Case Study: Ogilvy

Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (www.ogilvy.com) is one of the world’s largest and most successfuladvertising and media agencies.With some 474 offices worldwide,Ogilvy can rightly claim to be ‘themost local of the internationals, andthe most international of the locals’. And through the WPP family, Ogilvy has access to top-rated expertise inthe communications spectrum, suchas design, research, public relations,identity, retail marketing, salespromotion and new media.

Atefeh Riazi, Senior Partner and CIO for Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, says, “Everyone roots for the underdog: Linux vs. the operating-system giants. The stakes are huge. Linux takes many of the best features of other operating systems and integrates them into anelegant and simple solution.”

In order to reduce its total cost of ownership for IT, while increasing flexibility, reliability and security, Ogilvy has embarked on a project to migrate email and file-and-print servers to Linux®. The strategic drivers behind the move include cost efficiencies as well as improved flexibility—the ability to support small office environments as well as larger regional hubs where new business requirements can be satisfied rapidly and intelligently with only a marginal impact on costs.

The migration to Linux began with a pilot project in Ireland, where Ogilvy worked with Securelinx (www.securelinx.com), an IBM “Leader for Linux” Business Partner. Formerly a division of a leading Irish systems integrator, Securelinx was launched as an independent company in August 2002, specialising in the deployment of secure Linux-based platforms for enterprise computing. Says Yuri Aguiar, Ogilvy’s CTO,

“We made a strategic decision to adopt Linux globally, and teamed up with Securelinx to start the rollout. This was, and continues to be, a major project - it’s not just about the technology, but also about building the right internal skill sets and changing the way we work within the organisation.”

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