Microsoft in the Enterprise: Resource Guide 2009

Microsoft in the Enterprise: Resource Guide 2009 features remarkable case studies with evidence of how our customers have used Microsoft solutions to save costs. Below are links to the case studies presented in this year's guide.

Case studies

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• IT Infrastructure Optimization

• ACCO

  Office products company boosts innovation and collaboration, cuts cycle time in half

  

  

  

  ACCO Brands, based in Lincolnshire, Illinois (U.S.), is the global leader behind Swingline, Kensington, and other office products brands. The company wanted to improve innovation and collaboration and standardize product life-cycle management to speed time to market, reduce costs, and further enhance product quality. ACCO Brands adopted a Microsoft .NET-based Innovation Management solution from Aras, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and cut cycle time by more than 50 percent, accelerating time to market.

  Speed isn't the only benefit that ACCO gained from this solution; greater innovation and product quality were others. The solution, which runs on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft SQL Server, provided ACCO managers and engineers with greater visibility into customer issues and supplier quality, giving them quantifiable data to use as a basis for new product innovations that can increase customer satisfaction.

  Another benefit of this solution was a single, centralized workspace for product management. Engineers, designers, and manufacturing personnel in Asia, Europe, and the Americas now work from the same controlled files accessed over a secure Internet connection. ACCO took advantage of the solution's Web-based user interface to collaborate with suppliers around the world.

• Andritz

  Manufacturing firm uses productivity technologies to grow global business

  

  

  

  Andritz Group, headquartered in Graz, Austria, manufactures machines and plants for a variety of industries. Having grown rapidly through acquisitions and global marketplace expansion, the company's IT infrastructure had become a difficult-to-manage, heterogeneous collection of hardware and software. What's more, its virtual project teams and competence centers did not have a standard, integrated communication, collaboration, or document-management solution. To resolve these issues, Andritz standardized on a suite of easily managed Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Office, Exchange Server, Windows Server, and SharePoint Server. The result: optimized global collaboration and a more cohesive, efficient organization that is better able to compete in the international market.

• Asklepios

  Hospital improves patient care, efficiency, and productivity with OneIT

  

  

  

  In 2006, Asklepios, a major private hospital contractor in Germany, launched a large-scale project, known as OneIT, to standardize its computing environment and enhance the delivery of medical services. The scale of the project was unprecedented in the history of the German healthcare industry, with the ultimate goal to create seamless communication between all healthcare service participants.

  Working with Microsoft and Intel, Asklepios completed the standardization program in early 2007. Thanks to uniform data services, a single Active Directory domain, and a stable high-speed network, the barriers to sharing information between hospitals are gone. Physicians and administrators can access patient and archived data from any computer in any location, dramatically increasing productivity. IT service availability has been substantially increased, while wait times and downtime have dropped. A study based on a total cost of ownership model showed that the project not only simplified administration and increased security but also delivered a 36.7 percent cost savings per desktop.

• Banca Monte

  The world's oldest bank employs a multichannel strategy

  

  

  

  Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena aims to distinguish itself through its customer service. The bank believes combining technological innovation with a focus on people is the best way to achieve this. The organization plans to grow through an integrated, multichannel strategy allowing it to offer new financial services and products.

  Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena worked with Microsoft using our Branch solutions to develop the branch of the future, a branch that can offer banking tailored to the lifestyles of its customers. Thanks to a solution built on Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and the Microsoft .NET Framework, customers can now conduct their business with the bank using a range of traditional or virtual channels, including instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and videoconferencing. This integrated banking experience boosts customer loyalty and helps reduce infrastructure costs.

• City of Edinburgh

  City council reduces costs with Infrastructure Optimization

  

  

  

  Based in Scotland's capital city, the City of Edinburgh Council provides a range of services from more than 70 locations to 480,000 citizens, businesses, and organizations. The council undertook an Infrastructure Optimization project with Microsoft to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

  The project resulted in a net benefit of approximately £ million (U.S. $7.8 million based on current exchange rates) in direct IT costs and a return on investment in just 14 months. The council is on target to reach savings of £25 million (U.S. $39 million) by 2011. A post-implementation evaluation showed a 32 percent reduction in the cost of desktop support and a 72 percent reduction in server costs. Hardware incidents have been reduced by 69 percent, resulting in lower support costs.

• City of Houston

  City protects the environment and conserves resources using Citizen Services Platform

  

  

  

  To monitor its 3,500 miles of storm sewers, mitigate pollution potential, and track watershed contaminants back to their source, the U.S. city of Houston, Texas, employs approximately 50 investigators dispersed among several departments. This diverse deployment of personnel created multiple challenges. Each department collected and stored data separately, making it difficult for others to access the history of a specific location. Also, investigators from several departments sometimes responded to the same call.

  To improve data sharing and overall efficiency, the city determined that it needed a solution that could draw information from multiple databases, support geographic information system data, and improve existing workflow processes, yet be easy and intuitive for To improve data sharing and overall efficiency, the city determined that it needed a solution that could draw information from multiple databases, support geographic information system data, and improve existing workflow processes, yet be easy and intuitive for city employees to use. Microsoft and partner Idea Integration worked together to create a Citizen Services Platform solution that uses a collaboration portal featuring the ArcGIS Server (developed by a third party, ESRI) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. The resulting system streamlines the city's workflow in multiple ways, allowing employees to send investigation alerts to all the appropriate parties with a single mouse click, attach digital photographs and other documents to case sites, and conduct online searches to easily mine existing information for reports. What's more, the city's cost of deployment came in 40 percent under budget and four months ahead of schedule.

• CJ Internet

  Korean gaming company bases strategic direction for database management on SQL Server 2008

  

  

  

  CJ Internet is the first company in the digital content industry in Korea to turn online gaming into a successful business model. The company is based in Seoul, Korea, employs more than 580 people, and runs the largest gaming portal in the country, with more than 25 million members. Previously, CJ Internet was running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as its enterprise data platform and SQL Server 2000 as its data-management infrastructure for internal business and customer service. In August 2008, the company began testing potential issues in its existing enterprise data management with the technical solutions available in SQL Server 2008.

  As a result of its findings, the company was able to establish the mid- to long-term direction for its investment in database management and operations, noting that the solution would reduce the company's total cost of ownership, increase its data storage flexibility, and improve overall security. Based on these anticipated benefits, CJ Internet plans to move its infrastructure to Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 by 2010.

• Continental Airlines

  Airline upgrades to Windows Vista for reduced IT and energy costs

  

  

  

  U.S.-based Continental Airlines wanted to provide its employees and customers with quicker access to information, increase productivity by enabling better applications, promote workforce mobility, and improve security for employees. To accomplish these goals and reduce costs, the company is deploying the Windows Vista operating system on 6,000 computers.

  Continental expects to see dramatic cost savings in two key areas. The first is through energy savings, which reduce operational costs while decreasing the company's carbon footprint. Windows Vista offers more granular control of the desktop experience through newly added Group Policies, including the ability to configure power-management settings. "We estimate our annual energy savings from 18,500 PCs will be 33,264 megawatts," says IT Manager Eric Craig. Taking into consideration variables such as energy prices in different regions, that savings translates to U.S. $1.5 to $2 million each year.

  Continental will also experience a lower total cost of ownership through easier deployment and manageability. While it already runs a very lean IT organization, Continental is experiencing help desk benefits with its deployment of Windows Vista. Fewer calls need to be handled as a result of strengthened security as well as self-service features that allow users to quickly fix simple problems with their own PCs.

• Credit Suisse

  Credit Suisse deploys Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance solution using SQL Server

  

  

  

  Credit Suisse, based in Zurich, Switzerland, provides investment banking, private banking, and asset management services to clients in more than 50 countries. Because its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the company had to comply with regulations specifying internal controls introduced by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Section 404. With more than 45,000 employees working around the world, Credit Suisse needed a Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance solution that was scalable and that could integrate with its line-of-business operations. Using our Regulatory Compliance and Controls solutions, Credit Suisse developed a Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance application based on a Microsoft SQL Server database that could be accessed across the Web through a portal supported by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. The solution was developed using Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

• Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

  Medical center reduces costs with virtualization

  

  

  

  Located in the northeast United States, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth- Hitchcock Medical Center began using server virtualization three years ago to curb server proliferation and rising electrical costs. The hospital and teaching facility initially used Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 to trim 75 servers, but it wanted to move even more applications to virtual machines. With partner AMD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock decided to move its virtualization infrastructure to the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V technology, using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to manage its server landscape.

  With the new solution, Dartmouth- Hitchcock Medical Center expects to reduce total server holdings and save U.S. $4,300 per server in hardware, maintenance, electrical, and real-estate costs. It can now virtualize its most demanding applications and expects to improve service levels, save 30 hours each month in server-management time, and create a more dynamic IT environment.

• Dassault Aviation

  Web conferencing delivers significant savings at French aircraft manufacturer

  

  

  

  Dassault Aviation designs and manufactures business jets and military aircraft. Headquartered near Paris, the company operates 11 sites and employs 8,000 personnel. Support services employees play a critical role by traveling throughout the world to meet with colleagues and clients and resolve complex technical issues. In a pilot scheme, the company deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server to take advantage of integrated, real-time communications, including Web conferencing technology, to reduce costs and increase efficiencies across the business. Web conferencing saves the company travel expenses, and the company also dramatically increased efficiency by making decisions faster through Web conferencing, presence awareness, and instant messaging.

• EDF Energy

  Energy company reduces IT costs by 15 percent through Infrastructure Optimization

  

  

  

  EDF Energy, one of the largest energy companies in the U.K., employs over 13,000 people and supplies energy to approximately 5.5 million customers. When the utilities industry was deregulated and privatized in the U.K., EDF Energy was formed from three separate companies. After the merger, EDF Energy faced the challenge of consolidating three distinct IT infrastructures into one unified platform. EDF Energy partnered with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Computacenter Services to create a more unified and agile IT infrastructure.

  EDF Energy's optimized infrastructure has enabled the company to move away from manual IT processes. Implementing automated procedures not only saves money but allows the company's IT staff to focus on more strategic projects. The unified infrastructure also works more efficiently, resulting in significant cost deferrals. Overall, Computacenter Services estimates that EDF Energy's IT maintenance costs have been reduced by 15 percent since it began its managed services contract.

• Energizer

  Global consumer goods company accelerates productivity with Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite

  

  

  

  Energizer Holding, a global consumer goods company with business operations in 165 countries, wanted to accelerate the benefits of software innovation while bringing standardization and cost control to its computer environments. Energizer implemented an Online Services solution for communication and collaboration. Users receive the productivity benefits of the latest version of Microsoft products sooner and at a predictable cost. In the meantime, valuable IT staff has been freed up, allowing them to better support the business. Energizer's solution consists of:

  • Exchange Online Hosted management of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook-based e-mail was rolled out gradually. Starting with just 10 mailboxes a day, Microsoft technicians eventually scaled to 1,000 a day.

  • Office SharePoint Online Energizer's SharePoint-based forum gives its employees around the globe a single Web site from which they can access company intranets, share documents and folders, and collaborate on team projects. It also provides a searchable view of corporate information across the global enterprise in a multilingual format.

  • Office Communications Online Energizer's employees can communicate anytime from any location and reach decisions faster with instant messaging and presence-awareness capabilities delivered through Microsoft Live Communications Server.

• Enterprise

  Enterprise Rent-A-Car upgrades IT environment for increased security, user productivity

  

  

  

  With more than 64,500 employees worldwide, Enterprise Rent-A-Car always looks for new methods to keep its team supplied with tools that enhance efficiency and customer service. To that end, the company is making adjustments to several portions of its IT infrastructure, including the implementation of a new intranet portal based on Office SharePoint Server 2007, an operating system upgrade to Windows Vista, and a messaging system upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, to increase collaboration and the overall manageability of the knowledgeworker computing environment. These IT improvements add another layer of security and increase system manageability while furthering the company's service commitment to its employees and customers.

• Fidelity National Real Estate

  Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions saves U.S. $1.4 million with Web solution

  

  

  

  

  Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions in the United States wanted the fastest possible time to market for a consumeroriented Web site for the U.S. residential real-estate market. It turned to Microsoft partner Neudesic and to Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008, Virtual Earth, SQL Server, Windows Server 2008, and Silverlight. The result, www.cyberhomes. com, went into production in just four months and cost approximately U.S. $1.4 million less to develop than it would have cost using other technologies. The site delivers customized content 10 times faster than older technologies would and features stunning mapping imagery overlaid with rich data and visually appealing animation. Consumer response is positive: Visitors spend an average of 30 minutes per visit to the site, four times the typical visit on competitive sites.

• Global Crossing

  Communications provider cuts costs and unifies communications with an integrated Microsoft solution

  

  

  

  Global Crossing provides Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications services to customers worldwide. The company's nearly 5,000 employees, who often work in teams that are distributed around the globe, were challenged by the need to communicate more effectively. Global Crossing addressed this problem by deploying the Microsoft Unified Communications platform to provide users with a consolidated messaging environment for voice; e-mail; instant messaging and presence; and audio, video, and Web conferencing. By deploying the Microsoft solution, the company has reduced costs, vastly improved employee communications, and helped boost employee efficiency. The project is expected to produce annual benefits of U.S. $4.3 million when fully deployed and is expected to pay for itself within seven months.

• Honeywell Transportation

  Smart tags improve Honeywell productivity, saving U.S. $1.5 million annually

  

  

  

  Honeywell Transportation Systems, based in Morristown, New Jersey (U.S.), employs thousands of engineers who design engine-boosting systems and other products. Engineers spent hours each week using Windows XP-based desktop computers to consult and retrieve data from a SAP R/3 ERP system and a Linux-based product data management (PDM) application. To increase efficiency, the company's IT staff created an Office Business Application using smart tags, an interoperability feature in Microsoft Office Professional Edition, to create quick links between a Microsoft Office file and the enterprise engineering systems. Now engineers simply click on a smart tag to instantly access SAP parts data or PDM designs. As a result, Honeywell is making faster decisions, speeding design cycles, and saving U.S. $1.5 million annually.

• Leeds Learning Network

  City-wide learning technology raises the quality of education in schools and beyond

  

  

  

  In Leeds, England (U.K.), the local education authority supports 100,000 students and 15,000 employees at 259 schools. While most schools already had computer systems in place in 2003, the systems varied, making it difficult to adopt new learning technologies in a standardized, cost-effective way. To unify the technology structure, Leeds education authorities enlisted the help of Microsoft partner Synetrix. Together, they developed the Leeds Learning Network, a solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Active Directory.

  The Leeds Learning Network provides users with a secure, consistent e-mail system, a portal for online collaboration, and instant-messaging capabilities. Synetrix also developed Direct Connect, an easy-to-use Web interface that gives school administrators a way to manage the large user base in a practical and cost-effective way. In 2007, Leeds Learning Network enhanced its Learning Gateway infrastructure with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the SharePoint Learning Kit.

  Overall, the Leeds Learning Network has revolutionized the city's schools. Now teachers and students use collaborative online spaces that improve communication and provide personalized learning opportunities that have dramatically increased student participation. For administrators, the Leeds Learning Network supplies a standardized infrastructure that reduces management requirements for individual schools while supporting the fast, cost-effective deployment of the latest learning tools.

  The Leeds Learning Network also helps to promote social responsibility and save money through green initiatives that reduce paper use. What's more, the Leeds Learning Network has helped Leeds meet government targets for providing broadband access and managed learning environments and for creating online storage space for individual pupils. As a result of the Leeds Learning Network's enormous success, Leeds has expanded the solution, giving area libraries the facility to create their own portals for collaboration with area schools to promote economic and educational opportunity in the region.

• Lyondell

  Leading petrochemical manufacturer enhances collaboration and decision making

  

  

  

  With 10,000 employees worldwide, U.S. $18.6 billion in consolidated revenues, and operations on five continents, Lyondell is a leader in the manufacture of commodity chemicals and polymers. It also needed to address the challenges of globalization and rising petroleum prices. Employees needed more powerful communication and collaboration tools that could facilitate real-time feedback loops for decisions about the planning, selection, and allocation of feedstocks, Lyondell's most costly item. IT executives addressed the problem by using Microsoft BizTalk Server and other Microsoft technologies to integrate manufacturing and processcontrol applications with upstream line-of-business applications throughout the enterprise. The results: more rapid and strategic decision making, plus annual savings of tens of millions of dollars.

• Mexican ministry

  Mexican ministry improves efficiency and saves 20 percent on IT management

  

  

  

  Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP), Mexico's Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, has more than 5,000 employees and an annual budget of Ps 547,275,000 (U.S. $50 million). Continuously looking for ways to decrease operational costs and increase efficiency, the ministry sought to replace its Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system with a VoIP system. Because it was already upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server, IT managers at SHCP began testing the VoIP, instant messaging, and conferencing capabilities of Microsoft Office Communications Server. Today, those capabilities have helped to improve collaboration between individuals and teams and increased both end-user and IT productivity. What's more, by moving to a VoIP system, SHCP was able to centralize IT operations and consolidate vendors, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in its IT management costs.

• Monsanto

  Monsanto empowers employees and cuts costs with integrated enterprise search

  

  

  

  Monsanto Company, a global agricultural company with more than 19,000 people across 385 widely dispersed locations, faced a license renewal deadline for its search engine used in more than 20 public Web sites and numerous intranet sites. Search results did not live up to expectations, and the tool was costly and cumbersome to manage. Monsanto evaluated Google and Office SharePoint Server 2007 and chose Office SharePoint Server 2007 for its feature set and for the value of a search solution that extends enterprise search capabilities from traditional corporate information to people and expertise. Integration between Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the familiar Microsoft Office system was another reason Monsanto decided on Microsoft technologies.

  Monsanto has already seen significant benefits from its deployment. The company saved U.S. $250,000 in licensing fees and gained an easily deployable search solution, it took just 45 minutes to migrate the company's corporate Web site. But this is only the beginning. Monsanto gained an extensible information-management solution for enterprise content management that will improve business insight, increase collaboration, and empower its IT department to make a significant impact on corporate goals.

• MTV Networks

  Media giant enhances efficiency and cross-company collaboration through standardized portal system

  

  

  

  As an entertainment company, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) relies on the free flow of ideas and content. Unfortunately, its first-generation portal infrastructure didn't allow employees to publish content without involving IT personnel. As a result, many groups deployed their own portal solutions, leading to issues with backup, recovery, and scalability. Needing a single portal solution to support the entire division, MTV Networks standardized on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and deployed a new intranet portal, a Viacom corporate portal, and multiple Internet sites. Today, self-service content publishing enables groups across the company to communicate better, while rich search and collaboration features are helping employees worldwide find and share information. Thanks to Office SharePoint Server, MTV Networks is benefiting from a standardized portal platform that delivers new capabilities in a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective manner and will serve the company into the future.

• PREMIER Bankcard

  PREMIER Bankcard runs its business with a 12-terabyte data warehouse

  

  

  

  PREMIER Bankcard, one of the largest VISA and MasterCard credit providers in the United States, needed to enhance scalability and performance for its business intelligence data warehouse and online transaction processing databases. "Business intelligence began as an area of research for us, but has become absolutely mission-critical," says Dan Zerfas, Vice President of Software Development at PREMIER. Working with Microsoft partners HP and Intel, the company enhanced its business intelligence infrastructure and online transaction databases by upgrading to SQL Server Enterprise Edition. The upgraded deployments provide a better view of the business, enterprise-grade scalability, maintenance without scheduled downtime, and easier database management.

• Raiffeisenbank

  Austrian bank boosts productivity by 17 percent with Advisor Platform solution

  

  

  

  Austria's largest cooperative bank, Raiffeisenbank Kleinwalsertal, is also one of central Europe's most successful banks. In the last 25 years, private-sector banking has grown, and the demands on Raiffeisenbank Kleinwalsertal and the services it provides have increased. But the customer relationship management solution it used was no longer meeting the bank's needs. With help from Microsoft Certified Partner Hewlett-Packard and First City International, the bank implemented a new Advisor Platform solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The bank now has specific modules for asset management strategy, complaint processing, notices about meetings, deadline agreements, and inheritance arrangements. Employees can access information at the touch of a button, improving customer service and boosting productivity by 17 percent.

• Samba Financial Group

  Samba Financial Group enhances operations through Microsoft Services engagement

  

  

  

  As a leading financial institution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Samba provides world-class banking and investment solutions to its corporate and retail customers. The institution employs roughly 4,000 people in branches throughout the Middle East and Europe.

  Samba owns a large pool of technology resources that can be troublesome to maintain, particularly challenging is the need to apply frequent, yet necessary, software patches and updates. The Samba team periodically updated and patched all software using its in-place Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003, but the success ratio for desktops and servers remained below internal thresholds (rarely exceeding 90 percent for desktops) due to exceptions and inconsistencies in the process.

  To more effectively run the update and patch-management process, Samba IT leaders wanted to create a consistent, structured approach to the process. Taking advantage of the knowledge and experience within Microsoft, Samba engaged in the Microsoft Services Software Update Management offering, which provided guidance to create and deploy an efficient, structured update and patch process. As a result, Samba saw its patch and update success ratio rise from 90 percent to 98 percent in just one month.

• Sasfin Bank

  Sasfin Bank reduces risk, streamlines reporting, and ensures compliance

  

  

  

  To maintain its competitiveness against much larger institutions and prepare for compliance with new regulations, Sasfin Bank Limited needed a faster, more accurate, and more complete way of capturing, processing, and sharing customer information. The bank deployed a solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, and XML integration to automate processes and enhance reporting and analysis.

  In addition to the training and support benefits from using Microsoft Office products, the solution provides a number of operational and business benefits. It reduces the costs associated with gathering customer data and determining risk exposure; it provides an easier approach to meeting customer-satisfaction benchmarks; and it streamlines customerportfolio management. Most significantly, the solution plays a major role in helping Sasfin prepare for compliance with the Basel II Accord.

• Sheraton

  Sheraton creates experience for guests to connect digital work style and social lifestyles

  

  

  

  To help differentiate itself from its competitors, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts developed a new initiative for its guests and used a Guest Experience solution from Microsoft to bring it to life. "Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft" transforms underused lobby space into a destination within Sheraton hotels, a digitally connected, social gathering spot where guests can work, relax, and connect with others while traveling alone.

  Link@Sheraton provides free wireless Internet service for guests' portable computers, as well as Internet-connected desktop computers with flat-screen monitors and Microsoft keyboards, mice, and webcams. Link@Sheraton also features a Sheraton/Microsoft cobranded Web portal that delivers information about local entertainment, events, and weather and offers Microsoft Live Search and other online services. From the portal, developed with Microsoft Expression Studio, Silverlight, and the Windows Presentation Foundation, guests can create videos of themselves and send a video postcard to family and friends with just a few mouse clicks.

  The company plans to open Link@Sheraton in more than 400 locations worldwide. Potential plans include adding social networking services to allow guests to interact with each other through online features such as sharing restaurant reviews and other local commentary, as well as location-based services using Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping software.

• Starbucks

  Starbucks enhances store Web portal with Office SharePoint Server 2007

  

  

  

  Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, Washington (U.S.), is the leading roaster and retailer of specialty coffees in the world. Starbucks has a corporate Web portal that includes a partner portal used in corporate and field locations and a store portal used in its retail stores. The store portal has become the primary means for communication between the corporate office and Starbucks stores. Additionally, the need for partners to access information has increased. Starbucks redesigned its store portal using Office SharePoint Server 2007 to allow its partners and employees to operate more effectively.

  The Office SharePoint Server 2007 store portal reduced inefficiencies at peak traffic times by streamlining business processes and incorporating monitoring and reporting. Starbucks uses document management privacy controls to secure customer and partner information and communications. Moreover, advanced enterprise search capabilities enable Starbucks employees to find information based on document content, document type, or area of interest.

• Timken

  Timken uses Microsoft Services to mitigate portal deployment risks

  

  

  

  Timken, a 109-year-old company in Canton, Ohio (U.S.), with offices in 27 countries and 25,000 employees, is a longtime leader in the production of antifriction bearings and specialty steel. Executives at Timken were anxious to rebuild the company's portal to improve the efficiency of diverse, global content management. They selected Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as the company's portal solution and SAP as its enterprise resource planning solution.

  Timken chose the Enterprise Portal and Collaboration Technology Planning service for the safe implementation of Office SharePoint Server 2007. The ongoing access to the Microsoft Services team meant that Timken could benefit from Microsoft's own industry knowledge from thousands of similar customer engagements. The Microsoft Services team was always present to help the Timken IT team resolve any questions during the implementation process. In addition, the company's IT staff augmented its skills by engaging with the experts from Microsoft Services and the developers from partner ProSource Solutions.

• Unilever

  Unilever brand implements new infrastructure to increase availability, productivity

  

  

  

  Global manufacturer Unilever produces some of the world's most recognized consumer brands, including Flora, Bertolli, Dove, Lux, and Pond's. Unilever has strong local roots in more than 100 countries. The 18-member Global Solutions team within the Unilever IT department manages e-mail, Active Directory, and other services delivered globally to the entire Unilever workforce. In 2003, the team was using aging and unreliable client applications along with a legacy e-mail system and central directory based in Windows NT. To remedy the situation, the Unilever IT department decided to migrate the company to an updated Microsoft platform. This change involved deploying the Windows XP operating system on all desktops and implementing the Active Directory directory service, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 messaging and collaboration software, and more.

  Unilever engaged with Microsoft Premier Support to take advantage of our team's experience and knowledge and to successfully migrate 87,000 users at Unilever to Exchange Server 2003 and desktops running Windows XP. The new Microsoft platform has dramatically reduced downtime and increased user productivity. For example, the new messaging and collaboration system built around Exchange Server 2003 features an uptime that approaches 100 percent. With support from Microsoft Services, Unilever has achieved an efficient work environment that enables business users to stay focused on their jobs. With the new infrastructure in place, Unilever continues to enjoy a close relationship with Microsoft. When a technical issue arises with a Microsoft technology, our Technical Account Managers ensure that Unilever receives swift problem-resolution services. The Technical Account Managers escalate the issue to the appropriate team of Microsoft experts, who promptly resolve the issue.

• Unum

  Microsoft Services gives the Unum Group a clear picture of its service-oriented architecture project

  

  

  

  The Unum Group is an employee-benefits company that offers group disability, life, and long-term-care insurance and voluntary benefits programs for business customers of all sizes. Unum offers more than 2,000 products and programs supported by more than 60 systems inherited from earlier mergers or acquisitions. Unum found it difficult to appeal to small businesses because too many Unum products and services were isolated within various vertical groups of the company.

  To solve this problem, Unum launched an initiative to link all of its products and services using an enterprise-wide, service-oriented architecture approach. The company's goal for the project, called "Simply Unum," was to create a self-service Web portal that let Unum subscribers sign up for services and manage their accounts without help from their human resources departments or from Unum.

  To gain an experienced perspective, Unum engaged with Microsoft Services to perform an Assessment and Roadmap for Service-Oriented Architecture. Microsoft Services consultants and architects used a Service-Oriented Architecture Roadmap to analyze an IT implementation against a grid of 36 capabilities. The assessment gave Unum valuable guidance, including more accurate benchmarking, easier planning and budgeting, and best practice cataloging.

• Vodafone

  Telecom firm tops customer-service poll after increasing customer-service responsiveness

  

  

  

  Vodafone Iceland's commitment to customer service prompted the organization to review its disparate customer relationship management architecture. As many as 18 back-office and 14 customer-facing systems, with little integration between them, hindered user efficiency and responsiveness. The company worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partners PerSight, Applicon, and Kögun to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. The software works with add-on solutions to consolidate customer data and place it at users' fingertips, helping them resolve 95 percent of the customer queries the first time. The organization has since topped a nationwide customer-satisfaction index and dramatically increased its sales.