4-page Case Study - Posted 12/5/2006

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PT Bank Lippo Tbk.

Indonesian Bank Boosts Email Functionality and Security with New Messaging System

PT Bank Lippo Tbk. (LippoBank) offers commercial and retail banking services to 2.3 million individual and corporate account holders in Indonesia. Email messaging plays a critical role in ensuring smooth business operation, but management concern over usage and security was also growing. The bank needed more powerful tools to ensure secure and responsible use of its email facility. At the same time, increasing numbers of its top executives were using mobile devices. They wanted the ability to remotely access email and calendaring using mobile devices. LippoBank opted to deploy Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 with the help of PT Multipolar Corporation Tbk. Not only did the new messaging solution meet the bank’s need for information security and support its mobility requirements, it also enabled critical protection against viruses and spam and support for high availability.

Situation

First founded in 1948, LippoBank was one of the first private banks in Indonesia. Today, with a total asset of Rp27 trillion (U.S.$3 billion), it operates through 400 branches in 120 locations nationwide.

Joining the RDP for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 was a great opportunity for us to take advantage of the latest technology to help us reinforce our position as a major banking force.  Wellianto Halim Senior Vice President, Information Technology Management PT Bank Lippo, Tbk.

With a vision to be a top-five Indonesia bank by 2010, LippoBank has an aggressive IT plan. Among its top priorities, it needs to ensure that utilization of email can be tightly controlled to prevent unwanted leaks of confidential and sensitive information; attempts at phishing and other types of fraudulent activities can severely affect the company’s image and business. However, its existing messaging solution meant it was impossible to restrict the use of employee email, with the potential for highly sensitive information – such as interest rate changes – to be inadvertently or deliberately released. This put the entire email system in a high-risk condition. Additionally, there was no standard disclaimer at the end of each message, which could lead to serious legal implications. More importantly, the problem of spam and viruses was always a top concern. “We consider email system as having level three severity in terms of its risk to our business,” says Eko Julianto, IT Security Architecture & Planning, PT Bank Lippo Tbk.

In addition, more and more executives were using mobile devices to support their work away from the office. They needed email to be forwarded to their device anywhere and anytime, but this was not possible as the previous messaging solutions did not have push email functionality built-in. And lastly, the previous system did not offer real-time backup, another feature that LippoBank required. All these issues made it clear that LippoBank needed to upgrade its messaging system if it was to reach its stated aim of being a top five bank.

Solution

LippoBank had previously used a combination of Netscape®, Lotus® Domino™ to provide messaging services for its staff and employees and, from 2004 to 2006, Microsoft® Exchange 2003 SP2. When offered the opportunity to join the Rapid Development Program for Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, the bank’s management immediately accepted it. 

“Joining the RDP for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 was a great opportunity for us to take advantage of the latest technology to help us reinforce our position as a major banking force,” says Wellianto Halim, Senior Vice President, Information Technology Management, PT Bank Lippo, Tbk. “Still, the guiding principle is that we will only make an IT investment if it meets our business needs,” he adds.

The new messaging system was deployed by PT Multipolar Corporation Tbk. and commissioning was completed in early October 2006. Two IBM eServer xSeries x266 servers were used to run Exchange 2007.  To provide anti-virus protection, the company also added Microsoft Antigen, fully integrated with Exchange Server 2007. “We encountered no challenges in the deployment, as Microsoft was directly involved in the RDP,” says Eko.

Benefits

With Exchange Server 2007, LippoBank now has the capability to support its mobile executives, and easily set the group policy to control the use of email at the same time. The built-in anti-spam in Exchange 2007 and the integrated Antigen anti-virus product are other features that LippoBank appreciate in Exchange Server 2007.

Increased Protection

“With nine scan engines in Antigen, it will be difficult for a virus to get through without getting caught,” says Eko. “The good thing is that the SysAdmin has the freedom to choose which of the nine engines should be run based on the threats that we face.” Although it requires a separate license Antigen is fully integrated with Exchange Server 2007, which means there is no extra cost structure to support. “So we can save money as we only deal with Microsoft,” Eko adds.
And with Exchange Server 2007, a Backup and Restore mode is replaced by real time replication between the production server and the server in the company’s Data Replication Center. This ensures that all email will be properly archived and documented.

Improved Email Control

LippoBank finds the policy-based rules in Exchange Server 2007 very useful when set to control traffic. For example, email for users in the credit card department will not be delivered by default to unrelated work units. “As a large bank, we must control the internal and external flow of information. Employees must not necessarily have access to information from divisions they are not directly connected to,” says Wellianto. “Exchange Server 2007, in conjunction with Active Directory, will help our SysAdmin to easily set policy so that our security can be enforced,” he adds.

Mobility Support

Management, Commissioners and Directors of LippoBank can now take advantage of the advanced messaging functionality in Exchange Server 2007, such as push e-mail. Now, the company can choose whether to forward only the header, the header and the body or even the attachment on incoming email. Mobile users can access their email using Microsoft® Office Outlook® Web Access whether using a mobile device or not. “The migration to Exchange Server 2007 allows the company to increase user productivity and flexibility by supporting remote email access,” says Welllianto.

Better Collaboration

The improved calendaring and scheduling feature of Exchange Server 2007 also boosts user efficiency and effectiveness. “There is no longer need to call people to schedule a meeting like in the past,” says Wellianto, “with the calendaring feature, we can quickly set up a meeting and then go back to our work.”

LippoBank also plans to move completely over to VoIP by the beginning of 2007. This will allow the company to benefit from Unified Messaging, another powerful feature in Exchange Server 2007. Combined with voice recognition and voice synthesizing, this feature will enable users to call the system using an ordinary telephone, check their Inbox and listen as the email is read to them. “Now that we are using Exchange Server 2007, we can integrate all our communication needs closely together, with a cost and reliability advantage,” notes Wellianto.

Enhanced Security

The ability to send different autoreply messages is another measure that increases security. The new messaging system will check whether the ‘To’ box contains an address with the @LippoBank.co.id domain name. It will only send specific information such as the contact number to internal users; external users will receive simple OOO (Out of Office) message. To increase security further, the system also checks the body of the message and will identify banned words such as ‘User Name’ and ‘PIN’. If it finds these in the message content, the email will not be delivered. Also, users are no longer free to add their own disclaimers. The system also will add a standard disclaimer section in every outbound email message.

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 PT Multipolar Corp. Tbk. products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.multipolar.com

For more information about LippoBank products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.LippoBank.co.id

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

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published November 2006