4-page Case Study - Posted 11/16/2006

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BDO Chartered Accountants

Accounting Firm Expects to Save up to 625 Labor Hours Weekly with Integrated Solution

BDO Chartered Accountants & Advisers offers accounting and other services throughout Australia. The company stores project details in a database so that employees can reuse this information when working with new customers. However, the information was difficult to access, especially for mobile employees. Also, BDO used a variety of scheduling, document publishing, and calendaring systems that were outdated and had little integration. To address both of these problems, BDO and Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Ensyst implemented a pilot project to test an integrated solution including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows Vista™, and products in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Independent third-party analyst BearingPoint found that the new solution helps BDO use its intellectual property more efficiently, work more effectively with customers, and increase employee satisfaction.

Situation

BDO Chartered Accountants & Advisers offers comprehensive business advice and accounting services. It is one of Australia’s largest associations of independently owned
accounting and consulting practices. The company has 900 employees throughout Australia and works across a variety of industries, providing expert advice in major business disciplines, including taxation, audit and assurance services, corporate finance, IT, and business recovery.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Vista, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 have the potential to radically enhance our service and offerings to clients.  Allan Granger Partner BDO Chartered Accountants & Advisers

The BDO IT infrastructure included a variety of systems for intellectual property management, as well as scheduling, document publishing, and calendaring. These systems operated as “islands” with little or no integration. Some of them used outdated software, causing support problems.

BDO expects its staff to take a very hands-on approach when working with customers. Many employees work at customer sites to immerse themselves in the day-to-day running of the customer’s company. This means staffers are often away from the intellectual property database and often in situations where communication with the BDO office might be time-consuming or disruptive.

BDO wanted to give staffers access to the depth of knowledge that advanced information-worker tools and technologies can provide. These technologies would help the employees build deeper relationships with customers and be seen as valuable and trusted advisors.

Also, while its staff turnover was below the national average, BDO saw its people as essential assets and wanted to ensure a strong level of staff retention. The company was determined to create an environment where employees could achieve their full potential without being held back by a substandard IT infrastructure. “We needed an overall strategy for improving and streamlining our processes,” says Granger.

BDO contacted Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Ensyst to assess the company’s existing infrastructure and to devise a solution that would address BDO needs.

“The troubles at BDO were a classic example of the issues that face information workers,” says Kim Heras, Commercial Manager at Ensyst. “The company had multiple systems for scheduling and document sharing, none of which were used universally. They needed a standard, centralized system that all employees could access at all times.”

Solution

Ensyst worked with BDO to deploy a pilot project involving approximately 50 users across the firm, including the Corporate Finance business unit. “Ensyst quickly understood what was required and we worked together to devise a solution that would bring genuine benefits to our staff,” says Granger

The solution was designed to foster collaboration, help staff work together, and automate and streamline existing business processes. It includes beta and released versions of the following Microsoft software:

• The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 communication and collaboration server delivers complete messaging and information access to staff working off-site. Exchange Server 2007 makes e-mail, voice mail, calendars, and contacts accessible from a variety of clients and devices, while maintaining a strong focus on security.
• Microsoft Office Professional 2007 supports employees in their everyday business tasks. It includes the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client, which accesses Exchange Server information from individual employees’ computers.
• The Windows Vista™ operating system integrates with and enhances the functionality of the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Exchange Server 2007. It includes data management tools such as integrated desktop search and better processes for information sharing across networks. Like Exchange Server, Windows Vista also supports the increasingly mobile BDO workforce by providing better security and communication for staff away from the office.
• Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 provides a portal for document and data management. It helps improve companywide communications and streamline business processes.
• Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 supports company-only instant messaging, providing immediate communications within and between teams.
• Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server integrates with Exchange Server to provide advanced protection, optimized performance, and centralized security management.

“What really appealed to us about the solution Ensyst designed—and the new Microsoft technology it uses—was how easily it could be deployed to our staff,” says Granger. “There was nothing unfamiliar about it—it was essentially the same tools we had been using but with a much greater level of functionality.”

Benefits

As part of the pilot project, Microsoft engaged independent business analyst and consultant BearingPoint to measure the solution’s potential benefits to BDO. Employees can access company information and their own messages faster, resulting in improved efficiency. IT systems are demonstrating better security, reliability, and performance. And the company is observing higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Faster Information Access, Improved Employee Efficiency

The portal provided by Office SharePoint Server 2007 greatly reduces the time staffers spend searching for and accessing information assets, and it gives off-site staff simple and secure remote access to the same data. For project management, greater information sharing simplifies collaboration and coordination processes and reduces the chance of human error.

Similarly, the convenient internal communications provided by Exchange Server 2007 and Live Communications Server 2005 mean less time is spent organizing and participating in face-to-face meetings. Employees working off-site can communicate with the office quickly, without disrupting their workflow.

“Almost immediately, we saw the potential benefits of giving staff the tools they needed to collaborate and access our knowledge base,” says Granger.

Based on the pilot project, BearingPoint estimates that the new solution could save between 188 and 625 labor hours a week. This equates to cost savings of at least A$300,000 (U.S.$220,000) each year. In addition, reducing the cost and complexity of the company’s IT environment could generate savings through reduced support, management, and maintenance time.

Enhanced Security, Reliability, and Performance

Exchange Server 2007 includes new features that enhance IT security, and BDO has further strengthened these by adding Forefront Security for Exchange Server. To protect against the latest spam and malicious software, this product provides on-site, server-level antivirus and antispam protection. All e-mail messages are scanned for viruses, so any infection problems are picked up before they have a chance to enter the BDO environment.

“Rather than using a third-party application, Forefront Security for Exchange Server is integrated with the server software and the client software,” says Heras. “Microsoft has set the standard by creating products where security is built in rather than requiring users to add it. This is a great step forward for security in IT.”

Also, BDO is taking advantage of new security features in Windows Vista:

• User Account Control, which allows administrators to restrict users’ permissions to make drastic changes to the system while ensuring most applications can run
• A powerful firewall that can be configured centrally using Group Policy settings
• Windows® Service Hardening that restricts the ability of malicious software to attack the system
• Network Access Protection that can be configured to prevent computers from accessing the network unless they have current security updates or virus signatures

“With Windows Vista, Microsoft has demonstrated a clear focus on security from the ground up,” said Heras. “The operating system provides new ways of protecting data, including strong user

Microsoft has set the standard by creating products where security is built in rather than requiring users to add it. This is a great step forward for security in IT.  Kim Heras Commercial Manager Ensyst

Granger adds, “The advanced security features in Windows Vista will give employees the freedom to access and use our knowledge base over the Internet without IT worrying that this access will compromise or threaten the internal network.”

Additionally, Windows Vista can detect application problems and restart services without having to reboot the computer. In most cases, users will not even notice there was a problem. The result is improved performance. “A key differentiator between Windows Vista and Windows XP is the built-in features of Windows Vista that improve reliability, stability, and performance,” says Heras.

Improved error reporting helps developers fix common problems, leading to even more stable software in the long run. Windows Vista can even help detect and recover failing hard disks and memory. “The more reliable the operating system is, the less time IT has to spend supporting users,” says Granger.

The solution also improves corporate compliance. Exchange Server 2007 improves record and document management, and supports more secure access to documents in accordance with corporate security policies.

Improved Customer Relationships

BearingPoint also found that the Microsoft solution enhances the quality of interaction with BDO customers. “When customers see BDO staff using advanced Microsoft tools, it reassures them they are partnering with a truly leading and modern firm,” says Granger.

Clients benefit from the ability of off-site staff to communicate with office-based colleagues and databases. By speeding up the process of accessing and changing documents, staffers spend more time on other value-adding activities for the client.

The new system reduces the time taken to complete customer projects, enhancing the company’s reputation and, potentially, allowing the company to serve more customers with the same number of employees.

“The 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Vista, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 have the potential to radically enhance our service and offerings to clients.”

Anywhere, Anytime Access to Messages

Exchange Server 2007 gives BDO employees convenient access to their e-mail, calendars, and contacts from a variety of devices. Key access features of Exchange 2007 include the following:

• Enhanced capabilities for calendaring, out-of-office messaging, resource booking, and scheduling simplify collaboration and increase employee productivity.
• Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access offers a rich experience, with many of the features of Office Outlook, from any Internet-connected computer. It provides secure access to e-mail, calendars, and contacts and the ability to view different types of attachments.
• Exchange Server ActiveSync® technology delivers an improved e-mail and calendaring experience on mobile devices, while offering enhanced device and security policy control.

“The advanced remote access capabilities of Exchange Server will increase the productivity of our work force, especially when they are working off-site,” says Granger.

Higher Employee Satisfaction and Retention

Although difficult to measure in terms of direct financial benefits, employee satisfaction and retention have a very real effect on workflow and on a company’s reputation in the marketplace. “Clients can tell when employees have low job satisfaction or feel stymied by inefficient work practices,” says Granger.

By providing a powerful set of information tools, BDO eliminates many of the frustrations that can be caused by inefficient technology and demonstrates that it regards employees as valuable assets. This sends a positive message to whole company.

“While working on the project, we saw very positive and enthusiastic responses from the testers,” says Heras. “The changes that the new solution has made to the way people work really put forward the perception of BDO as a modern and forward-looking organization.”

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:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Ensyst products and services, call (61) (2) 8236 7600 (Australia) or visit the Web site at:
www.ensyst.com.au

For more information about BDO products and services, call (61) (2) 9286 5555 (Australia) or visit the Web site at:
www.bdo.com.au

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

Windows Vista

Windows Vista can help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to find and use information more effectively. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools and your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows Vista, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2006