2 page Case Study - Posted 1/5/2007
Views: 366
Rate This Evidence:
Food Supplier Gains Higher Reliability, Manageability with E-Mail Security Solution
Windrush Frozen Foods Ltd. depends on e-mail for workflow that keeps orders for its highly perishable food products moving effectively. To help ensure reliable e-mail, it depends on Microsoft® Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server. In addition to providing what the company says is flawless security, the solution is so easy to administer that the Windrush IT staff now has more time for strategic projects that add value throughout the company.
Business Needs
When Robert Arpino, CEO and major shareholder of Windrush Frozen Foods Ltd., bought the company in 1995, he couldn’t know how apt the name would prove to be. “Windrush” is of course an appropriate name for a frozen/chilled and ambient food service distributor and supplier to high-end restaurant chains throughout the United Kingdom. But “Windrush” turns out to be an equally apt description for the speed with which the company has become a success. Revenues have soared from the equivalent of U.S. $600,000 in fiscal 1994 to $54 million in fiscal 2006, making Windrush one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.K.
 |
The software manages itself. That saves us both time and money... How do you put a value on something like that? Forefront’s contribution to this company is priceless.  |
|
|
Robbie Roberts
IT Manager
Windrush Frozen Foods Ltd. |
|
|
Windrush has achieved this success with the most streamlined of staff: three chefs, two account managers, and no sales people. Drivers operate a fleet of temperature-controlled trucks that provide next-day delivery throughout the U.K. from two depots. Orders are delivered in as few as six hours after being placed, a remarkable achievement for any large-scale business.
“Huge amounts of technology are key to our success,” says Robert Arpino. “We’re always looking for solutions that are very current.”
The company’s e-mail infrastructure, based on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, consists of an edge server, mailbox server, unified messaging server, and client access server for Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access and other clients. Windrush also uses Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 as the central repository for all of its data including its order processing workflow. It plans an upgrade to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 later this year.
The company depends on e-mail as a workflow mechanism to process orders. Incoming voicemail is converted to AVI files and routed to the e-mail system to be directed as appropriate to the SharePoint Server. The order processing staff streams the orders over the intranet and processes them, enabling the company to employ flexible working practices. E-mail is also an important mechanism for coordinating activity between Windrush’s staff and the suppliers of its highly perishable merchandise.
Solution
To ensure that its e-mail operates with mission-critical reliability, Windrush three years ago turned to Microsoft Antigen for Exchange Server. “I haven’t had to deal with a virus attack in three years,” says Robbie Roberts, IT Manager for the company.
So, when the company upgraded its Exchange Server environment last year, it also chose to upgrade its e-mail security software—to Microsoft® Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server, the successor to Microsoft Antigen and one of a planned range of Microsoft Forefront products that will protect ever-larger aspects of an organization’s Microsoft-based infrastructure.
Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server includes multiple scan engines from industry-leading security firms integrated in a single solution to help give businesses comprehensive, layered protection from viruses, worms, and spam in their messaging environments.
According to Roberts, deploying Forefront Security for Exchange Server was a matter of little more than “entering the license code and configuring the scanning schedule.”
Windrush runs Forefront Security for Exchange Server on each of its Exchange Server computers, utilizing the maximum of five simultaneous scan engines, with a different combination of engines on each server. In addition to using the multiple scan engines, the company takes advantage of the solution’s ability to filter out potentially dangerous file attachments, such as .exe file types. When the solution detects an infected e-mail message or one with a potentially dangerous attachment, it quarantines the e-mail and sends automatic notifications to the sender and receiver—as well as to the e-mail administrator—ensuring that no important communication is inadvertently lost.
Beyond its use of Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Windrush plans to extend its Forefront server security environment to cover its SharePoint Server installation, as well.
Benefits
Windrush runs its business on e-mail and Roberts says he sleeps well at night knowing Forefront Security for Exchange Server is on the job. “Forefront Security for Exchange Server has done a flawless job of protecting our environment—and our business,” says Roberts. “It’s everything we liked about Antigen, and more.”
For example, Roberts cites the higher number of simultaneous scanning engines as providing an even higher level of protection against viruses—an important feature when viruses and other malware are constantly on the rise. He also cites new features that make the solution more efficient, such as the tagging of scanned messages, eliminating the need for the software to rescan the messages as they move through the system.
“If we scan at the edge, we don’t have to scan again at the hub and the mailbox,” says Roberts. “That saves resources throughout the system and that extends the life of our hardware.”
That’s one example of the ways Forefront Security for Exchange Server eases the administrative burden of e-mail security, according to Roberts.
“I just don’t have to administer it,” says Roberts. “I rarely touch it. The software manages itself. That saves us both time and money. And I don’t take that for granted. We have McAfee antivirus software on our desktops and I put aside two or three days every month to work on that.”
The time saved thanks to Forefront Security for Exchange Server isn’t just cost-savings on the bottom line. It also allows Roberts and his IT team to implement strategic projects for which they might otherwise not have the time.
“We’ve just completed a new electronic invoicing project,” says Roberts. “Some of the time we didn’t spend managing Forefront went into that project. How do you put a value on something like that? Forefront’s contribution to this company is priceless.”
For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published January 2007
