Each and every day, Towers Watson is entrusted with confidential client documents that must be stored in a secure, easily accessible way. To enhance the usability of its RecordsExcellence records management solution, Towers Watson is migrating the application to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Taking advantage of the software’s records management and search improvements, Towers Watson hopes to better meet its associates’ needs while enforcing companywide records management standards. More flexibility boosts user adoption, which in turn should increase the number of documents tagged for retention and the level of protection and service that Towers Watson can offer its clients. Maintaining RecordsExcellence will also be easier and less expensive, with fewer customizations and third-party components.

1. Customer Solution Case Study
Professional Services Company Enhances
Records Management with New Software
Overview “With SharePoint Server 2010, we’ve achieved a
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Professional services consistent records management infrastructure while
giving business units the flexible taxonomies that they
Customer Profile
Towers Watson, with global desire.”
headquarters in New York, offers
Faheem Larik, Senior Technical Analyst, Towers Watson
solutions in the areas of employee
benefits, talent management, rewards, Each and every day, Towers Watson is entrusted with
and risk and capital management,
through 14,000 associates around the
confidential client documents that must be stored in a secure,
world. easily accessible way. To enhance the usability of its
Business Situation
RecordsExcellence records management solution, Towers
The Towers Watson records Watson is migrating the application to Microsoft SharePoint
management system could not
accommodate various tagging
Server 2010. Taking advantage of the software’s records
taxonomies and retention schedules, management and search improvements, Towers Watson hopes
which impeded adoption and required
constant customization.
to better meet its associates’ needs while enforcing
companywide records management standards. More flexibility
Solution
Towers Watson is using Microsoft
boosts user adoption, which in turn should increase the number
SharePoint Server 2010 to enhance its of documents tagged for retention and the level of protection
records management system with
increased document-tagging and
and service that Towers Watson can offer its clients. Maintaining
retention flexibility, improved search, RecordsExcellence will also be easier and less expensive, with
and reduced maintenance.
fewer customizations and third-party components.
Benefits
 Central control, flexible taxonomies
 High user adoption for better
records protection
 Lower management costs

2. “Business users
“With managed wanted Situation Senior Technical Analyst at Towers
New York–based Towers Watson is a Watson. “But by 2008, roughly 40
search rules SharePoint
keywords in and terms global professional services company percent of RecordsExcellence consisted
that helps organizations improve of customized code, and this presented
that made sense to
Server 2010, people can performance through effective people, an ongoing maintenance burden.”
them, rather than using
add keywords that are risk, and financial management.
Launched in January 2010 by the merger Solution
tags that made
consistent and sense to of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt, In early 2009, a Watson Wyatt team used
Towers Watson offers employee benefits, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
the records
centralized.”management talent management, rewards, and risk to conduct a proof of concept for “in-
staff.” Larik, Senior Technical Analyst,
Faheem and capital management solutions place” records management with
Towers Watson through 14,000 associates around the litigation holds, eDiscovery, and
Doug Taylor, Global Director of world. retention policies features. While this
Enterprise Risk Management, Towers exercise proved that Office SharePoint
Watson
Because Towers Watson handles many Server could deliver these requirements,
financial, legal, and personnel documents it required several customizations and
for clients, the company needs to store significant ongoing maintenance costs.
them in a way that is secure, auditable,
and provides easy access. Watson Wyatt In mid-2009, Watson Wyatt learned from
had used Microsoft Office SharePoint its local Microsoft representative about
Server 2007 to develop an enterprise the upcoming release of Microsoft
content management and records SharePoint Server 2010, the successor to
management system called Office SharePoint Server 2007.
RecordsExcellence, which was intended SharePoint Server 2010 includes richer
to foster standardization in the way that built-in records management and
associates used, tracked, stored, and improved search features, among other
disposed of documents and records. improvements, which Watson Wyatt
could use to simplify use while reducing
However, even before the merger, customization.
Watson Wyatt associates in different
parts of the world and different areas of Usability Enhancements
the business wanted more flexibility in Excited about the new features of
how documents were tagged for filing in SharePoint Server 2010, Watson Wyatt
RecordsExcellence. “Business users engaged Microsoft Services to create a
wanted search rules and terms that made proof of concept of RecordsExcellence
sense to them, rather than using tags running on SharePoint Server 2010. After
that made sense to the records positive results, the firm began plans to
management staff,” says Doug Taylor, migrate RecordsExcellence to the new
Global Director of Enterprise Risk software.
Management at Towers Watson.
Towers Watson (the merger between
Also, the RecordsExcellence development Watson Wyatt and Towers Perrin was
team wanted to reduce the amount of completed in January 2010) began taking
customization in the application. “Our advantage of the improved linkage
original goal was to have an 80 percent between SharePoint Server 2010 and the
out-of-box solution with only 20 percent 2007 Microsoft Office system. The
customization,” says Faheem Larik, company has incorporated a pilot

3. version of RecordsExcellence into the In addition to benefiting from enterprise
Office Ribbon, so users can access the keywords, managed metadata field types
application from within any Microsoft enabled one North American practice
Office 2007 program with a single group to create its own taxonomy with
mouse-click to store a completed document categories and subcategories
document. Conversely, users can also unique to its business. With SharePoint
search for and open documents from Server 2010, the RecordsExcellence Team
within SharePoint Server 2010 without was able to give this group its desired
having the client software physically document categorization (using term
installed on the desktop PC. store) structure without forcing the rest
of the company to also adopt it.
With SharePoint Server 2010, Towers
Watson can provide consultants with Search functionality is also greatly
access to RecordsExcellence, whether enhanced in SharePoint Server 2010.
they are at the office or a remote Towers Watson associates can narrow
location, using their own laptops or even their search results by client name, client
just a browser connection. code, type of document, content type,
categories, subcategories, and other
The new version of RecordsExcellence criteria. Also, users can quickly view
also gives associates more document- documents from a browser, decreasing
tagging flexibility while maintaining a the time spent finding the right
centralized records structure. In document.
SharePoint Server 2010, users can tag
content with metadata that makes sense IT Enhancements
to them. “Previously, users could add With SharePoint Server 2010, Towers
keywords to RecordsExcellence, but this Watson has more flexibility in managing
led to taxonomy consistency problems,” RecordsExcellence than it’s ever had
Larik says. “With enterprise keywords in before. By using a SharePoint Server
SharePoint Server 2010, people can add Content Type Hub and publishing
keywords that are consistent and content types to other geo-distributed
centralized.” SharePoint farms, the IT staff can
configure, control, and update content
Enterprise keywords are words or types within one location and publish
phrases with which users can flexibly tag them globally. This can help the IT staff
documents as part of the SharePoint apply changes consistently and also save
Server 2010 Managed Metadata Services. time by eliminating the need to
Managed metadata is a hierarchical configure the same thing multiple times
collection of centrally managed terms in various farms. In addition, with
that users can define and use as SharePoint Server 2010, records
attributes for items in SharePoint Server managers have a single location (Content
2010. “Because of the flexibility of using Type Hub) to apply retention policies for
enterprise keywords, users are presented content types that are published in other
with the list of available options to tag geo-distributed farms.
their content,” Larik explains. “This
ensures accuracy and consistency so that Benefits
search becomes much more relevant.” By implementing an enterprise content
management and records management

4. “By upgrading to solution in SharePoint Server 2010, “In our business, it’s absolutely critical
Towers Watson will gain increased that we have a sound records
SharePoint Server 2010, document-tagging flexibility while management system so we can protect
maintaining a centralized document- and serve our clients,” Taylor says.
we have created a more taxonomy structure across the company.
powerful solution that Enhanced search capabilities and overall Lower Management Costs
ease of use have increased user interest, With SharePoint Server 2010, the Towers
better meets the needs and expanded, built-in functionality has Watson IT staff expects to reduce its
reduced customization work and management workload and associated
of the business and maintenance for the IT staff. The bottom costs, as many capabilities that used to
saves time and money in line for Towers Watson is improved require customized code are now
protection of client documents with a included out of the box in SharePoint
the long run.” world-class records management Server 2010. “By upgrading to SharePoint
solution. Server 2010, we have created a more
Faheem Larik, Senior Technical Analyst,
Towers Watson powerful solution that better meets the
Central Control, Flexible Taxonomies needs of the business and saves time
With SharePoint Server 2010, Towers and money in the long run,” Larik says.
Watson can now have a centralized
records management system that
accommodates regional business
taxonomies. “With SharePoint Server
2010, we’ve achieved a consistent
records management infrastructure while
giving business units the flexible
taxonomies that they desire,” Larik says.
As Towers Watson associates move from
team to team and project to project, they
will see the same user interface, records
structure, and search functionality.
“People move around a lot in Towers
Watson, and senior consultants often
work on 8 to 10 projects at once. A
consistent approach to accessing
documents increases efficiency,” Taylor
says.
High User Adoption for Better Records
Protection
With the improved ease of use that
SharePoint Server 2010 brings, Towers
Watson expects strong user adoption.
The ultimate benefit of a more flexible,
easier-to-use records management
system is better protection for Towers
Watson and its clients.

5. For More Information Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
For more information about Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is the
products and services, call the business collaboration platform for the
Microsoft Sales Information Center at Enterprise and the Internet.
(800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the
Microsoft Canada Information Centre For more information about Microsoft
at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the SharePoint Server 2010, go to:
United States and Canada who are www.microsoft.com/sharepoint
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
For more information about Towers
Watson services, call (212) 725-7550 or
visit the Web site at:
www.towerswatson.com
Software and Services  Services
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft Services
− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published May 2010