that the monitoring server role has been incorporated in the front-end server role as well, which
simplifies the environment.
Microsoft has also added support for dynamic memory management to better support Lync Server virtualization. “We don’t virtualize Lync Server today, but the fact that we could virtualize everything is appealing to save on space, power, and cooling,” says Spruel.
LA Fitness relies heavily Lync Server response groups. Lync Server 2013 expands the server of role-based access control to response groups with different levels of permissions for editing response group settings. Enabling the groups to self-manage the response group settings will make it easier for the groups to set up the functions to meet their needs and decrease the burden on administrators.
“I love the new
Lync Web App
because it offers
desktop sharing
and voice and
video. Everyone
gets the full Lync
experience.”
Michael Spruel, Telecommunication Manager, LA Fitness Conferencing
LA Fitness is interested in the capability to deliver videos in Microsoft PowerPoint
presentations during a Lync meeting. “Delivering video is something our employees have been asking for and it works great,” says Spruel. “Our
corporate staff will use it to deliver more robust presentations to the staff in the clubs. They can show inspirational videos rather than just PowerPoint slides. It’s a better experience for everybody.”
LA Fitness wants to further improve communications between staff members by encouraging the use of video during calls and conferences. To facilitate the use of video, LA Fitness is purchasing monitors with built-in video cameras. The Microsoft Lync 2013 client provides improved video support by enabling LA Fitness employees to preview what their camera is showing before they turn on video and by
delivering up to five video streams during a conference.
Client Options
With Lync 2013, employees have many ways to access their communications capabilities
including persistent chat. “Now that persistent chat is
integrated into the Lync client, we will deploy it,” says Spruel. “I like the capability to send out an announcement to all of our clubs. With persistent chat, our clubs get the notice and then can go back and reference it along with any follow-up instructions.”
LA Fitness also sees value in the fact that Lync 2013 provides Skype federation with voice and chat interactions with Skype users. It believes that Skype federation will facilitate
communication with vendors who do not have access to Lync.
Another option for the company’s vendors to join conferences by using the Lync Web App. “I love the new Lync Web App because it offers desktop
sharing and voice and video,” says Spruel. “Everyone gets the full Lync experience.” LA Fitness is encouraged that Lync 2013 mobile clients are available for major phone platforms. Through their mobile phones, employees can access much of the same functionality as in the Lync 2013 desktop client, including VoIP calling and contact management. “Now our VPs out on the road or managers who have just stepped out of their office have presence from their mobile devices, so people know they can get in touch with them,” says Spruel.
Benefits
With the deployment of Lync Server 2013, LA Fitness will continue to improve the
communications services it provides to employees. By improving communications and fostering
collaboration, LA Fitness can maintain its high levels of customer service. “Lync Server 2013 provides a lot of new capabilities that we didn’t have with Lync Server 2010,” says Spruel “I’m really happy with the decision to deploy our Microsoft communications solution and I’m looking forward to deploying Lync Server 2013 and pushing it out to the organization.”
Improves Availability
LA Fitness depends on Lync Server for all of its internal communications. It has also embedded Lync Server functionality into its most common processes for serving customers. Employees expect access to the presence information and instant communications that Lync 2013 provides. Because Lync Server is so important to LA Fitness, it will benefit from having a fully redundant architecture to prevent unplanned downtime and make it easier to perform maintenance without causing an outage.
Raises Productivity
LA Fitness has seen significant improvements in employee productivity due to its Lync Server deployment. Individuals no longer waste time trying to locate the right people to talk to or looking up phone numbers. With the integration of presence information into Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, employees can see at a glance if the person they need to talk to is available. If not, they can easily find someone else. “SharePoint Server is a significant element of how we operate, and we have leveraged the communications capabilities provided by the interoperation of Lync Server with SharePoint Server, which makes us all more
productive in the long run,” explains George Bedar, CIO at LA Fitness.
By using the Lync 2013 mobile client, LA Fitness can extend these productivity benefits outside of the office. “Just having presence on mobile devices makes it easier for people to get in touch,” says Spruel. “For our VPs on the road or for a manager interacting with employees at the club, that extra availability is really
important.”
Builds Teams
The incorporation of more video into daily
communications at LA Fitness will help to improve the bonds that form between employees. “Seeing video enhances the communications experience,” explains Spruel. “It allows interpersonal experience that is lost in just a phone conversation.”
Microsoft Lync Server 2013
Microsoft Lync Server 2013 ushers in a new connected user experience that transforms every communication into an interaction that is more collaborative and engaging—and that is accessible from anywhere. For IT, the benefits are equally powerful, with a highly secure and reliable communications system that works with existing tools and systems for easier management, lower cost of ownership, smoother deployment and migration, and greater choice and flexibility. For more information about Microsoft Lync Server 2013, go to: www.microsoft.com/lyncJabra
Jabra offers a complete portfolio of corded and wireless devices that are “optimized” for Lync. These devices are tested by Microsoft and built to offer a rich and integrated experience for Lync users. Jabra enables users to derive the full business productivity, efficiency, and cost benefits they expect from Lync through enhanced voice collaboration based on device simplicity, reliability, and ease of use.
For more information about Jabra devices tested and qualified for Lync, visit:
www.jabra.com
Logitech
Logitech delivers the advanced, business-grade audio and video performance needed for a superior video calling experience.
Logitech webcams and video calling solutions are designed especially for business, with the highest-quality optics and sensors across all price points.
For more information about Logitech devices tested and qualified for Lync, visit: www.logitech.com
Polycom
Polycom solutions optimized for Microsoft Lync provide unified, intuitive collaboration solutions that allow individuals and groups to instantly see, hear, and speak with colleagues around the world. The result is improved collaboration; streamlined operations; and
faster, more informed decisions. Polycom provides comprehensive voice and video collaboration solutions for Microsoft Lync with more than 40 different solutions—from USB/IP/wireless phones to desktop video, to immersive room-based systems.
For more information about Polycom solutions tested and qualified for Lync, visit: www.polycom.com/microsoft
Software and
Services
• Microsoft Server Product
Portfolio
− Microsoft Lync Server 2013
− Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 − Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 − Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 • Microsoft Office − Microsoft Lync 2013 − Microsoft Outlook 2013
Partners
• Jabra • Logitech • Polycom1. For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
2. For more information about LA Fitness products and services, visit the website at: www.lafitness.com
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published February 2013
