JUST THE TICKET FOR Ipsos MORI WITH JOHN SEGLIAS CIO FOR THE EMEA REGION

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1 Incorporating Data Management News JUST THE TICKET FOR Ipsos MORI WITH JOHN SEGLIAS CIO FOR THE EMEA REGION INCREASING CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE IN INTERNET TELEPHONY THE WISDOM OF SAN MONITORING May An Angel Business Communications publication PLUS DEDUPLICATION HOT TOPIC CLOUD COMPLIANCE SNS UK is the only publication to be endorsed by

2 Incorporating Data Management News JUST THE TICKET FOR Ipsos MORI WITH JOHN SEGLIAS CIO FOR THE EMEA REGION INCREASING CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE IN INTERNET TELEPHONY THE WISDOM OF SAN MONITORING May An Angel Business Communications publication PLUS DEDUPLICATION HOT TOPIC CLOUD COMPLIANCE SNS UK is the only publication to be endorsed by

3 We had at least three different software backup solutions in place, using various tape drives and tape technologies. We now have 2 centres where our data is backed up, using one single solution. John Seglias CIO for the EMEA region Enterprise business continuity just the ticket for Ipsos MORI With the General Election having dominated the nation s attention recently, SNS-UK talks with John Seglias, CIO for the EMEA region of leading research company, Ipsos MORI, about the challenges he faces. Compliance, consolidation and (business) continuity have been major challenges in recent times, and key to meeting these successfully has been the company's relationship with value added reseller, S3. SNS: Where is Ipsos MORI in terms of the size of the organisairton and the background of the business? IM: Ipsos MORI, part of the Ipsos Group, is a leading UK research company with global reach. We specialise in 5 areas of research, covering Advertising (brand equity and communications); Loyalty (customer and employee relationship management); Marketing (consumer, retail & shopper and healthcare); MediaCT (media and technology), and finally Social & Political Research and Reputation Research. Ipsos MORI is known for its focus on quality, something that sets us apart from our competitors. For example, we were the first UK Market Research Company to sign up to the MRS Company Partnership Scheme. We are also ISO 20252:2006, ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001:2005 compliant. SNS: Can you give some idea of the number of IT users and the different applications/ needs they have? IM: In the UK we have 900 permanent staff across 7 sites, 1700 interviewers undertaking face to face interviews throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as 4 call centres with a total of 500 seats. Globally, Ipsos has 10,000 permanent staff in over 60 countries. Apart from the usual array of Microsoft productivity applications, many staff also use applications specific to the Market Research sector. These are used to prepare the interview scripts, samples of interviewees, collect the data, process it and finally produce the output, usually in the form of PowerPoint and Excel. Our field face to face interviewers are equipped with laptops and software which allows them to run through an interview script and record the answers to the questions being asked. These are then sent back to base via secure connections, where the answers are processed. Similarly, call centre staff use terminals and predictive diallers to go through a script and capture the answers. SNS: Please provide some background on your own job role and how this has evolved in general terms since you joined the company including the challenge of delivering one single IT strategy across multiple regions and continents? IM: I have worked in the IT industry for almost 20 years (apart from a one-year break to successfully undertake a full-time MBA). Having joined Ipsos MORI in 2007 as the UK IT Director, I have recently been promoted to the role of CIO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The new role is complex as the 3 sub-regions have very different IT needs and putting in place a single IT strategy is challenging, if not impossible. For example, our Eastern European region is one of the fastest growing within Ipsos, with double digit growth year on year. At the same time, basic IT infrastructure in some countries of the region is either non-existent or extremely expensive, e.g. connecting some eastern-european countries to our global Wide Area Network is pretty much impossible. We have a minimum acceptable standard of IT processes and procedures that all Ipsos JOHN SEGLIAS MAY 10

4 16 companies have to follow, but Another challenge was the technology element. I, and one or more backup solutions SNS: And what are the WAN and therefore we can 17 depending on local circumstances, Ipsos MORI merger, in managing other senior IT colleagues, per regional office, resulting in specific requirements of such save money. JOHN SEGLIAS a degree of flexibility in IT processes and implementation is required. SNS: Can you give an insight on some of the specific challenges you have had to deal with. IM: Well first off there is Compliance. The requirements of data handling/retention etc. bearing in mind the nature of our business. Information Security and and migrating the merging of two IT infrastructures and data sets. I joined Ipsos MORI shortly after the UK businesses merged. Although the technologies used were similar, in practice there were a number of differences that hindered efficiency and productivity in the new organisation (for example in the versions of Microsoft Exchange used) and basic infrastructure challenges, e.g. no proper connectivity between the offices. have also been asked to attend tender meetings and present to our clients and we know from the fact that we have won a lot of these bids that this approach works. Finally, the journey from having a number of solutions to consolidating on one platform. Our 3-year strategy included a consolidation strategy. This manifested itself in a number of ways. For example, The Ipsos many backup tapes being produced every day. These were scattered throughout the UK and it was very difficult to guarantee the quality of backups and security of the data on those tapes. We therefore started looking at enterprise-class solutions that would allow us to better manage our data, specifically looking at centralising our data backups and restores, data replication which we could use a solution, bearing in mind the nature of your business back up, data protection and retention, archiving etc. IM: We were specifically looking at enterprise-level solutions. In my mind that means both centralised and devolved administration, i.e. our global teams can manage all our data storage processes while local teams have the rights to fully manage their own local data. We also wanted a single SNS: Are you able to quantify the benefits of the business continuity solution in terms of business benefits and in terms of cost savings? IM: Yes. In order to get budget approval for this project, I had to present to the global Ipsos IT Investment Committee. The basis of our case was that we had a ROI of 1 to 1.5 years depending on the country. In the UK for example, we can cancel a JOHN SEGLIAS compliance are very important We therefore put in place a group has gone through a to set-up redundant systems, product that would cover data number of BC contracts we have to Ipsos MORI and the Ipsos major review and refresh of our consolidation exercise, with ways to cut down the time it backups, data and archiving, and reduce the number of tapes group. In the UK we were the IT, with a clear 3-year strategy and other applications consolidated took to backup and restore replication, de-duplication, and we currently purchase for our first Market Research organisation to deliver a professional, resilient, on a per regional basis. our ever increasing amounts search. backups. to become ISO high-performance, but value of data, and most importantly certified. Some of our biggest for money, IT infrastructure. For example, the UK s improving data security. SNS: What part does deduplication As a result, our ROI is actually clients are the national and platform is also used by our technology played in the less than a year. In terms of local governments of the UK, Since then we have implemented Western European colleagues. Having looked at the data solution? business benefits, it all as well as other public sector a UK and Ireland MPLS network, We also decided to consolidate management market, we decided goes back to our ISO organisations, and therefore refreshed key servers and the software solutions we that the Commvault products IM: Deduplication technology certification. we pay particular attention to adopted virtualisation, migrated use, whether it s for backup, were a natural fit for our is at the core of our data management this area. I personally sit on to a single Exchange 2007 anti-virus or undertaking market organisational needs. When I architecture. We initially deployed Being proactive and being able the Ipsos MORI Information platform, implemented redundancy research. joined Ipsos MORI, we had at a DataDomain solution as a way to show our auditors that we Security Board, which is by having a second Data least three different software to manage our growing continually improve our data chaired by the UK CEO. Centre with full replication, We ve made great progress in backup solutions in place, and file storage requirements. management, ensures our refreshed desktops and this area (in the UK we have using various tape drives and That had an immediate impact continued ISO accreditation. The business is ISO laptops, restructured the IT now consolidated all our tape technologies. We now which meant we were able to audited on an annual basis Service Desk while implementing platforms), but there are more have 2 centres where our data defer any further storage purchases. This is a USP (unique selling and our IT processes and ITIL, and also spent a lot opportunities in the EMEA region, is backed up, using one single point) that our business can procedures in areas such as more time with the Ipsos and the group as a whole, solution. When we revisited our needs use during our pitches for Data Retention, Information MORI staff, understanding their which we can exploit, for and designed our Business new business. In some cases, Security and Disaster Recovery technology issues and resolving example in consolidating our When we shared our ideas Continuity architecture, we ISO accreditation is a go through a scrutinizing them. telephony suppliers. and plans with our North put deduplication right in the prerequisite, so not having it process. Although this adds to American colleagues, they centre of it. would result in loosing multi- our workload, it does help us As a result, IT is now a trusted SNS: Can you describe the agreed with our vision. We million pound projects. in two ways: partner with a seat on the UK quest for, and implementation have since put forward our We re currently in the implementation management board. We are of, the organisation s enterprise business case to the global phase, but we hope that, by SNS: And how has the credit To identify areas where we no longer just a back-office class business continuity platform? Ipsos IT Investment Committee using deduplication, we can crunch impacted on the can improve even further support function. Instead we and have had approval to minimise the amount of data storage/ IT department re To put together the work with our colleagues to IM: The UK IT team identified proceed with rolling out the we replicate between our data planning/project implementation? business case which we support them in the delivery early on that a more strategic UK-designed solution to the centres. can then use to raise the of their projects to our clients, and long term data management rest of Ipsos, making it our IM: Ipsos actually outperformed necessary investment for for example by helping them approach was necessary. corporate data-management As a result we do not have to most of our major competitors improvements. with major bids that have a Traditionally, Ipsos MORI had standard. increase the bandwidth of our in During a very challenging MAY MAY 10

5 18 JOHN SEGLIAS year for the market research business, we were able to finish only 5% down on The rest of the industry finished 10% down. IT was asked to contribute by tightly managing our IT expenditure. We therefore decided to prioritise our CAPEX and focus on backend infrastructure investment rather than desktops and laptops. As a result, we know that in 2011 we will have in place a long-term data management solution, and we can focus more on the front-end elements of our IT infrastructure. SNS: What impact did the General Election have on the organisation s storage/general IT workload? IM: Ipsos MORI has a 30-year tradition of being at the forefront of UK national, European and Local elections in terms of pre-election and exit polling, data gathering, analysis and delivery. We already had in place the solutions, processes and capacity to manage the requirements we are getting as a result of the General Election will just be available and perform as expected when required. SNS: So away from the General Election could you describe a typical day within your department? IM: Having 900 end users, we spend quite a bit of time dealing with requests, ranging from borrowing 3G USB sticks, to setting up secure environments on our file servers. When I joined Ipsos MORI we averaged over 2000 tickets per month, these included both day-to-day requests as well as incidents and problems. Currently we receive on average 1500 tickets per month. I would like to believe that this decline in tickets is as a result of the improvements in Infrastructure and our adoption of ITIL. Our backend teams spend their day working on new projects, e.g. implementing our new data management solution, supporting other Ipsos countries, or dealing with unexpected issues. SNS: When developing new projects how did your relationship with the channel evolve? very impressed with their willingness to be a true partner. Even though our initial storage expenditure was very limited and ad-hoc, S3 recognised that we had long term requirements and it was beneficial for them to work with us and invest their time and effort up-front. SNS: Specifically, what are the benefits/usps that S3 brings to Ipsos/MORI over and above other possible partners? IM: Being a very busy IT department we do not have the time to stay up to date with all new technology and solutions. S3, apart from being very good at implementing our architecture, also keep us up to date. It s a two way street. We make sure they understand our immediate and future business and data management needs, and in return they are able to suggest new ways of improving our systems and processes. SNS: Putting IT at the centre of the ipsos MORI organisation has been a significant achievement for John Seglias. For example, I was commenting to a colleague that we got not a single request from the business for us to ensure our website would be available during the election process. There is an inherent expectation and belief that our systems IM: We have been an S3 client for a couple of years. Our initial relationship was based on a number of small purchases. They introduced us to deduplication and worked with us to implement our DataDomain solution. We were He's happy to acknowledge the strategic role that S3 has played in helping him achieve this objective and foresees the relationship developing further alongside his plans to optimiseuse of technologies such as virtualisation and (just maybe!) the Cloud in the future. MAY 10