4-page Case Study - Posted 11/15/2006
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University Clinic Cuts IT Management Costs with Next-Generation Messaging System
University Hospital Aachen (UKA) in Germany houses all patient care services, including medical and dentistry faculties and student training, under one roof. At such a large organization—with more than 5,500 employees treating 160,000 patients and training more than 2,700 students a year—communication is critical. The UKA messaging system, based on IBM Lotus Notes 6.5, was increasingly expensive to administer and failed to integrate with third-party core applications. To optimize resource management and develop mobile communications, UKA started the migration to a Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 environment as part of the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP). The hospital has already seen better performance, synchronization of mobile devices, and improved integration with the 2007 Microsoft Office system and third-party applications. What’s more, UKA has cut administrative costs considerably
Situation
Universitätsklinikum Aachen (UKA), or University Hospital Aachen, combines all aspects of medical care—from the training of future doctors and the conducting of medical research to the treatment of patients. More than 2,700 medical and dentistry students work alongside 5,500 employees at UKA, while more than 160,000 patients are treated annually in the hospital. Because teachers, medical employees, researchers, and students all work in the same place and use the same facilities, communication is vital.
Unfortunately, the hospital’s messaging system, based on IBM Lotus Notes 6.5, did not meet the organization’s unique needs. Users found the interface unclear and complicated. The system also lacked responsiveness and failed to integrate with third-party applications.
Furthermore, the cost of administering the system was steadily increasing. As with most universities and healthcare establishments, UKA has a strict budget and management of the system was no longer viable.
UKA also operated a number of critical applications such as:
- Krankenhausinformationssystem (KIS), a hospital information system to process patient information and hospital administration.
- SAP for financial management.
- SAS business intelligence software.
UKA, however, could not integrate Lotus Notes effectively with these applications, which made information sharing and collaboration difficult.
In addition, more and more researchers wanted mobile devices so they could access information on the move. Researchers bought personal digital assistants (PDAs) with their funds, and the IT department then connected the PDAs to the groupware. But UKA found synchronizing these devices with Lotus Notes very complicated and of limited functionality.
Axel Blum, Project Leader at UKA, says: “We needed a messaging system that would support a convenient and clear user interface, ease administration, reduce linked costs, and allow mobile devices to be synchronized with the servers quickly, simply, and reliably.”
Solution
In early 2006, UKA began an evaluation of the available messaging system technologies. Sabine Feichtmeier at Microsoft recommended the hospital take part in the Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Rapid Deployment Program (RDP).
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The intuitive interface makes it easy for new employees to adapt very quickly, which is critical to us because we have high staff turnover. |
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Axel Blum
Project Leader
UKA |
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In just a few weeks, the project team created a test environment on Fujitsu Siemens blade servers BX600 Series despite the complexity of the environment and coexistence with IBM Lotus Notes 6.5. This was established with Microsoft Exchange Connector for Lotus Notes and will remain in place until all users have been moved to the new platform. As part of the RDP, 300 of the total 7,000 mailboxes have been migrated to the new environment using the Microsoft Exchange Migration Wizard.
UKA also integrated its mobile devices, including laptops and PDAs, with Exchange Server 2007. Medical employees can use these devices at home or away from the hospital to access e-mail messages, tasks, calendars, and contacts. Exchange ActiveSync technology in Exchange Server 2007 pushes messages and updates to the devices in real time, while offering advanced device security.
Benefits
In just two months, decision makers at UKA have seen improvements in its system’s ease-of-use, its ability to integrate with other applications, its flexibility in dealing with mobile devices, and its overall reliability.
Improved Flexibility from Outside Workplace
UKA employees can now use their calendars and e-mails from home or remote locations. Furthermore, the Outlook Mobile experience is almost identical in look and feel to the system to which they were accustomed.
Exchange Server 2007 has helped increase productivity, improved response times, and enriched the user experience. Employees have enjoyed the new user interface in Microsoft Outlook Web Access 2007, which gives them access to most of the same features in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 from any Internet-connected computer.
Ray Mollenhauer, Consultant at infoWAN, says: “Users are enthusiastic about the performance, look, and feel of Microsoft Office Outlook, with the Exchange Server 2007 back-end server compared with the previous Lotus Notes system.”
Blum says: “The standardized interface in Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access and Exchange Server 2007 makes it easier for our people to do their work off campus. Many employees—especially researchers, who frequently attend conferences worldwide—want to read their e-mails from home.
“The intuitive interface makes it easy for new employees to adapt very quickly, which is critical to us because we have high staff turnover. Training times are also significantly reduced, and employees don’t need to re-adapt each time they change environment.”
In addition, “direct push” technology makes receiving messages on mobile devices instant. E-mails, contacts, appointments, and tasks are automatically synchronized with Exchange Server 2007. Any device connected to Exchange Server 2007, including a PDA or smartphone, will receive messages at the same time.
These changes will also be reflected in Outlook Web Access or Outlook on their desktop. Users can amend details, respond to messages, or make calendar appointments on any device and be confident that all their other network-connected devices will update automatically in real time.
Mollenhauer says: “The possibility of using ‘direct push’ with mobile devices, without the need for an additional third-party server, is very beneficial. Even the classical desktop-based ActiveSync, which is used because of old mobile devices, is better than the old third-party solution.”
Blum says: “Because of Exchange Server 2007, the synchronization of all end devices with the servers is finally working in a stable and reliable way.”
Enhanced Reliability of Messaging System
Exchange Server 2007 is designed to make the most of its 64-bit architecture. The messaging system takes full advantage of improved RAM capacity by making data that is use frequently easier to recall, which, in turn, makes the system more responsive.
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Because of Exchange Server 2007, the synchronization of all end devices with the servers is finally working in a stable and reliable way. |
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Axel Blum
Project Leader
UKA |
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Streamlined Processes across Organization
UKA developers can continue to tap into more benefits for end users by integrating Exchange Server 2007 easily with other line-of-business systems. This simplifies the organization’s use of its various applications and delivers optimum communications tools to its employees.
Blum says: “UKA relies on many applications to organize processes linked to the treatment of patients and the teaching of classes. The fact Exchange Server 2007 integrates with SAP cemented our decision to migrate. Integrating the two systems has helped us improve every step of our activities by being more organized. With the many integration capabilities—Active Directory, for example—administrative needs and associated costs have been reduced. We are expecting to cut our software maintenance costs by 95 per cent and our license costs by 83 per cent.”
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information about infoWAN Datenkommunikation GmbH products and services, call (+49) 893 247 560 or visit the Web site at: http://www.infowan.de/
For more information about Universitätsklinik Aachen AöR products and services, visit the Web site at: http://www.ukaachen.de/
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange
Software and Services
- Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
- 2007 Microsoft Office System Technologies
− Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access
Hardware
Fujitsu-Siemens Blade Server B
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published November 2006
