Eastman Chemical Company developed a customized asset information management (AIM) system on SharePoint Server 2010 in just four months, avoiding $350,000 in costs. The new AIM system improved asset management efficiencies, allowing Eastman to avoid an estimated $4.3 million annually in costs from reduced downtime, lower maintenance expenses, and other productivity gains. Employees also find information more quickly in AIM compared to the older system.

1. Customer Solution Case Study
Chemical Company Avoids $4.3 Million in
Capital Costs with Better Asset Management
Overview ―After developing our requirements, it took two people
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Manufacturing—Chemicals just four months to create AIM on SharePoint Server.
This eliminated the $350,000 expense of buying a
Customer Profile
Eastman Chemical Company makes commercial product and customizing it.‖
chemicals, fibers, and plastics that
Ed Montgomery, Project Manager, Information Technology Project Office,
other companies turn into everyday Eastman Chemical Company
products. The Kingsport, Tennessee–
based firm has more than 10,000 Eastman Chemical Company is a global chemical company with
employees worldwide.
manufacturing plants around the world. In those plants are tens
Business Situation of thousands of pieces of capital equipment, from pumps to
The software that Eastman used to
power generators, all of which need to be carefully managed to
manage asset documents was difficult
to use and left information gaps that maximize uptime and performance and minimize maintenance
could result in equipment downtime
costs. Eastman recently replaced an older capital asset
and higher maintenance costs.
management software program with a custom system built in
Solution
just four months using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. By
In just four months, using Microsoft
SharePoint Server 2010, two Eastman authoring the new system itself, Eastman avoided spending
developers created a customized asset
U.S.$350,000 on a commercial program. Plus, Eastman calculates
information management program
that is easier to use and provides that it is avoiding $4.3 million in annual capital expenses
automated efficiencies.
through better asset management. Further, it will speed up
Benefits capital project cycles significantly and reduce server costs by 60
Four-month time-to-market
percent.
Software avoidance of U.S.$350,000
Capital avoidance of $4.3 million
Project cycle improvements
Employee productivity gains
Server costs reduced 60 percent

2. Situation install it? How do I operate it? Poor asset
Eastman Chemical Company makes management results in equipment
chemicals, fibers, and plastics that other downtime, operating delays, higher
companies use as key ingredients for maintenance costs, shorter equipment
everyday products—including food life, and environmental and safety
packaging, automobile paint, clothing incidents.
fabrics, beverages, cosmetics, and more.
Eastman is headquartered in Kingsport, Problems with Older System
Tennessee, where about 7,500 of its For years, Eastman used a commercial
10,000-plus employees work and most document management system to
manufacturing occurs. Eastman also has perform asset information management.
16 other manufacturing plants (including This program was also used widely to
joint ventures) in nine countries and manage documents in other parts of the
multiple sales offices worldwide. Eastman company. Eastman has hundreds of
is a Fortune 500 company with 2010 capital projects open at any one time,
revenues of U.S.$5.8 billion. ranging from a week-long project to
repair a piece of equipment to a five-
The Need to Manage Assets Well year project to build a new
Like all large corporations with vast manufacturing plant. Whenever a group
physical plants, Eastman is interested in kicked off a capital project, it would
managing its capital facilities and assets create a document management site
to maximum effect. In Kingsport alone, where all the documentation, schedules,
Eastman owns 500 buildings filled with and other information for that project
tens of thousands of pieces of were stored and shared. By 2009,
equipment. Eastman needs to keep tabs Eastman had approximately 2 million
on everything it owns, from laboratory documents in its capital-projects sites,
microscopes to wastewater treatment which were used daily by about 4,000
facilities, and through design, Eastman employees, ranging from
construction, operation, maintenance, engineering to maintenance staffs.
renovation, and decommissioning—
whether the work is done by Eastman or However, the software had limited
vendors. metadata capability, so it was difficult to
enforce metadata on documents. There
The industry term for the process of were multiple versions of the same
wisely caring for capital assets is asset document, so project sites were
information management. For a capital overflowing with out-of-date and
asset to perform optimally and provide duplicate documents that frustrated and
maximum return on investment, prolonged document searches. It was
companies need to have complete, difficult to implement complex workflows
accurate, and immediately available asset and alertsin the program, so once the
information. Employees dealing with engineering staff had a capital asset in
those assets need to be able to answer place, it could not easily notify the
questions such as: Who made this asset? maintenance team so that it could
How old is it? What is its role? Do we prepare the maintenance schedule and
have spare parts on hand? What order spare parts. These software
maintenance work is pending? What inefficiencies resulted in asset
parts are under warranty? How do I management inefficiencies—

3. ―Many of the capabilities maintenance delays, equipment We no longer had the luxury of
downtime, and even manufacturing maintaining multiple document
that we would have to slowdowns. repository tools providing overlapping
capability.‖ In January 2009, Eastman
create from scratch in From a programming perspective, the embarked on a serious effort to shut
Office SharePoint Server program required specialized skills and down the older program.
services that were difficult to find and
2007 to replace our quite expensive. Creating workflows Even though Office SharePoint Server
required customizing the software by was easier to use than the previous
previous asset using an obscure pseudo-object- program, Eastman faced a great deal of
management application oriented programming language from customization work to replicate the asset
the vendor. And for all its challenges with management functionality in that
were present out-of-the- the software, Eastman was spending a program. However, good news came in
huge amount on licensing fees. early 2010 when Eastman found out
box in SharePoint Server about Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010,
2010.‖ Solution the successor to Office SharePoint Server
While employees were struggling with 2007. ―Many of the capabilities that we
Jim McGuire, Supervisor, Global this document management software, would have to create from scratch in
Collaboration and Portal Architecture Eastman was busy rolling out Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to replace
Group, Eastman Chemical Company
Office SharePoint Server 2007 as its our previous asset management
companywide intranet software and for application were present out-of-the-box
team collaboration sites across the in SharePoint Server 2010,‖ says Jim
company. Employees found Office McGuire, Supervisor in the Global
SharePoint Server 2007 so easy to use Collaboration and Portal Architecture
and so helpful in streamlining business Group at Eastman Chemical Company.
processes that between 2007 and 2009
they created approximately 7,000 Development Efficiencies
SharePoint sites used by nearly all 10,000 In August 2010, Eastman deployed
employees. By 2010, Eastman had SharePoint Server 2010, and two
approximately 10 terabytes of Eastman developers began the work of
information on SharePoint sites. recreating the asset management
application in SharePoint Server 2010. By
With the gradual and grass-roots shift to December 2010, they were done—after
Office SharePoint Server 2007, it became just two months of planning and two
increasingly onerous for employees to months of development work. Eastman
move between it and the document calls the new application AIM (short for
management program. ―We had long asset information management).
wanted to get rid of our document
management system and standardize on ―We did far more than just move
Office SharePoint Server as our documents from point A to point B and
companywide content management replicate previous functionality in
platform,‖ says Ed Montgomery, Project SharePoint Server; we used the features
Manager in theInformation Technology in SharePoint Server to change our
Project Office at Eastman Chemical business processes to help employees be
Company. ―The effort intensified when much more efficient,‖ says Rebecca
the national economic recession settled Dietrich, one of the two developers and a
in, around 2008, and cash became scarce. Systems Analyst in the Global

4. ―When you create a Collaboration and Portal Architecture Eastman also used the SharePoint Server
Group at Eastman Chemical Company. concept of document sets, a group of
SharePoint project in documents that support a single project
In addition to the out-of-the-box and share the same metadata. The entire
Visual Studio 2010, it features in SharePoint Server 2010, document set can be versioned as a
creates the deployment Dietrich and her colleague used whole and downloaded as a compressed
Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, an zip file with all the contents. People can
package for you …. HTML editor and web design program also initiate a workflow on the entire set
for creating and modifying SharePoint instead of individual workflows for each
Developers are free to sites, and the Microsoft Visual Studio document. ―We used document sets to
focus on being more 2010 development system. ―The create a new content type called a
enhanced integration between transmittal, which we use to move
innovative.‖ SharePoint Server 2010 and Visual Studio project documents from one stage to
2010 saved me a lot of work,‖ says Kevin another with automated efficiencies,‖
Kevin Tinn, Systems Analyst, Global
Collaboration and Portal Architecture Tinn, the other developer and also a Dietrich says.
Group, Eastman Chemical Company Systems Analyst in the Global
Collaboration and Portal Architecture Streamlined Asset Lifecycle
Group at Eastman Chemical Company. Management
―When you create a SharePoint project in As an example of how AIM has made
Visual Studio 2010, it creates the asset management more efficient and
deployment package for you, which accurate at Eastman, imagine the
automates a good bit of the purchase of temperature and pressure
development process. Developers are transmitters for an Eastman hydrolysis
free to focus on being more innovative.‖ batch process. The process begins when
an Eastman engineer develops a
New Features Save Time, Improve specification sheet for the transmitter,
Accuracy defining all the parameters that the
Eastman made heavy use of content device must meet in a particular
types in SharePoint Server 2010. With application, and assigns a unique
content types, employees can specify the identification number. He or she also
content fields, policies, workflows, and creates or modifies drawings to indicate
other rules for a specific kind of content, where these devices will be installed. The
such as a design document. Once engineer then creates or modifies
defined, content types can be extended workflow diagramsand training materials.
to other documents and reused across A SharePoint site in AIM is created
SharePoint sites. ―Each capital project has programmatically for the capital project,
its own SharePoint site, and every where all the documents related to that
document in that site can be assigned asset will live. As documents, images, and
common metadata,‖ Tinn says. drawings are uploaded to this site,
―Employees can also upload multiple metadata is assigned.
documents in one step. These are
efficiencies that save time and also When the specification sheet and related
ensure metadata accuracy and documents are ready to send to outside
consistency and easier document contractors for review and price quotes,
search.‖ the engineer uses automated workflows
in SharePoint Server to notify them.
Eastman engineers and contractors can

5. ―Very conservatively, I easily collaborate on the SharePoint site, ―Or they found multiple versions of the
making edits to a single copy of a same document. With SharePoint Server
estimate that 2,000 document and leaving version control to 2010, we sped up search with rich
SharePoint Server. Automated workflows metadata for every document. If users
employees and eliminate the constant flow of email know just about anything about a
contractors working for messages and version-control confusion document, they can quickly find what
experienced with the previous program. they need.‖
Eastman are saving at
Once Eastman has selected a vendor to Eastman is evaluating Microsoft FAST
least five minutes a build or provide the asset, construction Search Server 2010 for SharePoint for
day.… Even small time or customization begins. All engineering more sophisticated and broader search
documents generated during this phase results. ―Ultimately, we‘ll use FAST Search
savings multiplied by are stored in the same SharePoint site, Server to deliver not only content but
with metadata added automatically or also people and data,‖ says Tinn. ―For
thousands of employees manually to ensure easy document example, if someone enters the word
and contractors adds up search and retrieval later. ‗safety‘ we want them to see safety-
related documents, our division safety
to big savings.‖ Once the capital asset is finished, coordinators, safety statistics, and so
delivered to Eastman, and installed, the forth.‖
Ed Montgomery, Project Manager,
Information Technology Project Office, maintenance staff responsible for the
Eastman Chemical Company asset is automatically notified before the Eastman runs the AIM application on five
asset goes into production so that they virtual machines—two web servers, one
have time to order spare parts and create application server, one database server,
a maintenance plan. At the same time, and one index server.
the project‘s AIM site is automatically
migrated to archival status, where all Benefits
documents are available for reference for By migrating its asset management
two years, at which time the site is application to SharePoint Server 2010,
automatically deleted. With SharePoint Eastman Chemical Company was able to
Server 2010, Eastman has built-in records avoid spending $350,000 on a
management capabilities that it did not commercial replacement. More
have before, with rights management importantly, Eastman is able to manage
pushed to project managers, who are capital assets more efficiently, avoiding
responsible for assigning and an estimated $4.3 million annually in
terminating access rights to AIM sites. downtime and maintenance costs. The
company also estimates speeding up
Improved Search Capability capital project cyclessignificantly and
Eastman uses the built-in enterprise expects employee productivity gains.
search capability in SharePoint Server to
return search results to employees who Four-Month Time-to-Market for
need to find documents in AIM sites. Custom Program; Cost Avoidance of
―One of the big complaints about our $350,000
previous system was that people couldn‘t There is huge value to Eastman in
find documents,‖ says Richard Lane, getting a major corporate application off
Systems Analyst in the Global the older document management
Collaboration and Portal Architecture program and on a more modern,
Group at Eastman Chemical Company. feature-rich platform so quickly. ―After

6. ―We estimate that we are developing our requirements, it took two throughout the day. ―Very conservatively,
people just four months to create AIM I estimate that 2,000 employees and
seeing an annual cost on SharePoint Server,‖ Montgomery says. contractors working for Eastman are
―This eliminated the $350,000 expense of saving at least five minutes a day,‖
avoidance of $4.3 million buying a commercial product and Montgomery says. ―In a company as
by managing our asset customizing it. Plus, we realized the large as Eastman, even small time
benefits sooner.‖ savings multiplied by thousands of
more effectively, employees and contractors adds up to
Capital Cost Avoidance of $4.3 Million big savings.‖
eliminating downtime, Annually
and reducing With AIM in place, Eastman is able to Eastman will also be able to comply with
perform asset information management internal and external audits faster and
maintenance costs.‖ much more efficiently and accurately, more easily by using AIM. ―We‘re able to
minimizing the chance that equipment identify documents needed for audits
Ed Montgomery, Project Manager,
Information Technology Project Office, and facilities will be unavailable, probably twice as fast as we could
Eastman Chemical Company expensive to maintain, or even before,‖ Montgomery says. ―Audits occur
dangerous for workers. ―Based on on a frequent basis because we‘re a
external studies, we estimate that we are chemicals manufacturer, so this is an
seeing an annual cost avoidance of $4.3 important efficiency gain in the area of
million by managing our asset more regulatory compliance.‖
effectively, eliminating downtime, and
reducing maintenance costs,‖ Server Costs Reduced 60 Percent
Montgomery says. ―This is an enormous Yet another savings that Eastman has
benefit to the company.‖ realized by using SharePoint Server 2010
is connected with the ability to virtualize
Capital Project Cycles Reduction AIM. ―We were never able to virtualize
The ability to locate and manage capital- the previous application due to resource
projects documents more efficiently will throttling issues,‖ McGuire says. ―Because
enable Eastman to complete these we were able to virtualize the SharePoint
projects faster, which has trickle-down Server environment, the server operating
acceleration across the business. cost for this application was reduced 60
―We‘reestimating reducing our capital- percent, eliminating a recurring capital
project execution cyclesignificantly, cost of roughly $60,000 every three
which means that we get equipment in years.‖
place sooner so we can get new products
to market faster,‖ Montgomery says.
―Getting products to market faster helps
us be more competitive in very
competitive marketplaces.‖
Employee Productivity Gains
The efficiencies provided by AIM also
generate big employee productivity
gains for Eastman. By eliminating the
older program, Eastman simplified
processes and made workflows more
efficient, which saves employees time

7. 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 Eastman
Chemical Company products and
services, call (800) EASTMAN or visit
the website at:
www.eastman.com
Software and Services
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
− Microsoft SharePoint Designer
2010
Microsoft Visual Studio
− Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published April 2011